Disbelief
The irrationality of selfish ideas.
I, for one, love ideas — which is why I’ve been devoting time to identifying where ideas come from. Most of the ideas I have, come from examining how people interact with the stuff they enjoy, identifying what contributes to their enjoyment, and applying that insight to a new product or service. This is at the heart of why I’m a devoted experience strategist. My job is to improve my understanding of people; the better I understand them, the better I can produce an experience they may enjoy. (or at least the conditions required to have an enjoyable experience.)
Not all ideas come from the same place. Most of the ideas I have are inherantly tied to those threads of human nature that connect us all; but not all of my ideas come from the same place. Selfish ideas occasionally pop up.
Selfish ideas are ideas that put one’s own personal needs or wants ahead of those of the user, customer, or business.
I don’t believe anyone in the world can say they don’t have selfish ideas, it’s part of human nature. We inherently want to look after ourselves, if we don’t we won’t have the ability to look after anyone else. THIS IS HUMAN NATURE. But this natural behaviour can be corrupted easily. It can be changed from a simple ambition to succeed, to pride and greed. For instance, the ambition to be successful has motivated me to share my thoughts with the world by openly posting stories on the internet. I believe the more people know about me, and the way I think, the more likely they’ll be to want to work with me. That said, I’ve been approached by people who’ve wanted to monazite what I’ve sharing freely. Although it would be nice to make some revenue from the work required to share my thoughts, it seems disingenuous to write for money. I write when the mood strikes; usually when I feel like I have some insight to share. I don’t want to abandon that process; which I feel like I’d be tempted to do if there was a monetary incentive to do so.
We’re precious about selfish ideas. I think the biggest reason I make a good freelancer is my ideas generally come from wanting to produce the best experience possible for the user. The ideas, recommendations, and analysis I do, are all geared toward producing a good user experience. If someone offers an idea that better serves the user, I’ll be all over it. The biggest problems occur when I have selfish ideas. Although I’ve trained myself to think about the user when deeply considering a user experience; I still fall into the HiPPO (highest paid person’s oppinion) trap. The HiPPO trap doesn’t really have anything to do with how much a person gets paid; it has more to do with who has the most authority. Competative individuals often have a need to prove their value; thinking if their key ideas get used, it will result in career advancement. This isn’t unique to HiPPO’s.
The real irrationality of selfish ideas occurs when people dismiss or discount potentially good ideas merely because they feel precious about their own selfish idea.
As a UX professional, I make a living by understanding people. These skills should translate to teamwork. I should be able to effectively communicate to my own team, regardless of what may be necessary. Sometimes a group conversation is great; sometimes a private conversation is better. There are a lot of people who don’t like freelancers; they don’t like having to look outside of the organization for temporary talent. I often face senior team members who try to make themselves look good by making me look like I have no idea about what I’m doing. They’ll attempt to do this by shooting down recommendations I offer, or disagreeing with evaluations I perform; and they’ll usually do this is as public a way as possible. I’m totally cool with being critiqued, and love it when a team has refinements or improvements to an experience I’ve designed. It’s disappointing when selfish ideas trump good ideas.
My goal for this year is to have less selfish ideas, and to stop making others look bad. It’s hard to know what work’s been done internally, before I get engaged to be a part of a team. I know I step on people’s toes all the time. It’s not because I have selfish ideas though, it’s because every organization seems to use UX professionals in a slightly different capacity. Sometimes I’ll be engaged to do everything from stakeholder interviews, to content strategy, to user research, and experience design; other times, that may all be done, and I’ll be engaged to consult on implementation. I’ll often step outside of my box to evaluate the appetite for additional services I offer; but it’s never intended to diminish another persons role. In any event; my point is the people I make feel bad, I do inadvertantly. I am making a concious effort to avoid situations like this; but I think it’s more difficult as a freelancer.
So, before you say: “I can’t believe he’d recommend something so stupid.” ask yourself if there might be a good reason it was recommended. If you’re just defending an idea you had, you may not be thinking rationally. Improving an idea doesn’t make the original idea bad; it takes a confident individual to identify a good idea — especially, if it’s an idea that makes their own idea seem less valuable.
It’s just as hard for me to admit I’m wrong, or that someone else is ‘more right’ than I am, as anyone else. There have been times where another UX professional would run with an idea, come up with a completely new navigation design, present it to the team, then show it to me. This is one of the hardest situations for me to deal with. It’s very tempting to pick-apart the new design in favour of my own design; and very hard to admit if the new design provides an improved experience. This kind of situation has less to do with replacing an idea I had; and more to do with a percieved disrespect associated with not including me in creating the solution. Typically, when I feel disrespected, I’ll get defensive — but this is a sensitivity I’m trying to shed myself of. My feelings of disrespect are often not based in reality; being able to see through the cloud of hurt feelings to be able to properly evaluate an idea is something I aspire to. It’s a work in progress, but I believe it’s one of the most important skills creative people need to develop.
