A Case for Being Messy
Lessons learned as a recovering perfectionist
I tend to take on a lot of things at once. I’m currently juggling grad school at Northwestern, two adorable (but high-maintenance) dogs, a side gig as a gymnastics judge, and my role as a product designer at Sprout. To keep all my worlds spinning, I have to be pretty organized. Which is what makes one of my superpowers a bit counterintuitive.
When I first interviewed at Sprout, I was asked what my superpower was. My answer surprised me, and it felt a little like when you panic-order at a restaurant.
I said I was good at breaking things.
After the interview, I laughed at myself. I do really love QA work, but still, what a weird answer. Lately though, I’ve been thinking a lot about messes and how we often think about them as broken things. I’ve learned this year that I like the messiness of design. I like to show my work halfway through a project before it is making much sense. And I am definitely a “figure it out by doing” kind of designer.
Maybe it is actually a meaningful superpower. Maybe the secret to juggling all the things isn’t organization. Maybe it’s being okay with a bit of a mess.
The design industry seems to have latched onto this topic recently, and I’m here for it. Dovetail sent me a newsletter recently with this quote, which I may make my new motto:
“It is very important to embrace failure and to do a lot of stuff — as much stuff as possible — with as little fear as possible. It’s much, much better to wind up with a lot of crap having tried it than to overthink in the beginning and not do it.” — Stephan Sagmeister
And when I took Figma’s recent quiz, I was told I was an “Artful Detacher” — a free-styling, rule breaker: “When they zig, you… roll on the floor.” Sounds about right. I might throw a cartwheel in.
The Roadblocks
Sometimes being messy is so much harder than it sounds. Here’s when I struggle with it.
When I feel pressure to do good
Whether I’m working with a new team, or under a time crunch, when I feel that extra bit of pressure, it becomes hard to lean into the mess. Cause no matter how often I say it’s cool, a messy design process is vulnerable and scary. It means showing unfinished work, tackling problems you may not be ready for, and admitting you don’t know the answers. When I’m worried about impressing people around me, this gets hard.
When I’m tired
When I’m really tired or feeling drained, the laundry may pile up, but the big ideas simply do not. This is when I’d rather have simple tasks I can check off my list. I’ve learned it’s not the time to take on complex or ambiguous problems. I love projects with words during these times, cause words tend to come naturally to me. This may be why I’m writing this blog post on my last day before a holiday break!
When I’m given too much flexibility
When I first started at Sprout, I really struggled with what we call “focus days.” Every Wednesday we don’t have any meetings so that we get uninterrupted work time. After almost a year of being here, I’ve grown to enjoy focus days, but I used to dread them. If I felt like I didn’t have enough work to fill the time, I’d lose all motivation for the things I did need to do.
Sprout’s flexibility is incredible. But it was also an adjustment, especially after previous jobs that had much stricter time rules. What helped me was talking through it with my manager, putting some imaginary deadlines in place, and trying to be patient as I adjusted to the culture shift.
Embracing the Chaos
While sometimes embracing the mess is hard, other times I feel like I’ve unlocked a new level of a game when I’m consistently wading through the design scribble. Here are some things that help me lean into the messy design life.
1. Make time to Play
I’m always a fan of team activities and games. Bonding as a team is so important for people to feel safe enough to bring half-baked ideas to the table without being judged. Sprout invests in this with events like our Mid-year meet up, where we spent an entire week in-person focusing on connections rather than projects.
2. Wander when projects are slow
I’ve also been trying to embrace the idea of bringing more playfulness and less urgency when projects are slow. My manager has encouraged me to ideate on problems that pique my interest, even if there’s not a roadmap item tied to it. I’ve put todos on my list lately like “Dashboard dreaming” and am realizing that there can be value in exploring random ideas, even if they are never built. Often this exploration plants small thought seeds, which begin to be circulated in brainstorms and hallway conversations until they grow into their own meaningful projects.
3. Practice real-life mess
This one may be controversial, but I think getting comfortable with physical mess can help prepare you for the psychological design mess. There are some disclaimers to this one. Everyone has a physical mess they just can’t stand. For me, it’s dog hair everywhere. Don’t neglect that thing, whatever it is for you, for your mental health’s sake. But I’m an advocate for letting your clean clothes wrinkle in that laundry basket a bit longer and choosing to do something that fills your cup instead.
4. Let mess inspire your product decisions
Obviously, we want our designs to feel intuitive and easy to use, but we also live in a very complicated and messy world.
For my grad program, I’m working on a design project related to closet organization. I’ve already admitted that I have piles of clothes lying around often, and I don’t really care. I don’t want something to “fix” this “bad habit.” I want a product that accepts I’m a messy clothes person and gives me an easier option than hanging it all up. What would happen if you reframed your current design problem to embrace the mess?
5. Remember to rest
This one is always hard for me because I like to do all the things. But Sprout encourages us all to take time off with an unlimited PTO policy that is actually meant to be used. And at our regular design rituals we are often reminded to REST, RECOVER, and REFLECT. It’s written on our virtual whiteboard as a physical reminder headed into the weekend. I didn’t realize until I started here how much those words could influence how I prioritize my time and how I feel when I come back.
So as we head into a season where many of us are thinking about how to better ourselves — whether it’s a personal resolution or a professional goal — I’d like to propose that we make room in our goals for messy, restful, humanity.
