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Seniority in Design - UX Insider Bitesize Bournemouth

Ben Holliday
September 30, 2019

Seniority in Design - UX Insider Bitesize Bournemouth

Talk from UX Insider Bitesize, Bournemouth

The latest (and a shorter version) of my Seniority in Design talk.

What does it mean to be a senior designer? How can design support, inspire and create change where you work?

Ben Holliday

September 30, 2019
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Transcript

  1. wearefuturegov.com
    Seniority in design
    UX Insider Bitesize, Bournemouth
    @benholliday

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  2. hello
    hello

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  3. Ben Holliday
    Twitter:
    @benholliday
    Website/blog:
    benholliday.com
    medium.com/@BenHolliday
    Emily Tulloh
    Twitter:
    @emilytulloh
    Blog:
    medium.com/@emilytulloh
    Emily is a senior designer at
    FutureGov and is leading
    our response to the climate
    and ecological emergency.
    Julian Thompson
    Twitter:
    @julesequity
    Website:
    rootedbydesign.co.uk
    Julian is a senior designer
    at FutureGov and is founder
    of Rooted By Design -
    a community of Black
    Designers & problem
    solvers.

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  4. Question: What does it mean
    to be a senior designer?

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  5. Question: How can design
    support, inspire and create
    change where you work?

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  6. A design
    state of mind

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  7. A design mindset is how we
    respond to our immediate
    surroundings and work. This
    means asking different types
    of questions, and requires a
    different set of responses to
    the challenges we face.

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  8. FROM
    Business/technical perspective
    “It works like this to maintain BAU”
    Complexity
    “We’re dealing with great complexity”
    We can’t change that
    “Absolutely not…”
    Needing certainty
    “We need certainty”
    Fixed assumptions
    “How can we prove we’re right”
    Closed
    “There’s no need to share/make work visible”
    TO
    User-focussed
    “It could work like this for people in the future”
    Simplicity
    “Let’s go back to first principles”
    We can change that
    “Why not…”
    Not knowing
    “Ambiguity is okay, we can learn more by doing”
    Changing our minds
    “How might we be wrong about this”
    Open
    “Collaboration connects and creates new ideas”

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  9. Why
    should
    anyone
    care?

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  10. Hypothesis: culture in
    organisations (how we
    think and how we do
    things) is shaped by
    collective, small actions.

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  11. What is seniority
    in design?

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  12. [Original Blog Post]
    medium.com/seniority-in-design

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  13. More focus on outcomes
    than process (as a way of
    navigating complexity).
    Seniority in Design

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  14. Complex (complexity)
    means something that
    consists of many different
    and connected/
    component parts.

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  15. Service map (navigating something complex)

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  16. An outcomes based approach to complexity:
    - Creating simple models to communicate component
    parts of a bigger picture/system.
    - Framing challenges and priorities without being drawn
    into detail too early or in the wrong places.
    - Having a clear goal (vision/proposition) to work
    towards that helps us stay focussed on user-based
    and/or policy outcomes.

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  17. Not over-complicating (and
    being able to visualise and
    communicate clearly).
    Seniority in Design

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  18. Complicated is what things
    become when we don’t design
    the tools, or have the ability to
    create the right conversations
    at the right touch points.

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  19. Storyboarding

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  20. User Experience
    (impact)
    Safeguarding
    outcomes (impact)
    Organisation
    capabilities
    Data security
    Service/systems view

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  21. Prototyping

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  22. Asking more questions
    (inc. more obvious
    questions).
    Seniority in Design

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  23. Asking the right questions
    to frame the problem
    bit.ly/framing-the-problem

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  24. Being prepared to take
    more measured risks,
    and being accountable
    for what happens.
    Seniority in Design

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  25. Design is about imagining what
    the future could look like.
    Putting sticks in the ground

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  26. A big idea is better than
    having a big plan. People get
    behind ideas, and are inspired,
    engaged and take action
    because of ideas.

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  27. Creativity should not be
    thought of as a specialist or
    localised resource, but as a
    competence that needs to be
    part of the fabric of a 21st
    century organisation.

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  28. Being able to deconstruct
    your work in order to teach
    or coach others.
    Seniority in Design

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  29. First principles is about
    breaking something down to its
    most fundamental component
    parts, or the things that you
    believe are true. Then you work
    from there.

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  30. “…[a framework or model] is purposefully reductive.
    It takes things away, emphasising only a small part
    of a large whole, so that we can focus only on what
    remains. A world map is a model of earth that
    removes nearly everything about the planet, leaving
    only relative masses, names of countries and cities,
    and overall proximity.”
    Jon Kolko

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  31. Letting go of perfection.
    Seniority in Design

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  32. 80% rule
    You can be reaching for
    high standards but getting
    in the way of progress.

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  33. Working with increasing
    levels of ambiguity.
    Seniority in Design

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  35. Ambiguity is holding
    opposing/different ideas in
    tension at the same time.

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  36. Learning by doing
    is working with what
    you don’t know.

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  37. Find
    your
    voice
    to lead

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  38. Design isn’t just something you
    do, it’s something you have to
    lead e.g. how you work with other
    people through a process and
    influence change.

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  39. Design is about constraints,
    so this is how we should
    shape how we lead.

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  40. You are only as good as
    your feedback loops.

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  41. Self reflection.
    Be your own feedback loop -
    make time to reflect on how
    you lead design, and make
    adjustments.

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  42. Seniority in design is
    about having personal
    responsibility.

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  43. How you use your
    time,
    energy,
    focus

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  44. Work in the gaps
    around you

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  45. Thanks
    @benholliday
    benholliday.com
    wearefuturegov.com

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