Not Good Enough

Speaker A: The daily sprint starts right now. Do you feel you aren't good enough as a designer? Or maybe just feel your work is not good enough? Or maybe are you simply satisfied if your work is only good enough? We'll be talking about the external and internal internal pressures you face as a designer with the quality of your work and three ways you can break out of it. I'm Darrel Estabrook, 30 years into UX product design. I may have seen a thing or two over that time, but I'm still just getting started. I'm also the founder of designy, a platform for product designers who want to design with a why? I coach designers how to personally strengthen their ability to design on purpose and communicate designs to stakeholders. Find out more and get on board with a free newsletter@designy.com that's design with a y.comm welcome. So glad you're here. It's episode 17. Just feels like it was yesterday when we had episode one. It's great. So what do you think about this? Good enough? It's a phrase that we throw around all the time. Uh, different contexts and different attitudes. But there's a lot of this feeling of I'm not good enough as a designer. And where does that come from? There's so much pressure out there. And depending on what you read or scrolling that you do, there's uh, always someone that seems like they're better than what you're doing. Their art is more refined or their designs are crisper or just surprisingly innovative. I never would have thought to do that with uh, cards and shadows and typography and other things like that. And you could really start to feel, well, the imposter syndrome is what is used a lot. But it's kind of the self reflective thing. I'm not good enough. But you are, you're a designer, you have that spark in you to create, you're made to create. And so there's this distraction that occurs as we're all growing in discovering this talent that we have. Or maybe you do feel that you're good enough, like you've arrived, like you've been doing this for a while, but you feel the work isn't good enough, like you're just not producing, you're just not getting over the hump of, uh, it's mediocre or ah, uh, it could be better, you just don't know what. And this idea of kind of flipping all of that on the side of just like, ah, it is good enough, it's good enough. And I think we Hear that a lot. In this generative AI world that we're growing in, that you kind of just push the bar until it. There's a lot. There's more that we could do with this. There's more adjustments I could make. Uh, the fonts aren't quite right, the alignment's off, the colors aren't what they should be, but it functions well and well. We can push it out. It's good enough. I think there's a lot more of that flooding our space than there used to be. But these are things that aren't new. These attitudes and just constraints, things that we feel imposed, uh, on us. They've been around for quite some time. So it's not unique to you. That's the good news, I guess. We've all been there. We've all had those seasons, whether it's been months, weeks, years, where it's just not good enough. And, um, it's not, but it could be better. So let's figure out what we can do with that. I think there's a number of things that we could explore. And let's just take this first one. Do you feel you aren't good enough as a designer? So one way you can combat that is to discover what you do effortlessly. And you think about the effortless. What does that really mean? Well, I like to think of talents, and somebody said that you're not born with a talent or not, but I know, and even just looking at my children, that there are things that we didn't teach them that they just gravitate towards. Uh, music, art, math. I mean, it's all over the spectrum. It's not confined to one thing. And I guess the Renaissance, the person that is able to do a little bit of everything, or as it's attributed to Benjamin Franklin, the Jack of all trades, master of none, he actually said, is a master of one, which. Which is a good thing. You want to really hone in on it. And so that's kind of what this is. It's good to do a lot of things, but some of them take more effort to do than others. And so what's the thing that you do effortlessly? It's just like, uh, I don't even have to think about it. I like to think of this in talents, though, as every talent that you are aware of currently. Like, if you were to take an inventory, probably a good thing to do, take an inventory of what you do, what you are good at, all of those things you discovered at some point, you may have had that sort of Inclination towards art, towards typography, even, um, some more of these technical things that we deal with. But you discover that you didn't just wake up one morning and say, I'm interested in typography. You read a book about it. You opened up Figma or Photoshop or whatever and you started using the type tool. You're like, oh, wow, look at all these fonts. You opened up Word maybe and discovered that. And then you start pushing and pulling and then you read more about it. You go deep on it. It's something that kind of tickles your interest and you kind of research it, you're intrigued by it, you go follow that path. And so the question would be if you are any number of years along in product design or any career thing, and you think, well, I've done it all, whatever talents I have, I've maxed out. But, but why? The, uh, question is, have you stopped discovering your talents? It's very possible that you could just say, hey, I've done so much of this one thing for so long, it's probably all I can do. Um, it's just not true. Uh, you may find that there are things you're not suited for. I don't like math. It's not my thing. Uh, and it's really not my thing. Trigonometry curves, anyway, it's like. Yet I really enjoy, I do enjoy typography. Um, we'll talk about that later. There's things that you need to discover continually. You need to try new things. And that's one of the ways that you can actually discover these new talents. You just have to try stuff. Uh, what do you try? Well, again, it's the things that you kind of gravitate towards. But even in product design, there are so many different facets of it. I saw a diagram this week. They, uh, talk about the T designer, the broad. Like, I don't design, but then I hone in on one type, one like ux, right. Research or something like that, and that's fine. But this comb design, or the broken comb, where you have all of these facets of design that are kind of required for it and you're good in some and not in the other. Well, but that's everybody. We're all that way. And the thing is, so if you haven't done research, try doing some research. You might do well to follow someone or read up on it and, and say, hey, this is something that we really want to go for. I want to see if I like it. You don't have to do it forever. I don't think anyone's asking you to sign up for something that you've never done and say, this is your new career. But like anything that we do in design, the thing I'd say is start small in scope of what you're doing. Something low risk, but it has real accountability. That's the key. You don't want necessarily to do the largest project that reports to the CEO and have all that. People may not give that to you, so you may not have to worry. But if you're saying, I'm going to be proactive about this and I'm going to step out, you m don't have to bite off the biggest thing there is. I know that the real accountability part, though, is what can really drive you to make sure that you've got it all covered. So having a deadline, having a commitment, um, making it part of a real project that can put you in the hot seat to deliver something. But that's really good, so you want to do that. When we talk about doing something that's effortless, though, that doesn't mean that there's no training at all. So you might be able to pick it up, do it once and say, oh, I've got this. It's like a hidden talent. That's awesome. That's great. Even so, that doesn't mean that you don't go and get further education on. Just means that you can pick it up quickly. You love doing it. You can't wait to do more of it. And it doesn't get old. That's the, you know, if you. You do this a few times and you're like, wow, that was great. But I don't want to ever do that again. Probably not a thing that you find effortless and that's good. The one thing I found in years ago, there was a point that I came to and I had to choose whether I was going to do marketing, website design or productivity apps. And I kind of weighed them both. I love them both. I like the marketing, I like the communication aspect. I like trying to bring all of the elements together, uh, composition, typography, color, um, branding, all of that. And I also really like productivity apps. Figuring out workflows, seeing how they overlap each other, scaling them, all the challenges that go with that. But when I really got down to it, I knew that branding took effort. Picking colors and matching those. It's not that I couldn't do it, it's just that it would take me a lot more to get something to the point where it was better than good enough. Whereas workflows, that is like sword fighting blindfolded with one hand, it just was. No, it really was effortless and I loved it. I couldn't wait to do more of it. Those are the things you want to gravitate toward. So, yeah, find those talents that you might not actually have realized yet. Try new stuff and see where that leads you. This other thing of, like, your work isn't good enough, you're not feeling like that's really moving the needle. Well, one of the things you can do there is to do your best, produce the best thing you can, and then get hungry for feedback. Now you have to pour yourself into what you're making. This lackluster, kind of just throw stuff together isn't going to cut it. You really have to do the best you can. So with all the knowledge you have to date, do that and make a thing, make a design. And it's very vulnerable to put yourself in the position to ask for feedback because you poured yourself into it. It's kind of obvious I spent all this time, but that's where the growth is going to happen, because you have to put it out there in order for someone to see it. And then you have to ask someone to really take a look at it and give you their thoughts. Now, the key to this is you want to find an expert. You want to find someone whose work you respect, maybe, or the person you respect, someone who's knowledgeable about what you're working on. But you want to get feedback that's actionable because there's so much. It's just easy to say, I like it, I don't like it, and that really doesn't help you. It's like, feel good to be flattered, but it's not actually something that you can improve. In fact, if it's just flattering, you're like, oh, well, okay, well, I did the best and that must be it. But the real growth is going to happen if you're able to have a clear purpose for your design decisions so you know why you made the decision you made. Even if you're not sure, you still can explain it. Like, I picked this font because I like the curves on it. Well, okay, but that might not be the strongest reason for picking that font. And if you find an expert to help you with that or someone that you trust, then they'll tell you the effect that that font is actually happening on your design. But what you really want for actionable feedback is to get to receive it and get it in a way that's not opinionated like that. And once you get that actual feedback, you're going to want more of it. It's going to really fuel your desire because actual feedback is something you can take back to the studio and, and apply it and explore with it. You really know where to dig. It's like literally digging a well. Where's the water? Well, here's all the indications are here. So let's go deep. Uh, don't go in a brand new spot and start randomly figuring it out. No, it's good. And you'll take more risks that way because you want to see how far you can push the design. You'll understand the design language of what you're doing, and I actually have some resources that can help you on that. We'll mention it later on at the end of this episode. But the third one, which is really the flip, right? Are you just simply satisfied that your work is good enough that really turns it on its head. The other ones, we're saying we want more, we want more. Uh, and this one, we're saying less is fine. And the answer to that is ensure your work represents your character. Now, that's a tricky one. What's character? Well, there's a lot of different ways to put it, but it's the sum total of who you are and how you conduct yourself in all areas of life. So you can think of it this way. When someone says your name, what adjectives come to their mind that should be reflective in a moment. What are they thinking about me, based on the work I've produced? Now, you can get all embroiled in that, but not get involved too much. Let's start at this idea that good enough is the bar, the low bar that you're aiming for. That's the danger for designers to get complacent like that. Like, either you don't care, which I don't really know if that's always true. It's probably more likely that the bare minimum is acceptable. It's like if you're surrounded by other product owners, other designers where good enough is good enough, then they're not going to be elevated. You're not going to be able to lead them or accelerate, uh, or elevate your designs and even become that leader, design leader that you can be, because you just stay at the status quo. Like I said before, this is the growing trend of this generative AI design, where you could just push it, keep typing, keep prompting, keep getting results, getting frustrated at the output, and finally, just Give up and say, okay, the thing works and the alignment's off, all of those things, and it's just good enough. But it's not good enough because you're putting that out there and that's your name, that's your reputation. That's what you'll be known for. Do you want to be known for that? It's a choice. You don't have to be known for that. It's easy to go with the flow. It really is, because that's, uh, water will find its own level. Right. It's just, it's easy to squeak by. But the one thing that it does is whether you're a stellar designer, like off the charts amazing, or this bare minimum designer. Both those pieces of work reflect who you are, who that designer is. And you might say, well, that's not who I am, the work I do. I'm a really different person than the work. Right. It's not. I'm just doing the good enough because that's all that's required. But just think of it, though, if your work is mediocre because it's just good enough, that's going to speak louder than all the other things you might say, or maybe even all the other things you might do. What you produce is your character. Your work equals, uh, your character. It's definitely a gateway into it. So when people are looking at the work and which designer is this, they'll get to know that reputation by that work. So don't you want to not do that? Don't you want to go double down, go for broke, make it the best that it can be, even if there's time constraints and you can't go to that level that you'd really like to. But can you push it beyond? Can you put in that extra time to make it what it should be, at least what your vision of it should be? So only put something out there that you're proud to call your own, you're going to put your name on it and that's what you deliver. Uh, I talk a lot about pencils down work and things like that. Things in progress, even. So are you putting the thought behind it to where you can explain six different ways all the way that this one thing works? Yeah, you want to put the work out there that's beyond good enough. Do your best and only put out excellence. Be the excellent designer. You can do that today. Today is the day. It's a daily sprint. This is the day you have to design. So knock it out of the park. I mentioned a few things in there. There's a whole lot more, of course, that we could go into. But if you want to check out that course on getting feedback that's actionable, it's actually a free course. So I've put that out there. I want you to have it. It's 30 minutes of uh, just a video really, but it's a step by step guide. There's a downloadable that comes with it and it teaches you how to professionally critique design. And that's the thing that you can learn yourself, but you can also teach the team. And when everybody's on board giving actionable feedback, it's a ball. The real power comes in when you start to kind of teach the stakeholders how to give actionable feedback. That's the real value. But you can do it. You can check that out. And I also have a masterclass called Design for Value and that goes really deep into ways that you can make purposeful design decisions like how do you do it? And make sure that value is embedded in those design decisions. The masterclass is 50% off through May 15. So running a launch special. All of These are on academy.deziony.com and while you're there, go to designy.com and check out the content that we've got. A lot of the podcast episodes are there, but there's articles and other things that can help you. And there's a free newsletter, so sign up for that. It's designy.com it's design with a y dot com. Thanks for listening to the Daily Sprint. Just remember, today is a great day to design with a Y. Mhm. See you next time.