Thinking in public as a digital product designer
“I’m usually not that negative but this is bad…”
— Well-meaning fellow designer
In a matter of minutes, a few more comments popped out mocking my poor writing and lack of actionable information in my article.
My mood sank.
They are right!
I start writing responses to each one, justifying myself like a schoolgirl without homework.
Five seconds later: What am I doing? I don’t need this.
I open back Reddit and delete the entry post with all the comments.
Moved on with my day as if nothing had happened.
As a digital product designer, you need to come up with solutions on a daily basis. Often the challenge is not one that you can just Google and get the right answer to. Even after you come up with a solution you have to be able to communicate it in a clear and concise way in order for it to be considered by teammates, clients, or customers. In that sense, developing and communicating ideas is an essential part of being a designer.
But keeping & developing ideas in your head is inefficient and misleading. You spend time running in circles. And often when you decide to share your idea, it turns out it’s not that great.
To become a valued problem-solvers, we need a better process.
Have you seen how Gordon Ramsay insults rookie chefs who don’t taste their dish while they’re cooking it? I’m not a big fan of the guy but he’s not wrong. Tasting every step of the way is the only way you can ensure the quality of what you are doing.
When developing an idea, it’s not much different. You need to get a taste of what you are doing before you serve it.
Thinking in public is one way you can do so.
Thinking in public is any form of sharing your half-baked ideas with your team, clients, customers, or audience. The format really doesn’t matter. Could be in person or online. Could be written, audio, video, or meme. What matters is the feedback.
Real-time feedback is the one ingredient that can ensure the quality of your ideas. The other thing is that it has a compounding effect over time. It is no surprise why working in public is a growing movement. You build trust and credibility even when you fail. If you don’t, you probably don’t do it often enough.
Your brain is a great place to come up with ideas but not great for developing them. We need feedback on that.
Don’t get me wrong, don’t try to implement every piece of feedback you get. Instead… Consider the context. Look for patterns across multiple pieces. Ignore it until it’s difficult to ignore. Or panic, justify yourself then delete all like it never happened. But do it.