Reflections from the wilderness

The night before AC4D Orientation started, an image planted itself in my mind of hovering above the textured canopy of a jungle and knowing I was about to drop down right into the heart of it. I smiled when our instructors explained on Day 1 that they would be sending us out into the wilderness – guess I wasn’t too far off! Jumping into something completely new can be intimidating. Especially when you have finally reached a point where you’ve built some confidence and ease in your area of work. It can feel disorienting to suddenly realize your old navigational tools and tricks aren’t working so well. And all you can do is give your full attention to everything around you and build new skills for wayfinding. That takes a hearty dose of courage.

This is where I found the emphasis on having a growth mindset especially empowering. It’s OK to come into something new with a beginner’s mind. It’s OK to feel like you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s OK to make mistakes. In fact, that may be the very best way to learn. I found it really satisfying to allow myself to be in that space this week.

Takeaway 1: The wilderness is a superb place to learn.

The story goes that when I was 4, my pre-school took us to the swimming pool for our first swim lessons. I got decked out in my swimmers and then stood stubbornly on the edge of the pool and refused to enter the water. I explained that I could not jump in because I did not know how to swim. In retrospect, it sounds pretty logical. I suspect the truth is that I did not trust my instructor to guide me through something that seemed intimidating. So I asked my big sister to teach me, and was soon swimming circles around my peers.

What made the difference for me in this experience of jumping into the deep end of design this week was the personability, approachability, and empathy of our instructors. They brought their real selves to the table from the beginning and guided us in a way that emphasized showing up, doing our best in the moment, and connecting with each other. This made me feel like I was in good hands and could trust the process even when it was disclosed one little piece at a time. As someone who has written a fair bit about good facilitation, I really enjoyed being on the experiential side where I could observe the different feelings and responses that it brought forward for me. It reaffirmed to me the importance of building trust and creating a safe space for people to learn and grow in.

Takeaway 2: Feeling you can trust your guides builds courage.

Starting to interview strangers on Day 2 with very little prep time and zero practice was not the easiest thing to be fearless about. With Omicron spiking, this meant Zoom for us. Seems easier in some ways. But for someone who’s always had the luxury of turning off my video due to poor internet connections, I find video calls extremely awkward and disjointed. So this was a valuable learning opportunity – to sit with my own discomfort while trying to help the other person feel comfortable while focusing whatever energy I had left to hear what they were saying to me. I have no new love for video calls, but something tells me it will get easier over time. Growth mindset!

For all the awkward moments of running through the design process with no prior experience, what really jumped out at me by the end of it all was that simply connecting with people, asking them questions about their lives, and listening with a kind ear can draw out a wealth of information and insights. I was surprised to read the utterances we pulled out of our interviews – so much good stuff in there. I love the approach that people are the experts on their own lives and experiences, and that what they say matters. I am reminded that this is why I was draw to design in the first place, and am excited to keep growing this skill set.

Take away: This is not about me being polished and perfect. It’s about showing up, being present with people, and following their lead to uncover new ways to make their lives better.

My First Week at AC4D

The first week at AC4D is coming to a close. Starting off, I did not know what to expect. We were told this week would be orientation and quarter one would begin the following week. “Orientation” quickly turned into “bootcamp” and we were thrown into the deep end.

We were asked to come up with three main takeaways from this first week. Mine would be the following:

• Validation in my choice to attend AC4D

• The importance of thinking outside the box when designing prototypes

• Excitement to learn and grow with my classmates

I decided to attend AC4D because I hoped it would fill the gaps that other education paths seemed to have. Trying to become self-taught would not hold me accountable nor offer insight and critique from industry experts. An online bootcamp would not be robust enough; barely scratching the surface on important pieces of the design process. A University program would be expensive and time-consuming. It might not even prepare me to land a job as a designer after graduation. The instructors and other faculty have validated my decision. This first week has been full of challenges and learning experiences. I can’t wait to jump into the main course and see what I can learn from each new instructor. 

The most profound learning experience came during our course on rapid prototyping. I was struck by how Emiliano was able to quickly synthesize the difficulties we were having and offer valuable insight into how to move forward. Our first idea, like most of the other teams, was to sketch out a digital product that we could show to potential users. The feedback he gave allowed us to think more creatively about our prototype and how we might choose an alternate path. We were able to give something tangible to users and begin to understand how our product was succeeding and failing. It’s so exciting to see people enjoying what we made and getting actionable feedback on how we can improve it. 

An unknown coming into this program was my fellow students. I wondered how I would fit in. I’m struck by how kind and easy to work with everyone has been. Something Adam said resonated with me. It feels like a group of people that have high emotional intelligence. I think I’m one of the few people in this program that didn’t attend undergrad. What I learned this first week was that everyone is entering this with one anxiety or another. My classmates have been so open in sharing their thoughts and feelings. It is a group of incredibly warm, intelligent, and likable people. I’m truly excited to continue to learn and grow with everyone as we develop our skills for the rest of the year. 

Orientation Takeaways

Top Three Takeaways from Orientation:

1. The value of crafting good interview questions

2. Idea-generation process

3. Field testing the prototype

Good Interview Questions

One of the biggest takeaways for me this week was learning and understanding the value of crafting good interview questions. In retrospect, I think some of the questions could have been phrased differently or changed altogether. For example, we asked one question related to how people spend their time outside of work. Their answers often led to details about the people they spent time with, which was our next question, so I wish we would have prepared a different question in its place. While sometimes the prepared questions may not be asked because the interview goes in another direction, the questions asked are the foundation for the remainder of the design process. I sometimes found myself asking “but why?” as I re-read utterances that I transcribed. I wanted more information from the data collected that I perhaps could have learned  in two ways: by preparing the right questions and then following up to the person’s answer with additional questions that bring out more of their story. This, in turn, made identifying themes a bit more difficult leading to additional challenges in generating insights. With a growth mindset and repetition, I hope to improve the craft of writing interview questions that uncover those latent needs while building empathy with the participants. 

Idea Generation

While the task to create 300 ideas seemed (and often was) daunting, I understand why we were asked to do it and why designers do it. If my group had a bit more time, I probably would have spent additional time crafting better (and more provocative) insights to create juicier ideas, but the practice of quantity over quality of ideas was beneficial. My partner and I time-blocked eight minutes per insight to generate as many ideas as we could. It was a good practice for me to write anything that came to mind, not bringing any of my own judgement about the idea before writing it down. Then we briefly shared our favorite ideas before moving onto the next insight. In a perfect world, we would have spent more time listening to one another’s ideas to spark new ideas. The idea we ended up using was actually an idea that we both had written down, although there were some nuances that made each idea different. Looking back, strong ideas are probably not the ones that both people come up separately. 

Testing the Prototype

I found a lot of value in the prototyping and testing phase. As we developed it, we were reminded of other concepts that existed in others spaces, so how could we stand out? And how could we make it easy enough to use to break through all of the other noise and competing priorities on a computer screen? Emiliano helped us identify the value proposition of the idea, which made me realize that there are tweaks that you can make or a story you can tell to make many ideas valuable and meaningful in a space (at least at this phase). In testing, one healthcare worker said she would spend the 30 seconds it takes to thank a coworker. She said one reason people are getting burnt out is that they feel like they are not making a difference, but that there are so many things that they have to remember to do. She preferred being prompted with a “would you like to send a coworker a thank you?” instead of needing to remember to go and do it. She suggested a prompt once a day to ask, and that it have settings to change the notification intervals. The testing process stressed the importance of getting feedback early and often.

Welcome Class of 2022

This week marks the start of the Class of 2022’s One-Year Immersive program experience. Stay tuned to this blog to follow their journey!

Students - Class of 2022