This is just a draft: the prototyping mentality
Design projects are ambiguous. Starting a design project is both exciting and challenging — the team is about to take on a new challenge full of opportunities to create something new, but it’s hard to imagine what the final outcome will look like. It can feel scary to start project planning when we have to yet to figure out what exactly the project is.
Our key to navigating through ambiguity is to get comfortable with the discomfort. Here are some of the ways we’re doing so.
Collaborate
Design projects can be a complex emotional minefield, and our most powerful asset is the team. The key is to make sure that everyone is kept in the loop and workloads are carefully monitored and managed—and that pressure is controlled by reminding everyone that with collaborative work, all their contributions start off as drafts.
Establish a team dynamic with weekly check-ins to see how team members are doing, and create a Google doc that works as a parking lot for ideas, questions and concerns consuming the team’s brain power.
Talk less, do more
Design is about making things tangible, getting our hands dirty and getting real. It’s about getting an idea in your head into a tangible format that you can share with your team. So try to talk less, and create more — prototype any piece of the project, whether it’s a question, a user test, or a concept.
Putting your idea into a tangible form allows for shared insights, potential action and alignment with your team.
Reframe failure into a culture of experimentation
When things are unclear or uncertain, it feels like it’s increasing our chances of ‘failing’. Own up to it, take a deep breath and figure out what you’ve learned from the uncertainty.
The best way to combat this kind of team anxiety is to create a culture of experimentation by reframing your work as a constant iterative prototyping cycle, where any outcome is a learning opportunity and no outcome is a failure.
Let’s be honest: designing something new is really challenging. We are constantly going into uncharted territory, and if we’re not trying things that fail occasionally, we wouldn’t have the opportunity to stumble upon the things that work.
