Exactly four and a half months ago I was asked by an interviewer ‘how would you go about designing a solution for ….’I had an answer but it was not sticky, not to them, not to me.Today I have an answer (sticky to me at least). Here’s my design process:<ol><li> </li></ol>

A Question I Didn’t Have An Answer 

Do some secondary research to understand the problem space? Goal: to find at least 5 to 6 topics that are hot in the industry (of course around the problem space)Talk to the users to understand their literacy about the challenge space (are they catching up with the trends or they are too lazy) Find people who are influential in the industry (Subject Matter Experts) Ok, now compile the data and look for themes and patterns (there’s more in data than we can see/spot)

Level 1 (contd.)

Stop at just enough research. Come up with a broad (big enough) overreaching problem statement. Level 3: Persuade the team to jump into the Design Sprint to tackle the challenge in a together, alone setting.Day 1 of the sprint is imp because its all about zeroing on the challenges the team hopes to tackle during the sprintDay 2: The fun starts —> Designing the solution. Day 3: Choosing a solution Day 4: Breaking the solution in smaller fragments that could be prototypedDay 5: User Test Level 4: Repeat 🔁 [Iteration Sprint]

Level 2, 3 & 4 are about ideation (contd.)

Level 5: Take 80 hrs (roughly 2 weeks) to design a development ready solutionLevel 6: Metrics & Events (still figuring out), simultaneously get coding.Level 7: Ship with analytics in place (figuring it out)

Level 5,6 & 7 - Here we build

Design is subjective but doesn’t have to be unstructured

product

Product & Design

The Design Process

This is the best book I have read so far.Here’s a quick summary of the book 👇The authors, through their extensive research deciphered powerful moments to extract ingredients of an extraordinary moment.Powerful moments are made up of these ingredients:Elevation = Lifting of Sprits, Emotion = Goosebumps Pride = Amplifying sense of achievement with recognition, Emotion = Pride, Satisfied Insight = Breaking of existing schema, enabling someone with knowledge currently unpossessed, Emotion = Surprise (ahhhhhaaa) Connect = social connect, sense of belonging, Emotion = joy, cared for

A Framework To Design Experiences

The best book I have read so far (non-ficiton)

The New York Times bestselling authors of Switch and Made to Stick explore why certain brief experiences can jolt us and elevate us and change us—and how we can learn to create such extraordinary moments in our life and work. While human lives are endlessly variable, our most memorable positive moments are dominated by four elements: elevation, insight, pride, and connection. If we embrace these elements, we can conjure more moments that matter. What if a teacher could design a lesson that he knew his students would remember twenty years later? What if a manager knew how to create an experience that would delight customers? What if you had a better sense of how to create memories that matter for your children? This book delves into some fascinating mysteries of experience: Why we tend to remember the best or worst moment of an experience, as well as the last moment, and forget the rest. Why “we feel most comfortable when things are certain, but we feel most alive when they’re not.” And why our most cherished memories are clustered into a brief period during our youth. Readers discover how brief experiences can change lives, such as the experiment in which two strangers meet in a room, and forty-five minutes later, they leave as best friends. (What happens in that time?) Or the tale of the world’s youngest female billionaire, who credits her resilience to something her father asked the family at the dinner table. (What was that simple question?) Many of the defining moments in our lives are the result of accident or luck—but why would we leave our most meaningful, memorable moments to chance when we can create them? The Power of Moments shows us how to be the author of richer experiences.

books

Books

The New York Times bestselling authors of Switch and Made to Stick explore why certain brief experiences can jolt us and elevate us and change us—and how we can learn to create such extraordinary moments in our life and work. While human lives are endlessly variable, our most memorable positive moments are dominated by four elements: elevation, insight, pride, and connection. If we embrace these elements, we can conjure more moments that matter. What if a teacher could design a lesson that he knew his students would remember twenty years later? What if a manager knew how to create an experience that would delight customers? What if you had a better sense of how to create memories that matter for your children? This book delves into some fascinating mysteries of experience: Why we tend to remember the best or worst moment of an experience, as well as the last moment, and forget the rest. Why “we feel most comfortable when things are certain, but we feel most alive when they’re not.” And why our most cherished memories are clustered into a brief period during our youth. Readers discover how brief experiences can change lives, such as the experiment in which two strangers meet in a room, and forty-five minutes later, they leave as best friends. (What happens in that time?) Or the tale of the world’s youngest female billionaire, who credits her resilience to something her father asked the family at the dinner table. (What was that simple question?) Many of the defining moments in our lives are the result of accident or luck—but why would we leave our most meaningful, memorable moments to chance when we can create them? The Power of Moments shows us how to be the author of richer experiences.

Chip Heath is the professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.He received his B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University and his Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford.He co-wrote a book titled Switch How to Change Things When Change Is Hard with his brother Dan Heath.

Chip Heath

Dan Heath is a Senior Fellow at Duke University's CASE center. Dan has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and a B.A. from the Plan II Honors Program from the University of Texas at Austin.He co-wrote a book titled Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard with his brother Chip Heath.

Dan Heath

The Power of Moments

You rarely come across people (in fact anything or anyone) who are damn straight and direct about ideas or criticism. It was my time to lead a bunch of budding designers and Radical Candor; especially the Get Sh#t Done Wheel (Get Stuff Done as in the book) couldn’t have happened at a better time.The core idea is to build relationships that are more humane, that allows the best ideas to surface at the top and that allows the team to produce the best work of their lives without having to hate you.

How to build a team as pumped and oiled as an army

The entire book revolves around the core idea of building relationships with your direct reports such that they know that you care personally (about their growth) and since you give a damn about their growth, you will be challenging them every now and then.I like Kim’s (the author) way of storytelling. The book is funny, yet serious. And the stickiest part of it all —> she has managed to give her readers a ‘how to guide’ to actually practice Radical Candor at workplace.P.S: I started creating one page summaries of the books I am done reading.Do read this one though 👋

The Challenge Directly X Care Personally Framework

The most juiciest framework to give criticism with a pinch of guidance

A high-profile business manager describes her development of an optimal management course designed to help business leaders become balanced and effective without resorting to insensitive aggression or overt permissiveness.

teamwork

Teamwork

Now a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller "I raced through Radical Candor--It’s thrilling to learn a framework that shows how to be both a better boss and a better colleague. Radical Candor is packed with illuminating truths, insightful advice, and practical suggestions, all illustrated with engaging (and often funny) stories from Kim Scott’s own experiences at places like Apple, Google, and various start-ups. Indispensable." —Gretchen Rubin author of New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project "Reading Radical Candor will help you build, lead, and inspire teams to do the best work of their lives. Kim Scott's insights--based on her experience, keen observational intelligence and analysis--will help you be a better leader and create a more effective organization." —Sheryl Sandberg author of the New York Times bestseller Lean In "Kim Scott has a well-earned reputation as a kick-ass boss and a voice that CEOs take seriously. In this remarkable book, she draws on her extensive experience to provide clear and honest guidance on the fundamentals of leading others: how to give (and receive) feedback, how to make smart decisions, how to keep moving forward, and much more. If you manage people--whether it be 1 person or a 1,000--you need Radical Candor. Now." —Daniel Pink author of New York Times bestseller Drive From the time we learn to speak, we’re told that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. When you become a manager, it’s your job to say it--and your obligation. Author Kim Scott was an executive at Google and then at Apple, where she worked with a team to develop a class on how to be a good boss. She has earned growing fame in recent years with her vital new approach to effective management, Radical Candor. Radical Candor is a simple idea: to be a good boss, you have to Care Personally at the same time that you Challenge Directly. When you challenge without caring it’s obnoxious aggression; when you care without challenging it’s ruinous empathy. When you do neither it’s manipulative insincerity. This simple framework can help you build better relationships at work, and fulfill your three key responsibilities as a leader: creating a culture of feedback (praise and criticism), building a cohesive team, and achieving results you’re all proud of. Radical Candor offers a guide to those bewildered or exhausted by management, written for bosses and those who manage bosses. Taken from years of the author’s experience, and distilled clearly giving actionable lessons to the reader; it shows managers how to be successful while retaining their humanity, finding meaning in their job, and creating an environment where people both love their work and their colleagues.

The Design Process

The Power of Moments

Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity

Harshil Patel