Inspirational Advice from the Adobe 99U Conference
I recently attended the 10th annual Adobe 99U Design Conference at the beautiful Lincoln Center in New York City.
The conference brought together speakers from the VP, Product of Netflix to the founder of Meow Wolf — an immersive art installation —to the former Creative Director of the White House, to discuss creative leadership, challenging formats, and designing for social impact. The roster of inspiring speakers had me reflecting on what I value, how to endure challenges, and how to stay intrinsically motivated. Below are some takeaways that not only applied to personal development, but also to day-to-day operations at Tophatter:
- Be mission driven: It is vital to care and feel accountable towards how we’re impacting our customers and the greater world.
- Solve the problems that are most impactful: OKRs are great, but we must also think beyond problems that are quantifiable to try and solve those that will have lasting impact.
- Empower everyone with ownership: With a passionate team and an aligned vision, we can empower everyone to be decision-makers and have ownership of their work.
But there was so much more! Below are some quotes and advice that resonated with me.
“I am learning everyday to allow the space between where I am and where I want to be to inspire and not terrify me.”
Tina Roth Eisenberg, CEO & Founder, Tattly & CreativeMornings
Eisenberg believes that every day we should show up to work as our fully authentic selves and understand that it’s okay to feel things.
Once a week, she has her team get together and share “cherries and pits” — “cherries” are what makes them happy and “pits” are what’s burning them out. After an interview or finishing a project, she challenges everyone to ask themselves: How do you feel right now? Do you feel energized or depleted? Asking these questions and being in touch with our gut-reactions will help us prioritize what we actually want to be doing.
“You want to lean so far forward that sometimes you fall on your face.”
Todd Yellin, Vice President, Product, Netflix
Yellin argues that a “culture of consensus” leads to the lowest common denominator and kills any chance of innovation.
He strives to challenge convention, even if there is the risk of failure, and create a culture where anyone can speak up. The loudest voice shouldn’t control the conversation — instead, we should farm for dissent and push people for ideas. A successful manager should be constantly bothered and challenged, this shows there’s a passionate team behind them taking responsibility and driving their own change.
“What if we sometimes began with play and discovery rather than metrics and objectives?”
tea uglow, Experimental Person in Charge, Google Creative Lab, Sydney
Uglow describes her job as Creative Director as a mixture of conducting and gardening. She argues that ambitious OKRs can make projects feel overly serious and anxiety inducing. And even more concerning is that sometimes the most important projects are neglected because they do not easily roll into a quantifiable goal. She challenges us to do what’s important — strive towards a general direction but don’t be pigeonholed to specific goals.
“Do, delegate, or drop.”
Tiffany Dufu, Author, Drop the Ball
Dufu says that in an effort to “get shit done,” we can fail to delegate and stunt other people’s growth. We often have unrealistic expectations that we can do it all.
To be able to advance our careers, we have to give ourselves permission to say “no” and let go of insignificant tasks, and to give opportunities to the people around us.
“The Messy Middle: when you can’t see the finish line and you’ve forgotten what got you into the project in the first place.”
Scott Belsky, Chief Product Officer & EVP, Creative Cloud, Adobe
Belsky talks about “The Real Journey” of a product life cycle. People, and particularly the news, idolize the beginning and end of a story. However, it’s what he coins as the “Messy Middle,” the mysterious middle no one talks about, that makes or breaks a company.
The two ways to cope with the “Messy Middle” are endurance and optimization. Companies need to endure setbacks and optimize everything that seems to be working. The future is crafted by those who do the work they don’t have to do. In the final mile, stay in the early innings with the mindset that the company is only “1% in.”
“We’ve lost sight of the one perk we should all care about, a shared sense of passion for the problem we’re trying to solve.”
Audrey Liu, Director of Product Design, Lyft
Liu believes that Silicon Valley emphasizes all-day fun and not fulfillment to attract talent. While perks are great, they should not distract from seeking deeper meaning.
As designers, we should be asking ourselves, what’s the impact?
When the Lyft design team spoke to drivers, they found that many drivers were motivated by the idea that with Lyft cities may be able to replace parking lots with parks one day. The team then began to ask a new question: does this change help make parks? And thus they began tying accomplishments to true impact.
Liu believes that every company should be purpose and mission driven. Take REI for example, on Black Friday for the last three years, REI closed down its stores and website for its #OptOutside campaign that encouraged people to go explore. They decided to not participate in the biggest shopping day of the year to stand behind their brand mission. Liu argues that we need more companies like REI to care and feel accountable because “if we don’t give a shit, who will?”
“Use surprise to hold attention.”
Mona Chalabi, Data Editor, Guardian US
Chalabi feels that people consider data to be precise when it’s in a bar graph or pie chart and forget the ambiguity that comes in gathering the data. She aims to show the general trend behind data and make it emotive through illustrated presentations, often built to make people feel uncomfortable.
She also challenges people to approach data with skepticism and channel that skepticism to ask questions and feel empowered about the numbers that are available us.
“Alternate realities are the product humans desperately desire.”
Vince Kadlubek, CEO, Meow Wolf
Kadlubek thinks people crave an immersive, transformative experience, so he transformed an old blowing alley in Santa Fe into Meow Wolf, an interactive art installation. People enter Meow Wolf and walk through what looks like a normal house. They then open up the refrigerator or climb through the washer/dryer to a new world (that was helped designed by George RR Martin!). People are intrigued when there’s something that looks predictable, but is unlike anything they’ve ever seen before. The goal is to make people think, if the fridge is different than it has been, the world may be different than it has been, and I can be different than I have been.
“Be self-centered in an introspective, vulnerable way”
Ashleigh Axios, Design Exponent & Head of Creative Studio, Automattic
Formerly the Creative Director for the White House, Axios worked on big projects like the “We the People” platform, helping people organize petitions against the White House, and illuminated the White House with rainbow colors to show support for gay rights.
Axios believes that now is not the time to coast and that we need to be pushing the boundaries. She asks us to dig deep into the core things that bother us and create products that address those problems.
