Reflection #4: Final Reflection
This course was incredibly valuable in changing both my mindset and my actions in my current job role.
In terms of mindset, the readings from The Medici Effect by Frans Johannson, as well as “The Weird Rules of Creativity” by Robert L. Sutton, converged, for me, on a single theme: the benefit of bringing in people or building a team with different perspectives and backgrounds — however unrelated you think they are — to help converge and then build on ideas. I’m now more aware of when I see this happening organically at work — I realize that “brainstorming” happens in everyday conversations more than we realize!
On a more personal level, I also took a lot away from the article “Eight Barriers to Effective Listening,” by Michael Webb. I’ve noticed that at work when I feel rushed or especially busy, I let some of the best practices around listening slide, and jump in “knowing the answer” or “trying to be helpful.” I’ve found myself being more conscious of when I’m in those rushed states and try to force myself to slow down and really tune in.
Most importantly, I’m attempting to incorporate the design process at work. We’re struggling right now to define and determine the next iteration of the site that I manage. Many of my colleagues, as well as my boss, are feeling anxious to see increased revenue by the end of our fiscal year. The team has been suggesting isolated ideas, such as a new event or an adjustment to our membership plan, to bring in revenue. I’ve found myself explaining to them that we want to solve our members’ problems, and not ours. And, I’m working on a deck now to propose a more thoughtful, measured process — introducing the Double Diamond Design Process — to determine a more user-based solution. My goal is to set up a timeline over the next six months to “Discover / Define / Develop / Deliver” and ask my colleagues to take a period of discovery and truly define the problem before we start solutioning.
This course has confirmed that this something more design-focused is the direction I’d like the next stage of my career to go in; I’m especially interested in user research. I’m also interested in applying this to different areas. My background is in developing educational products, but I’m now interested in exploring service design.
