Growing in the dark: How to embrace your spirit fungus
Design is perceived as a discipline that makes things beautiful. But let’s be a little more specific: design deals with the challenge of solving problems through systematic thinking. The trouble is that we suck at communicating to non-designers how and why we work the way we do. Consequently we’ve gained a reputation as being unicorns: creatures with mythical, incomprehensible powers. Sadly, ‘mythical’ means it’s not real.
Designers need a realistic spirit animal. How about a spirit fungus?
Mushrooms are versatile little fungi with many hidden talents. They can nourish our bodies, bend our minds, ruin our crops and -- if we don’t know what we’re doing -- kill us. Fungi are not to be underestimated.
Fertile ground required
Innovation has become the new gold standard in business -- but the real trick lies in recognising when things are broken and figuring out a how to fix them.
Significant innovation often happens in less-than-ideal conditions. Consider the crises that dominated the first half of the twentieth century: two devastating world wars with a Great Depression as a cheerful interlude. On the upside, those bad times kicked off a gold rush in innovation, be it in weaponry, miniaturisation, economics, manufacturing, and concepts around human rights.
The innovation gold rush is continuing largely unimpeded. Technology is remodelling our world before our eyes, and we react to these changes with excitement or fear. As designers it’s our job to guide users and colleagues through these transitions by managing their fears and making them collaborators in the design process.
As designers it’s our job to guide users and colleagues through these transitions by managing their fears and making them collaborators in the design process.
It’s easy to get excited about our hyperconnected digital future, but looking too far ahead sometimes makes us forget to be pragmatic in the present. Young designers enter the workforce armed and ready to push the boundaries of technology, only to realise that the foundations are still being laid.
It took a while, but big business is finally beginning to understand that good design is good business. Similarly, designers have realised that an understanding of business gives them the legitimacy and power to push real change.
Designers who want to push out meaningful work first need a strong relationship with their clients and colleagues, along with the ability to communicate their work and co-design. We also need detailed knowledge of the ecosystems that touch our work and teams; this has been a far greater challenge for me than gaining any technical skill or solving procedural problems. Discovering answers to tough questions is a challenge. Sometimes it’s fun too.
Germination
Let’s get back to our mushrooms. Unlike photosynthetic plants, fungi aren’t powered by light, though they do need soil enriched with the right balance of growy goodness, a nutrient support base, if you like. Similarly, human-centered design needs a support structure to be effective, often described as an intersection between design, tech and business. The same goes for required skills to be an effective UCD -- and a successful multidisciplinary team.
I’ve seen glimpses of truly multidisciplinary teams, built on hard work and mutual respect between all team members. When it all comes right, it’s awesome to watch. Sadly, such teams are a rare occurrence indeed.
What often happens is that a particular discipline becomes dominant, which leads to an imbalance in the team dynamic. It’s therefore worthwhile figuring out a design process based on your team's skill level, design maturity in the business and business strategy. Better still, create a process that incrementally gets your team towards a state where the user guides decision making. Collaboration doesn’t appear out of nowhere. It needs to be engineered. The user should be the team focus, not just design.
Collaboration doesn’t appear out of nowhere. It needs to be engineered. The user should be the team focus, not just design.
Death cap or porcini?
The death cap is a lethal mushroom that likes to kill people who eat it. By contrast, the porcini mushroom gives soul to pastas, soups and risottos. Strong communication is much like a porcini -- the ingredient that takes your work from good to great. Bad communication is like a death cap: a one-way journey to -- and through -- pure agony.
Bad communication is like a death cap: a one-way journey to — and through — pure agony.
We can’t control changing requirements, or everyday misunderstandings. However, we can set clear delivery goals. Having open conversations early on in your design process sets a common understanding between you, your clients and colleagues. We’re spoilt for choice when it comes to showing our work and creating a common understanding. Sketching, story mapping, co-design workshops, storyboarding or even reenactment all have their merits. Use whatever tools you need to ensure that the whole team understands the problem.
For example, begin by drawing out a rough flow in a kick-off session. This will help your team quickly determine what possible gremlins may lurk in the system and give an indication of what assumptions need to be validated in the discovery process. Consider it an opportunity to raise red flags before the clock starts ticking on ‘design time’. These kinds of activities will help build an empathetic bridge between you and your stakeholders. Help them bond with your team and the project. That bond may well grant you one of the rarest commodities of all: trust. You’ll need that trust for the times when things aren’t going well.
The little fungus that could
Some fungal spores need as little as 24 hours to begin sprouting from a promising growth medium. Fungi move fast -- and software delivery is subject to similar pressures. That means it’s important to be firm and clear on agreed deliverables.
Saying ‘no’ is a critical skill. In many cases it also happens to be a good business decision. Don’t take on more than you can handle. Give your project a chance to succeed. Slapping down the big old N-O isn’t easy. I haven’t quite mastered the art myself, though not because I don’t want to disappoint anyone. On the contrary, I take too much pleasure in shattering dreams, so I need to reign myself in…
Don’t take on more than you can handle.
Saying ‘no’ needn’t be an overtly aggressive exercise. Use the tools at your disposal to make your point: scope documents, team capacity, technical limitations, user data, backlogs, costs and so forth. This isn’t cynicism. This is reality. Your team needs these tools if they’re to stand a realistic chance to deliver a piece of work.
On so we neatly move on to MVP. A minimum viable product is a team agreement -- the smallest and most valuable part of a project that can be delivered in the shortest space of time. MVP is the sweet spot that lies between the least amount of money and least amount of effort for the most value.
MVP is the sweet spot that lies between the least amount of money and least amount of effort for the most value.
Defining and sticking to an MVP requires research, collaboration and commitment from the team. UCDs are often to tempted to make unsolicited changes because we want to deliver the best work possible. Resist the temptation. Instead, focus on frequent releases, which allow you to grow software over time and learn how it’s faring in the wild.
Software design is no longer a ‘design, deploy and forget’ exercise. It’s a continuous experiment, an act of constant learning and change. Don’t let your OCD get the best of you.
Button or truffle?
Button mushrooms cost roughly $7 for a kilo. White truffles, on the other hand, fetch up to $5 per gram. As a highly skilled UCD, your value lies somewhere in between -- and how much is largely up to you.
Employers look for skills that will help them meet their business objectives. They’re not especially interested in your career. That means it’s up to you learn from every environment you work in. It took me some years of job hopping to realise that no one employer is going to turn me into the designer I want to be.
If you feel your career is being throttled by your employer, make it clear to your boss. Maybe they can help you, maybe not. Either way, it’s best to have a honest conversation about it. If it doesn’t work out, find somewhere where you’ll stand a better chance to grow and learn -- either via formal training or through your colleagues. Work with people who push you forward. Jason Mesut’s Shapes of UX designer touches on some great tools you can use to evaluate your skills. Exercises like these will help you understand what skills you’ll want to master.
Work with people who push you forward.
Merely doing your ‘job’ -- and no more -- probably means you won’t ever be offered the role you actually want. First and foremost, be the designer you want to be. Follow your own instincts and you may well find yourself first in line for the job that no one realised even existed. Just ask the geezers worked as UXers before it became cool. They laid the groundwork for your career. Chances are that one of them is your boss.
Mushroom clouds
There is a recognition, if not a clear understanding, of how important design is to modern business. Our profession continues to expand beyond even our own expectations. Your skills are no longer a ‘nice to have’. Instead, you’re in a position to define your employer’s very identity and success. You have power.
You have power.
Lately I’ve became aware of the importance of how design is perceived -- and how those perceptions affect our ability to deliver good work. I also realised that design alone isn’t enough. First we need to create the right environment for design to do its job.
The design industry is still taking shape. Not only are you shaping your own career, but you’re also clearing a path for those who will follow you. Mushrooms start their lives shrouded in darkness nestled in warm shit, but they are one of the most valuable commodities on earth.
Sure, you’re a spore now. But you’re growing up fast...
