That last paragraph got me, especially the bit about watching people with no experience at all in design make big decisions. Heart wrenching stuff but I do think you’re right to point out that we ‘expect’ design talent to lead to control and success. It obviously doesn’t. Alas it is often decisive people who get to make design decisions and you just have to hope they are open to taking advice.
I'm convinced the expectation is much of the problem but it's a hard one to shake. In most organizations it's generalists who get to make many of the decisions and design is seen as a specialization - and we treat it that way too sometimes.
The argument we're making in the book is a person with ideas either needs to have power or influence. And this is true for everyone. If you're not powerful, then the fate or your ideas is about your skills at influencing others. And that's really the whole story. The trap is design culture has a wish for a third path that no one else has.
Sorry you're feeling down about work. That's not a fun feeling to have.
It's not just you - many, if not most, designers have similiar feelings. That pride is part of what makes designers good at what they do. But it also gets in the way in most organizations that aren't design-centric (which is most of them).
One trick is to think of coworkers as users - do research on them. Figure out how to design your role, and your advice, so it's "usable" for your coworkers. We actually have a lot of the skills we need to be happier and have more impact, we just need to reframe them.
In this book we're providing lots of answers to that question - as we post ideas from the book here you can tell us what helps and what doesn't :)
That last paragraph got me, especially the bit about watching people with no experience at all in design make big decisions. Heart wrenching stuff but I do think you’re right to point out that we ‘expect’ design talent to lead to control and success. It obviously doesn’t. Alas it is often decisive people who get to make design decisions and you just have to hope they are open to taking advice.
I'm convinced the expectation is much of the problem but it's a hard one to shake. In most organizations it's generalists who get to make many of the decisions and design is seen as a specialization - and we treat it that way too sometimes.
The argument we're making in the book is a person with ideas either needs to have power or influence. And this is true for everyone. If you're not powerful, then the fate or your ideas is about your skills at influencing others. And that's really the whole story. The trap is design culture has a wish for a third path that no one else has.
Sorry you're feeling down about work. That's not a fun feeling to have.
It's not just you - many, if not most, designers have similiar feelings. That pride is part of what makes designers good at what they do. But it also gets in the way in most organizations that aren't design-centric (which is most of them).
One trick is to think of coworkers as users - do research on them. Figure out how to design your role, and your advice, so it's "usable" for your coworkers. We actually have a lot of the skills we need to be happier and have more impact, we just need to reframe them.
In this book we're providing lots of answers to that question - as we post ideas from the book here you can tell us what helps and what doesn't :)
Thanks Delphine - that all makes sense.
Do you have a question or specific topic you'd like us to cover in a future post?