Stop complaining, blaming, name changing and instead empower ourselves to influence people with our ideas, or else accept what is. Precisely put.
However, complaining & blaming comes naturally to everyone, as it is easier to vent out. My real learning was to 'empower' myself to influence others about my design ideas. At least try. Else, accept and Be Happy...😊 Thanks
Bang on Scott! Honestly can't think of a more succinct response myself. The thing is, fear breeds desperation and desperation can be ugly. People spiral down a rabbit hole accelerating as they go...changing things as they go to try and reframe and regain what they feel they've lost. I think you're spot on in terms of both things not to do and things to do, and if more people took a beat, a breath, engaged in a considered way, there might not be as much panic.
That said, with all of the systemic shocks over the last 5-8 years our ecosystems are shaken and rattled. And of course, it's easier to weather when you have the financial foundations to do so, which admittedly, many of us don't have. So the panic almost becomes self-fulfilling and our ability to step back is over-ridden by our desperation to put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads.
I think the key is to know which lane you're in and focus on that. If you're a designer, put aside the hysteria around "companies don't understand us," "people don't value us," "why aren't we directly represented on the exec (story for another day)," and keep your head down, design, position yourself as commercially astute and design-capable.
If you're a leader, consider the other lanes you can play in. To your point, figure out what roles the influencers and decision-makers are in, and consider how you might slide across and play in their lane. With your experience in design, and newly acquired experiences in roles outside of--but adjacent--to design, you might just find you have the influence or decision-making power you need to feel fulfilled.
I don't know. This stuff is tough. And it's made harder by needing to survive long enough to find a lane to play in.
I think you're 100% right inside an organization/company. I've worked with a lot of designers who think there's some kind of Golden Key they should get handed that is going to make everyone magically listen to them. And my answer is always the same as yours: You need to develop influence. You need to demonstrate ideas in the same arena that everyone else is. And a lot of time they aren't going to listen to you – but that's an opportunity to tune your communication skills. It's that or accept the role of Pig Makeup Technician.
My personal existential crisis, however, is not that design is dead: it's that design has lost. To be clear: there are a ton of small companies (like the startup I'm in right now) where we're making huge local impacts and making lives better for our customers.
At the larger scale, though, I don't have hope for that any more. We've spent decades honing our skills, studying customer behaviors, and building influence to improve customer experiences – and at the same time, the machines that drive the experience of everyone who uses tech have co-opted that work to turn customers into dopamine-addicted consumers and doomscrollers. Any big change that might make the world a better place is dismissed because of shareholder value, or watered down to the point where it's just window dressing.
We're making small improvements in every large tech company. But after three decades in the industry, I feel like we've hit the point where that's just re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic while the iceberg of late stage capitalism is already sinking us.
Design is definitely not dead. It will for sure morph with AI, as will product & engineering. I am a product coach, who spent most of my time in the US working for companies like Netflix. What is critical is to build relationships that go beyond transactional; spend time getting to know them, what they think, what the other persons goals and deliverables are, what they are on the hook for, what problems exist. Spend time getting upstream; the more upstream you are, the more say so you will have on the big decisions. The relationships you build will allow you to leverage them to get upstream Complaining and blaming all comes from not feeling heard, not being validated, from our shadow self, so do a shadow map using GRAILS framework - Gremlin (inner critic what is the shape of it), Rigid rules you have, Assumptions you make, Interpretations you have, limiting beliefs you have about yourself and others & stories- you make about others, your role, you. Then realise that you made it all up in language and you can make up something more empowering for you. Always choose more empowering as Scott says; it will get you further, increase your pay, people will follow you. Well said Scott, not just for design but all who work with some type of product.
Thanks, Scott.
Stop complaining, blaming, name changing and instead empower ourselves to influence people with our ideas, or else accept what is. Precisely put.
However, complaining & blaming comes naturally to everyone, as it is easier to vent out. My real learning was to 'empower' myself to influence others about my design ideas. At least try. Else, accept and Be Happy...😊 Thanks
Bang on Scott! Honestly can't think of a more succinct response myself. The thing is, fear breeds desperation and desperation can be ugly. People spiral down a rabbit hole accelerating as they go...changing things as they go to try and reframe and regain what they feel they've lost. I think you're spot on in terms of both things not to do and things to do, and if more people took a beat, a breath, engaged in a considered way, there might not be as much panic.
That said, with all of the systemic shocks over the last 5-8 years our ecosystems are shaken and rattled. And of course, it's easier to weather when you have the financial foundations to do so, which admittedly, many of us don't have. So the panic almost becomes self-fulfilling and our ability to step back is over-ridden by our desperation to put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads.
I think the key is to know which lane you're in and focus on that. If you're a designer, put aside the hysteria around "companies don't understand us," "people don't value us," "why aren't we directly represented on the exec (story for another day)," and keep your head down, design, position yourself as commercially astute and design-capable.
If you're a leader, consider the other lanes you can play in. To your point, figure out what roles the influencers and decision-makers are in, and consider how you might slide across and play in their lane. With your experience in design, and newly acquired experiences in roles outside of--but adjacent--to design, you might just find you have the influence or decision-making power you need to feel fulfilled.
I don't know. This stuff is tough. And it's made harder by needing to survive long enough to find a lane to play in.
I think you're 100% right inside an organization/company. I've worked with a lot of designers who think there's some kind of Golden Key they should get handed that is going to make everyone magically listen to them. And my answer is always the same as yours: You need to develop influence. You need to demonstrate ideas in the same arena that everyone else is. And a lot of time they aren't going to listen to you – but that's an opportunity to tune your communication skills. It's that or accept the role of Pig Makeup Technician.
My personal existential crisis, however, is not that design is dead: it's that design has lost. To be clear: there are a ton of small companies (like the startup I'm in right now) where we're making huge local impacts and making lives better for our customers.
At the larger scale, though, I don't have hope for that any more. We've spent decades honing our skills, studying customer behaviors, and building influence to improve customer experiences – and at the same time, the machines that drive the experience of everyone who uses tech have co-opted that work to turn customers into dopamine-addicted consumers and doomscrollers. Any big change that might make the world a better place is dismissed because of shareholder value, or watered down to the point where it's just window dressing.
We're making small improvements in every large tech company. But after three decades in the industry, I feel like we've hit the point where that's just re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic while the iceberg of late stage capitalism is already sinking us.
To paraphrase Frank Zappa: "Design isn't dead, it just smells funny."
Design is definitely not dead. It will for sure morph with AI, as will product & engineering. I am a product coach, who spent most of my time in the US working for companies like Netflix. What is critical is to build relationships that go beyond transactional; spend time getting to know them, what they think, what the other persons goals and deliverables are, what they are on the hook for, what problems exist. Spend time getting upstream; the more upstream you are, the more say so you will have on the big decisions. The relationships you build will allow you to leverage them to get upstream Complaining and blaming all comes from not feeling heard, not being validated, from our shadow self, so do a shadow map using GRAILS framework - Gremlin (inner critic what is the shape of it), Rigid rules you have, Assumptions you make, Interpretations you have, limiting beliefs you have about yourself and others & stories- you make about others, your role, you. Then realise that you made it all up in language and you can make up something more empowering for you. Always choose more empowering as Scott says; it will get you further, increase your pay, people will follow you. Well said Scott, not just for design but all who work with some type of product.