Reducing Design Friction

I created an OKR for Q414 to pick the brains of various design leaders about hiring, building teams, and reducing friction in design. Below are notes on one topic I inquired about: reducing the most friction-inducing issues designers face.

The number one issue: Not knowing the problem you’re designing for.

It’s easy to feel the pressure to jump into designing interfaces in Sketch as soon as possible, and rightfully so — we’re a startup with a fast-ticking clock to our success or failure. However, jumping into design work before fully understanding the problem will cause the process to slow down later, for the following reasons:

• When you don’t know the problem you’re trying to solve for, it’s impossible to compare the pros and cons of different approaches.
• When you don’t know the problem you’re solving for, you gravitate towards using your center of gravity to solve the problem rather than the appropriate fidelity. You may start with visual design (because that’s what you’re good at) when you should really be thinking about layout or user flows.
• When you don’t know the problem you’re solving for, it’s hard to start with breadth. You often settle on the first solution that comes to you. How could you approach a problem from multiple angles if you can’t pinpoint the center of the problem?
• When you don’t know the problem you’re designing for, you don’t know when you’ve come to a solution.

It’s important to clearly articulate the goal/problem you’re designing for before you start doing design work. This is a great time to work with everyone in your initiative/circle to help frame the goal. Everyone working on the project should be aligned with why they’re doing the work. Everyone should be able to clearly articulate the goal they’re working towards throughout the project.

I am actively working on a product process document that will help make room for upfront problem/goal finding at the start of new projects. Expect that document soon.

Second issue: Not creating a great working space.

We do our best work when we’re in a great physical and mental space. We all know that interruptions break us out of flow and cause reduced output. It’s incredibly important to make sure you’re in a positive distraction-free place when you have hard problems to solve. It’s equally important that you’re in a good headspace when you set out to do your best work.

We’ve implemented “Focus Wednesdays,” which is a chunk of time every Wednesday morning during which designers don’t answer email, accept meetings, or have Slack open. It’ll be hard to stick to this rule, as things always come up, but I highly encourage everyone to try. Finding flow is necessary to produce great work.

We also have four perks at Medium that help a lot in this space: Gym memberships, yoga, meditation, and healthy food options. I encourage all designers (and everyone here) to be their best self by taking advantage of these perks.