A time for learning

I've been writing a lot about product design the last year or so. With all these new AI tools I'm constantly wrestling with where design can fit in.

Well you know what? I'm almost settled on how I feel; even if I'm not close to knowing where it will go.

Instead of worrying about AI taking away my job, I'm now looking at how I can use it to speed up the stuff I don't want to do, and spend more time on what interests me. After all, that's why I got into this career to begin with.

I started off painstakingly recreating images with Bézier curves; and loved it. I still use that skill from time to time, but most importantly it taught me how to use tools to manipulate them to my advantage.

And that's our unique skill as humans.

We stare at an object, look at a problem, and try and make the two work together until magic happens. My wife and I put up garden beds over Memorial Day weekend.

We started with four 4x8' raised beds, and ordered a dump truck load of garden soil to add into them. With help from our kids and my brothers we managed to get all that dirt into the beds (I'm also incredibly keen to get an electric powered wheelbarrow going forward, my back was not used to that kind of labor; I'm not 13 anymore).

Through each step of the way we had to problem solve, to design our space, to figure out how things should go together. There's no guide out there that tells you how to place a garden in our exact corner of our property, based on the climate, what we want to grow, how we will pull in the water, and how we deal with all the pests. But we're designers, we're humans who know how to use tools, and we figured it out each step of the way.

Now, here's where AI came in. Yes, YouTube has existed for years, and yes there's a million SEO pumped articles on how to garden; and books galore. But we had an intentional idea for a spot, and designed our way through the problem one step at a time. Whenever we were stuck we'd turn to Claude or ChatGPT, give the context of our situation, and look at the options it spat out.

Some were obviously wrong, like when Claude suggested I buy 3x the amount of peat moss because it didn't understand that I already had garden soil for my blueberries. But, even in that it was helpful because I learned that I'd need to dig out that soil and replace it with a proper acidic mixture.

So, will it work? I have no clue. We've started a garden many times over the years, and had mostly suboptimal results. We're not green thumbs.

But! I feel like we're more informed, and we were able to offset our gaps with AI, while still having to design the problems using our ability as humans to diagnose and solve through trial and error.

This is why I'm optimistic as a product designer. Today I talked to a friend who is in a similar spot, and we opined for a few minutes on the need to reinvent ourselves after having finally found a spot of stability in our mid-careers. However, as I think on it more, I'm excited. Frankly, I had gotten a bit bored of things. I can only repeat a process so many times in the exact same manner without wanting to just toss out my laptop and disappear into the woods (although I like drinking the same smoothie day after day, year after year, life is a mystery).

With all the changes in design, AI tools, it's forced me through a gate of learning, and made the work and time spent in my job interesting and challenging again.

Take advertisements. I've been working around then for most of my career, and been involved with companies that run ads. I've given feedback on creatives, tested a few campaigns myself; but never immersed myself in understanding the ecosystem and running an entire campaign from start to finish. It was never quite in my wheelhouse, and I was always more on the marketing or product side of things.

In the past month I've volunteered to help run two tiny ad campaigns. I know what needs to be done, since I've been around this whole process for years and followed it from the days of DoubleClick, but my experience overall has been limited. These campaigns are both for non-profits, and I'm volunteering my time. But I'm having so much fun as a result. I'm learning, stretching myself, and ultimately bringing all the knowledge I have of adjacent fields and creative work into the process.

Does that mean I'll be running ad campaigns in a professional context? No clue. But this interesting, and I'm learning, and also helping to do something useful.

Maybe I'll reach a point where learning gets boring, but we're not there yet.