Talk: Framing Tomorrow by Questioning Today

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Framing Tomorrow by Questioning Today

Gold

Wednesday, June 8, 2022 • Design at Scale 2022

Brendan Jarvis

Managing Founder, The Space InBetween

Summary

You may have noticed that all is not well in the world. Caught between a pandemic, a civil rights reckoning and the spectre of global conflict - you still have to show up each day and lead your team. With so much happening, it's easy to forget that the scale of your impact doesn't only come from the tools, systems or processes that you implement, but also from the depth of the questions you ask of yourself, of your team, and of your users. Drawing from over 75 long-format interviews with some of the best and brightest design leaders, this talk explores some of the big questions facing the field, and how you can use the humble question to be a better leader. Warning: this talk may raise more questions than it provides answers for.

Key Insights

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The COVID-19 lockdown disrupted Bedog's ambitious UX lab plans, forcing reflection on personal and professional resilience.
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Global crises like systemic racism, political populism, and war provoke universal existential questions influencing design leadership.
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Provocative questions can challenge the status quo but carry risks as seen in Socrates’ trial and death.
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UX and design fields remain predominantly white and male, with significant underrepresentation of people of color and women.
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Ethical dilemmas in design require designers to act as de facto ethicists, balancing business pressures with moral responsibility.
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Amy Jimenez exemplifies the difficulty of standing up for ethical principles within large enterprises.
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Successful problem-solving often benefits from mixed methods and respect for indigenous knowledge, as in the Easter Island moai example.
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Changing the stories we tell ourselves about our challenges can empower us to act and find meaning, demonstrated by Dr. Susan Weinschenk’s cancer narrative.
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Bad questions reinforce victimhood and limit potential; good questions foster curiosity, learning, and constructive change.
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Design leaders should focus on creating their own tables and influence through expertise and collaborative respect rather than simply demanding inclusion.

Notable Quotes

"That night at 11:59 PM the entire nation of New Zealand would move into what was called a level 4 lockdown."

"Why was the universe doing this to me? That was a bad question."

"Socrates was known in Athenian society as a gadfly, a fly that bites livestock, for his overt and intentional interference with the Athenian power structure."

"Who do you see? Who do you not see? Why do you not see them?"

"We don’t have to restrict ourselves to playing the canary in the coal mine. We can design the harm out of our products before they’ve even taken flight."

"If only we could just get that seat at the table."

"They walked. The locals were most likely right."

"The stories we tell are framed by the questions we ask. Our stories repeated become our beliefs and our beliefs influence our behavior."

"I’m very fortunate. I have great medical care. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I am going to live my life to the fullest."

"Are the questions that you are asking and the stories that you are telling yourself serving you?"

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