I work from some guiding principles. Sure, it’s more complicated than that. But it is also that simple. Everything we do is designed – either intentionally or unintentionally. We have an opportunity as designers to consciously, intentionally model what it can be like to center our partners, stakeholders, peers, teammates, leaders, and customers in everything from mundane acts like writing emails and scheduling meetings to experience design, service design, and policy implementation.
I have an index card taped to my wall above my desk to remind me of some important lessons I’ve learned in my practice. Maybe my sharing them with you will tell you something about me.
No skipping ahead. Because you can visualize a better future, you may be tempted to skip over operational steps to get to greater design maturity. But we all learn best through experience. Every team, every program, needs to experience every phase of learning. The best you can do is accelerate that learning to move more quickly to the next phase.
Solve the actual problem (it’s not always the problem you can see). Look for the root cause, the relationships, the dependencies. Look upstream and downstream. You may find things you didn’t expect and that need a different solution than you were expecting.
With. Not for. So much of what takes so long and is often frustrating about working in bureaucracies for me is that it isn’t optimized for collaboration. Reviews and clearances don’t invite discussion and cooperation. Working with users, customers, stakeholders, communities has better, faster, less expensive outcomes than guessing what might work.
Show, don’t tell. Draw diagrams. Make prototypes. Invite partners and peers to make and draw and visualize with you. If you do the best possible job of whatever you’re trying to do, what does the outcome look like? Draw a picture.
Redefine risk. One of the great things about human-centered design is that we have methods and techniques for testing out ideas that minimize or mitigate risk. Will what we’re making / doing work in the wild, at scale? Test concepts with the intended customers. Test the product, service, process by building prototypes and trying them out. Where is the risk coming from?
Support radical exposure to users and customers. It’s easy to stay in the office and work with abstractions. You learn more and the outcomes are better when you have more interaction with people. Sometimes that looks like just hanging out where people are doing their thing so you can see context. Sometimes that means interviewing people about their experience. Sometimes that means collaboratively testing ideas and designs with them.
You come from the future. You’re in the job you have because you can imagine a future where the bureaucracy you are in delivers human-centered services. It’s your job to help your partners, peers, and stakeholders get there. It will take a while. Remember that they want that future, too.