The Change-maker’s Fuel

Change-makers have a fantastic job. At least that’s what everyone says when you tell them what you do. “Wow, your job must be awesome!” Or “You get to do all the fun things!”.

It is a great job! Having the chance to create things from nothing, being able to dream and make it happen and having no limits to think is incredible, especially inside a corporate environment.

The day-to-day is a bit different.

Frustration and resistance will be following you everywhere you go, every single day. Pressure for results is the other companion that although sometimes is not explicit, will be waiting for the first setback to show itself in full strength.

If you want to be a designer, it means that you will have to persist and persistence means finding wins in between the sea of challenges that you will face.

One of the most significant risks for a designer’s resilience is to only focus on the big prize at the end of the rainbow. If you, as many designers today, are adopting any methodology based on quick iterations (Agile, Sprints, Design Thinking, etc.), you have to create a habit to stop and celebrate YOUR quick wins.

“Your” in capital letters above is intentional. Most of the people in big corporates will never understand the small wins. It doesn’t matter. Only you will know the value of each one of those wins so embrace them almost as much as a final delivery on a successful project.

Celebrating small wins is fundamental to keep your team and yourself going. It also reinforces that your strategy is right, the problem you are working on is correct, you have a good idea, and even better, the customers love it.

For each one of those steps, make noise with your team, tell sponsors, show photos, videos, slides, etc. Anything that can give you the energy to keep going and also help start shifting the beliefs of the rest of the organisation in your favour.

Failing early and often is probably a very realistic way to view how most successful designers work, but the good side is that by moving quickly you will also validate assumptions, get good spontaneous feedback from customers, have breakthrough moments before you even launch.

Get hold of every one of those moments and celebrate, it will keep you going.