My process isn't universal

The way I’ve learned to design is based on the unique way my brain works.

I’m one in eight billion.

The way I design is also based on the unique path I followed to grow up and be an adult. The process I took to become a designer is unique.

I went from illustrating to graphic design to screen printing design to web design to marketing design to product management to product design. Phew, that’s exhausting just saying it. And within that I switched between verticals, startups, teams, managers, direct reports. All that as I continued to pivot over the years.

There’s no way that a single other designer out there can be exactly like me. So there’s no way I should expect that my design process should be exactly like another designers.

Inspired by the latest post on Experimental History, I’m appreciating that the way I do things doesn’t have to work for everybody. It just needs to work enough for the people I’m going to interact with in my lifetime.

From a design perspective that means my process needs to be good enough for the clients I’m going to work for, the companies I’m going to work at, or the companies I’m going to make. In all three cases it’s worked some, and also failed some.

On a recent episode of Sharp Tech, Ben Thompson shared his career advice that he’s given a few times. In your career focus on your strengths. Yes you have weaknesses, and yes those could be improved. But they’re not going to give as much leverage and opportunity as doubling down on your strengths. I’ve grown to accept this in the last 3-5 years. I know the things I’m good at, and I know the areas where I’m weak.

It doesn’t mean I do nothing about the weaknesses, but I spend far more time in the strengths. That’s helped me to become a very unique version of me, also the version that’s not hiding and feels most alive. It’s probably time to re-read the first chapter of Essentialism.

Same for writing. My process for writing isn’t universal. Sure it’s close to how others will write, but there’s going to be nuance to it.

Early in my career I looked around at how others were doing things and tried to copy them completely. I was looking for the answer, the solution, the way out. I was hoping that some adult would just tell me how to proceed and I’d be able to continue on my way.

This isn’t like elementary school math, where there’s one way to do things—although recent experience helping my sixth grader with math is showing me that even that isn’t completely true. How kids learn math today is different than how I learned it. Yes, they changed math.

This is life. We have such a unique path we can travel.

A decade ago I had to decide on a pivot. As a graphic designer / web designer I was looking for a change. The things I was doing weren’t working. Clients were drying up, job opportunities were limited.

The answer I kept hearing was to go into development, become a programmer. That’s not to say I hadn’t tried. I learned HTML and CSS, and even dabbled in JavaScript and PHP. But I hadn’t really learned how to program (or maybe I did?). Something about my background and experience, or the way I was approaching it, just wasn’t working. I’ve gone through the basics of programming a dozen times, and understand the basic concepts, but just like I’ve never gotten the rhythm of an instrument down enough to play it, I can’t seem to make programming sing enough to build the things I want.

That doesn’t mean I won’t stop trying.

But at some point life is short enough that I want to double down on my strengths, not focus on my weaknesses. And yes, I still can’t spell that bloody word without looking it up; I’m fine with that.

Where I’m going with all this is I’m finding more joy in my experience as a designer and in my career overall. I love what I’ve learned, I love how I get to apply it, and I don’t feel so bad about the areas that I historically struggled in.

Now I don’t plan to stop there.

I want to continue to double down on my strenghts. There’s so much more I want to learn. Probably in the field of product design, but just as I’ve pivoted a half dozen times, I’m open to pivoting again if it helps me follow my curiosity (and pays the bills).