Enabling Designers to Follow Their Fires
How can we help designers break free from the shackles of prioritized and paused work?
“Follow your fire.” It’s what my husband always tells me when I’m itching to tackle something specific at that particular moment — those random frenzies compelling you to sink your teeth into something meaty (like finally starting that woodworking project) always at what seem to be the most inappropriate times (like when you obviously should be dealing with the overflowing laundry, mountain of mail, empty fridge, neglected answering machine, and unplanned upcoming event). The truth is, no matter how fired up you are to take on the one thing not on your long list of priorities, there’s never really an obvious or convenient moment to get into it. We will always have more important things to do at that particular time.
Here’s the problem: That frenzy of feeling fired up is the appropriate moment to follow your fire — even if it seems relatively unimportant at the time! The most productive time to make progress is when invested energy is at its peak. Letting that powerful flame burn out is the waste of a precious resource that only gets generated sparsely and unpredictably.
The most productive time to make progress is when invested energy is at its peak.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this in terms of product and design work lately. I see designers ignite with passion to pursue some non-prioritized or paused work — reimagining a legacy user experience, solving for an overlooked problem, researching an unrepresented member, systematically addressing an inconsistently used design component, crafting the long-term vision of an experience, enhancing a suboptimal experience — and then fizzle out from the frustration of feeling shut down from moving forward.
It’s often in those fired-up moments that I hear the most compelling thinking, see the most creative design work, and witness the most excitement, joy and devotion from designers. They share with sparks in their eyes and oftentimes their energy catches on — captivating others to build on the thinking and bridge their knowledge, lighting up one by one…
…And then the fire extinguishing happens. With the best of intentions, we talk each other out of that frenzy time and time again. “Oooh, we shouldn’t spend time on this since it’s not on the roadmap.” “This problem falls under this other team.” “This other person is supposed to do that.” “There isn’t a team to work on this.” “Let’s pause on this until the design system team forms.” “In order to solve for this, we’d have to solve for this and this and this as well.” “Let’s wait until we hear a clear strategy first.” “We already have too much in the backlog.” Or the meeting ends, and the captivating discussion that just took place is treated like a happy little vacation to a Neverland where those dreams could never actually become a reality.
Now that it’s top of mind, I am actively trying to pour gasoline on fires whenever I catch myself or others starting to extinguish them.
Sure, it shouldn’t be the Wild West. We understandably need to stay focused on priority initiatives and grounded in reality. And we can’t move in unison if everyone’s off doing their own thing. It’s why we have org structures, project managers, backlogs, roadmaps, and checkpoints with leadership. And it’s in good spirit to protect designers from spinning their wheels on work that ultimately won’t be built — a crushing fall to churn.
But can we go too far with these good intentions of keeping focus and order? Are we missing out on some untapped secret sauce?
In recent design reviews, I’ve been inspired by a few designers trying to follow their fires as they diligently socialize the opportunities they identified and tenaciously move the work forward. I’ve also spun up an unofficial project with a couple teammates who have gone rogue with me before. But these bursts of momentum come with inevitable doubts, concerns and uphill battles. It’s got some of us talking about how we can, as a design team, be more successful in these endeavors (and ultimately influence the work to be more design-led). How can we harness the invested energy of designers in the moments they’re fired up about something — something nobody else is willing or able to give up their energy for at that time?
How can we harness the invested energy of designers in the moments they’re fired up about something — something nobody else is willing or able to give up their energy for at that time?
Sure, companies will host hackathons or tech/design debt weeks to provide this opportunity now and then. Some companies even declare a weekday (or half) for employees to pursue unofficial work — carving away time each week for everyone to work on those passion projects and stretches of skills. I whole-heartedly applaud these industry leaders in modeling this. And I think there’s more we can do.
- HMW encourage designers to feel confident in pursuing unofficial work? (Company-wide time to work on these is a powerful step to address the barrier of needing “permission,” but what else can we do to break down other barriers like not feeling empowered?)
- HMW enable designers to prioritize the unofficial work when they’re fired up about it? (Company-wide days to work on it is HUGE, but may not necessarily capitalize on the frenzies or support continuous progress).
- HMW connect designers with just-the-right level of partnership to move forward in unison without burdening others or getting blocked?
- HMW support designers in finding pathways to make unofficial work become official?
I’ve got some ideas. But I’d love to hear from other designers and leaders what you’ve tried with your teams. Please share!
