approach to design

As far as process goes, there’s far more uniformity now than there was five years ago when some design agencies even sold process over outcomes. I too like to follow the Discovery, prototyping, iterating, testing and building stages as closely as possible too.

One thing I’ve recently added to this is hypothesis documents to help us think a little more clearly. Ideas can come from anywhere, so when someone on the team does come up with one, we now create a hypothesis document that helps people think and articulate more clearly the following questions: 

- What is the problem?
- Why is the problem important?
- Why is it important to solve it right now?
- What is our hypothesis?
- How might we test our hypothesis?
- How would we measure its success?

It also helps management give feedback on a specific question as opposed to the whole idea.

Another that I learnt from Shreyas and have recently started to incorporate into our process, is - pre-mortems. They used it at Stripe when he was there, and it's a pretty simple idea, that instead of waiting till failure to understand why something didn’t work, they just did it upfront. We’re trying to do this in conjunction with the presentation of a hypothesis document. We still have some kinks to iron out, but it's off to a good start. 

 In addition to the process, I tend to adopt the following themes:

Truth, clarity and alignment

I’ve always found that the most effective approach for me has been to uncover the underlying insight. The one truth that serves as the bedrock for a kingdom. This intent is key because if it’s misplaced or unclear, the design will be poor. To think clearly and articulate one’s thinking clearly is mission critical for every designer. Businesses are built on truths but few truly realise it. For AirPods it was that ease of use matters far more than sound quality. For telephone companies it was: communication lines > decorative telephones. Once the indivisible truth has been discovered, it must be shared and everyone must be aligned and committed to moving in that direction even if they disagree. All stakeholders must be aligned. As teams grow, maybe some of it is indeed politics and horse trading, as Chris Sacca pointed out about Sundar Pichhai, but alignment is crucial.

Design at the macro level

The thing people miss about design is that so much of it happens at the macro level. Just like you can design all the tiny beautiful micro-interactions on an interface, you can also design user behaviour, an organisation and how your product is perceived. Everyone’s a designer, they just go by different names. As people who have studied the craft, we must help people think more intentionally about the things/experiences they design.

Design effectively

It is important to always understand what the real problem is and solve that problem only. Focus is hard. We don’t have to win at everything, but we do have to win in the right areas. Sometimes that means the strategic advantage is to be gained through areas other than an improved customer experience. There’s a graveyard of great B2C products that never quite “won”.

If you’ve read till the end, I must thank you for taking out your precious time to go over these responses. You’ve peeked into my thinking and I couldn’t be more grateful for your time.