BDW Check-in
One piece of advice I got early in my career was create a 90 day plan whenever I start a new role. The plan typically has the key deliverables & metrics that define success, key stakeholders to meet.
When I decided to attend BDW, I didn’t make a formal 90 day plan. My goal was to experience everything the program had to offer and round out my skills as a UX designer, especially in the areas where I have less exposure.
Spring break was the conclusion of the first part of the program, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to reflect what I’ve learned in the last 90 days.
Begin, even when I can’t see the endpoint
We had a number of design sprints this semester. These are two day events, where we get the brief on Thursday morning at 9am and then present our results to the client on Friday afternoon. I was terrified going into the first one. We just started the semester and I couldn’t possibly know enough to come up with a solution. I needed time to think and ponder the information they gave us. We only had a few hours to conduct the user research at Copper Mountain before we headed back to Boulder, so there was no option but to jump in and see where it went. After we presented our ideas to client on Friday afternoon, I realized the time constraint actually forces us to be focused and concise in our thinking. Simplifying the idea down to its essence. Yes there were a hundred things we could have included if we had more time; but hearing the feedback from users and creating a plan that addressed their immediate issues and not what we thought the issues should be, resulted in a strong proposal and presentation to the client.
Tips & Techniques
I love to watch how other people use products — what tricks and tips do they have that I can learn. One of my favorite guest speakers was John Weiss from Human Design. In addition to being an inspiring leader — he has a technique called the Scratchpad. The idea is to have a separate document of one-off sketches that serves as a repository for reusable chunks of visual content.
Visual design & documenting my own guidelines
Taking time to think about and document the guidelines I am using for a project, makes me a better designer. Especially when I am making the decisions based on what I like personally. The time spent planning before I jump into the project more than makes up for the time I would spend fixing the random decisions I made as I went along.
Now we are headed into Start-up Semester where we apply everything we’ve learned to-date as we transform an idea into a product. This promises to be a wild ride.
I am currently a student in BDW’s 50 week graduate program. Learn more about the BDW program.
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