End of series summary
An end of series post about my writing on Shaping Design
Thanks for helping support me as I write the Shaping Design series of posts. It’s been a challenge but I have appreciated the feedback.
Back in November, I decided I would set myself a challenge of writing an article a day about my work Shaping Designers.
All the way through December I have been writing an article a day (except one day which I managed to miss) alongside my core consulting work. I didn’t have the guts to call it an advent calendar, but that was the intention.
It will have been hard for you to keep up. Believe me, it was harder to fit it in alongside work and personal life. Especially around the festive session.
But as I sit here on a xmas eve morning, I’m glad I did it. I have now externalised and shared many of my thoughts and frameworks related to this work. I hope that means others can understand it some more, use some of it, and can help move things forwards.
Some caveats for the series
Before I summarise some of the main learnings, and next steps, i’d like to caveat the series a little. As a perfectionist, believe me I know some of the flaws, and I don’t like my work being judged by things I have just pushed out regardless of the quality I achieved. But ‘done is beautiful’. And I can correct later.
Here are some of the major flaws in my work and posts:
- Plenty of grammatical and typo errors
I use a mix of Hemingway, Evernote and Medium to created these posts. In haste, there’ll be loads. If you notice any, please highlight and i’ll fix eventually. - Some terrible naming and terminology
I know some of the frameworks and posts have some terrible terminology. I just didn’t have the headspace and the time to develop anything better at the point of creation. And some of the tools have a bit of history now. - Inconsistent structure
I kinda dived straight in and some consistent structures revealed themselves, but i’d need to read the whole lot again to rethink something that may be easier to parse - I’ve missed so much
Believe me there is plenty i’ve missed out as I have cerated these posts. Exhaustiveness takes time. - Not mutually exclusive
None of the posts are mutually exclusive. I think there is a lot of bleed through on all of them. I think it would take a lot of work to resolve this so I haven’t even tried. For now at least. - Biased from my experiences
I have a lot of experience in this work. But it’s biased to a mainly UK, even London industry. Despite my work with people across the globe, it will suffer because of this. I also have most of work and team experience in consulting and agency environments. You shouldn’t just take any of this as a guiding truth. You should be critical of anything you see, hear or read. And learn for yourself.
Why do this
A great 20 min summary of this work and the motivation behind it can be found in my DesignOps presentation back in November 2019. You can get it from the 2018 DesignOps summit’s site and Rosenfeld Media’s slideshare.
Slides here, and video shortly.
NB, it starts off with a vulnerable personal story which may not translate well on slides.
I laid out a few key hypotheses:
I started running workshops using a series of visual frameworks:
I carried out various corporate and conference workshops all over the world. And helped leaders do their own using some of my tools. I’ve had some great conversations.
Emergent benefits
But as I worked through the workshops I realised there were some wider benefits.
And some emergent learnings.
The process was a valuable experience in itself regardless of the data captured and team insights.
But I also learned how valuable using physical visual frameworks was. Where the input is the output. It helps you reflect.
This can be very uncomfortable. And i’m not trained in coaching or psychotherapy. Yet, my work touches these areas.
Through some comments, experiences and observations, I realised how damaging this work can be for individuals. We must tread carefully with people’s own anxieties and concerns. Because they my grow through these exercises.
Despite all of this. I believe we should still try to do this. But start small rather than over-engineer a programme of work.
What have I got out of this?
My motives have never been about making money from this work. Just help me lose less money by exploring and sharing it.
I have been rewarded by all the comments from others. Whether critical, or thankful. It’s been great to hear stories of people using the work. I want to hear more. It makes me feel good. Do me that favour please if you have got something from it.
I’m not completely altruistic, but I have been investing and sharing all this work to help others. That is my ultimate goal.
Some people have approached me about running some workshops. And so I have done some paid ones. And I am planning some more next year. Maybe a few talks on the subject now that I have been through the mill for my DesignOps talk.
Potential next steps
I am going to take a breather over xmas, and I anticipate many ideas will flood into my brain while boozing and feasting with the family. Hopefully some beautiful clarity will emerge. But some of the things I have been considering include the following. Please give me your thoughts on what else I could do, or what you think of the list below:
- Running more Shaping Design workshops and talks
Been chatting to some interesting folk about some sessions in the new year. I like the opportunity to spread the work farther. - Refining the frameworks
I want to make a nicer, better designed set. The amazing Jonny Burch (of progression.fyi and progression pack fame) may help me. But I may get a really nice infographics designer person on board to help me. - Creating better names for exercises
I don’t like many of the names of the frameworks or exercises. They need some work. I’d always appreciate your views. In fact I could do with some critical thought across the whole initiative. I am not really a good enough IA to do a good job on this by myself, but maybe with some headspace I could give it another go. - Running a card sort on categories
I was hoping to do some work on the huge Boiling the ocean list but maybe as a huge open and closed card sort with the industry - Editing these posts
If I have time and enough feedback, I may go back and edit these posts. I love Medium for that. The illusion of a quality piece being posted even if it was crap in its first iteration. - Analysing the data more robustly
I have a lot of data. Some in spreadsheets. Some in airtable. Loads on paper. I’m not sure this is that necessary but the data geek inside me wants to get it all in tableau and airtable and start analysing it all to review the patterns. - Coming up with new frameworks
One thing I have realised is that the power of my work is in the approach. Creating an imperfect but useful visual framework is pretty easy for me to do. Many may criticise the categories, but the tools are still useful in their own right. - Extending into other fields
I have a lot of comments around doing something for Product Managers, or wider fields. This could certainly be valuable for the UX industry where there is often a lot of overlap. And it could be lucrative. My deeper goal has to somehow get to a point that we could map many different fields and see how similar we all are. How we could move between roles through our careers, and how we can support people in doing that. - Creating a book or deck of cards
Many people have suggested that I have enough content for a book. But do I have enough time to edit and get to one that I am comfortable with. As a perfectionist who earns money through other things, I don’t think I do. But I am considering it. It might be more of a workbook. Or even a deck of cards. I’d appreciate help of course, but I think it is something I can only see myself doing. From a time perspective. Any advice around this would be greatly appreciated. - Using on my own design team
I have been considering going back to full time employment again. There is a lot of stuff around independent consulting that I love. But plenty that I don’t. One thing I really miss is working within a team of diverse talent. Maybe i’ll get a job next year and do some of this work with the, And see it through more. Experiencing the effects more longitudinally. In the absence of this, I will also be checking in on others I have worked with over the past 18 months to see how they have been getting on with it all.
The full list of articles in the series
The full series is listed below.
- Shaping Design and Designers: Intro
An intro to the diversity of design diversity - Map your career timeline
Mapping your emotional timeline over your career is a great way to start. - Blob mapping
Map your practice competency in a few minutes - UX Spectrum
A neat little interactive visual framework for profiling designers against key UX practice areas - False dichotomy mapping
The weirdest but most intriguing of profiling tools - Tools and techniques mapping
Understanding how you spend your work time - Soft shaping and the Perfect Experience Architect
Map the qualities, competencies and attributes that really matter to your work - No new post, but take this one on Boiling the Ocean of expected UX / Design capabilities
Damn I forgot one, but I think I posted something else on Linkedin and twitter on 8th December — will try and dig out - The dilemma of designers’ empathy delusions
Taking a bit of a reality check on how empathic you really are and for whom can help make you a more effective designer, not just an idealistic one. - Values prioritisation
A simple method of understanding your design team’s stance within an organisation - Diamond valuations
Using the Double Diamond to map and focus your team’s and your own design value - Directing design by stakeholder value
Understanding who you focus design value on - Classifying design value
Using frameworks to better clarify design’s value in your organisation - Design leadership mapping
Understanding where you are investing your leadership energy and where your team should - Framing DesignOps or Design Leadership focus
Reflecting on where you focus your efforts as a design operator or leader - Disciplines of DesignOps
Mapping the different disciplines fo design operators - Foundational skills
Remember to exercise the core muscles that drive design progression - Make your own leaving card
A powerful backcasting technique for directing your future - Skittle mapping
A fun and useful exercise for mapping yourself and focusing your future in your own way - Team development cards
A great way to capture development needs and mentoring potential within a design team - Five ways of wellbeing
How to make yourself and your team feel better through self-reflection, connection, learning and giving. - Primary vs secondary practices
Coping with the ever increasing set of competencies within User Experience and Digital Design - Competency model
Everyone seems to want a ladder, maybe they need a net
Want to find out more, follow the series or get in contact with me
If you want to learn more about the Shaping Workshops I run, and what I have learned over the years, follow me, or read some other articles in the Medium Publication.
If you want to contact me about running a workshop with your organisation or at your conference, please email me details: jason (at) resdesin.com
I love chatting to people about this work but I have to balance free conversations with paid consulting work and a busy family life. So please respect that where you can. Flattery, mutual connections and a feint hope of paid work help. Sorry, just being honest.
