Reflections on my first decade as a designer
A guide to good health, happiness and prosperity at work
Since our partnership with Hatch, I have had the great pleasure meeting and mentoring the next generation of design talent. Feeling their tenacity, hearing their curiosity and seeing them flourish has been incredibly rewarding.
It has been a chance for them to soak up the expertise of the product design team; and (unexpectedly) a chance to explore the softer side. You see, the questions about taming Sketch and Principle, were mere warm up for the deep and meaningful ones that soon followed. The kind that have you reflect on your entire design career and open up about things like criticism, perfectionism and identity. OMG!
In the spirit of giving back to the design community, I have decided to package these conversations into a (short) guide to maintaining one’s wellbeing at work.
Criticism refines our ideas
The reason we chose to be designers in the first place, was a chance at solving important problems. As it turns out, many of the world’s problems are complex, and require not only talented individuals, but also well formed teams.
So, what do I consider a key ingredient amongst well formed teams? Well, a couple of years ago, I happened to stumble across the term, ‘creative abrasion’, which I later discovered was coined by a former design manager at Nissan, Jerry Hirshberg. It helped shed new light on giving and receiving design critique. Creative abrasion describes a team culture of friction where ideas are constructively challenged.
For anyone intimidated by the thought of conflict in the workplace, creative abrasion is about creating a safe environment to put aside fear and ego, to focus objectively on the problem at hand. It encourages passion, diversity and rigorous evaluation. Rather than take it personally, designers need to be reminded that criticism is the friction that polishes gems.
Perfectionism kills productivity
During the majority of my career, I subscribed to the notion, all great designers are perfectionists. Labouring the craft, attention to detail－projects are not worthy of release until they are perfect. My work MUST be perfect!
A decade in, and firmly immersed into the world of product design, I have learnt that perfectionism is an unhealthy mindset. Child psychologist, James Delisle articulates it perfectly (no pun intended):
“Perfectionism is not a good thing. It is often misperceived as a good thing, and it has been described as a good thing, but it is not. What is good is pursuit of excellence, which is something quite different.”
Here, our leadership encourage two principles to help teams overcome the pitfalls of perfectionism. The first is, “set a goal and timebox your time”. To avoid the trap of getting lost, every piece of work, no matter the size, begins with clearly written goals and a deadline. The second principle reminds us, “don’t worry about getting it wrong”. Don’t let fear of imperfection hinder productivity. Rather, embrace it, and use rapid iteration to brave forward.
You are not your job
With work being such a central part of our lives, it is easy to fall into the trap of letting our job define who we are. I feel this is especially prevalent amongst designer-types where the boundaries between one’s work and private identities easily dissolve.
Reflecting back on my career, I often struggled to detach my self-worth from what I created at work. Particularly where elements of self-expression were in the mix. At the time, I wasn’t even aware of it. I just simply thought riding the emotional rollercoaster was part of being a commercial designer. Poor feedback from clients and customers, was a reflection of my inability. Yuck!
The honest truth, I am finally starting to learn that I AM NOT MY JOB. There are two parts to this idea. The first, it is critical to foster a work life balance to maintain your creative and emotional equilibrium. The second, your work outcomes do not define you as a person. We face all sorts of variables in our job, and our customers, clients and peers are not always privy to this.
Fortunately, my first year here has cemented this and helped me understand why. The leadership here acknowledge our roles and our identities and bake it into their management style. Rather than reward working late, they encourage us to leave on time, so we can get to that evening pottery class. Rather than hold team meetings in sterile boardrooms, they encourage us to meet at a nearby cafe and simply get to know each other. Rather than juggle the stress of being a new parent, they encourage and enable us to take ample time away to be with our child. We are encouraged to flourish in our roles and are nurtured as individuals.
We are reminded that we are not our jobs. Give work your very best, but never lose sight of who you (and your colleagues) are.
As designers, if we can hold onto these fundamentals in our practice we stand a much better chance of not burning out; of not constantly being faced with creative roadblocks; and establishing a better harmony within teams. Ideas can flourish, be challenged, fail, be refined, excel, and we can be proud of what we created and the amazing individuals that got us there. I hope this guide will help the next generation of designers to think beyond the pixels and prepare for the long game.
