In times of climate emergency, here is a list of news, projects, and data that help me enter 2025 with hope by acknowledging progress and imagining better futures.

1. A group of Indigenous women are protecting the Amazon from illegal mining (source)
2. Australia now protects 52% of its oceans (source)
3. Scotland increased the number of bumblebees from 35 to 4000 (source)
4. Rome is planting 1 million trees (source)
5. UK coal-fired power stations are becoming giant batteries (source)
6. In May, over 50% of Italy’s energy was generated from renewables (source)…
7. …and in 2023, 30% of global energy demand was from renewables (source)
8. China can now power 2.67 million urban homes with an open-sea offshore solar farm (source)
9. Pollution (also the noise one) in Beijing thanks to electric vehicles (source)
10. Norway has already gotten close to its 2025 target of selling only zero-emission vehicles (source)
11. In the North Sea, there is a wind-powered charging station for ships (source)
12. The Hauge banned advertisements for fossil fuels, petrol cars, and long-distance air travel (source)
13. EU Parliament criminalized ecocide (source)…
14. … and it’s fighting fast fashion (source)
15. New laws will empower and increase the circular economy in Scotland
16. A new bioplastic degrades in water 15 times faster than normal plastic (source)
17. The Ocean Cleanup made their largest catch ever (source)
18. In Bali, plastic from rivers becomes furniture (source)
19. In the Netherlands, wasted mangos become leather (source)
20. And South Korea recycles 98% of its food waste (source)
21. Carbon storage might become more efficient by reducing the energy required in the process (source)
22. London’s low emissions zone is making kids healthier, safer, and more active (source)
23. In Barcelona, subway trains charge when braking (source)
24. A community of local businesses collaborate to address Tokyo’s environmental issues (source)
25. Concrete is getting greener… a Lego brick at the time (source)

Here you can read 24 learnings from 2023.

There are more than 25 hopeful learnings in 2024, but I hope that’s enough to help you move forward to 2025.

What else helped you move forward?

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

— Native American Proverb

This final quote is especially dedicated to my lovely child, Tommaso, born in 2024.

In times of climate emergency, a list of news, projects, and data to start 2024 with hope by acknowledging progress and imagining preferable futures.

1. We are Making Barriers Reef Great Again (source)
2. When building wind farms, we are not making dolphins deaf anymore (source)
3. Oysters in walls will make French schools fresher during summer (source)
4. An underwater museum is protecting the Mediterranean Sea (source)
5. The archeological site of Pompei is installing invisible solar panels (source)
6. Beavers are working with the Mayor of London to protect the city from flooding (source)
7. Dragons aren’t as extinct as we thought (the earless lizard ones, spotted for the first time after 50 years) (source)
8. Native Americans built safer highways for people to drive on and for animals to come across (source)
9. European bees won’t be killed and will have protected corridors to pollinate ecosystems (source)
10. An election result was enough to protect the Brazilian rainforest (source)
11. EU citizens have a new right: being able to easily and cheaply repair products instead of buying new ones (source)
12. After 2035, new cars in Europe will be less noisy and polluting (source)
13. We are getting better at recycling EV batteries (source)
14. Brazilian kids are using their superpowers (and play) to plant trees, start community gardens, and restore ecosystems (source)
15. Nigeria has a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man picking litter from the streets (source)
16. Great Britain won a World Cup for picking litter (source)
17. After Hurricane Maria, a Puerto Rico community started to independently and resiliently generate energy (source)
18. Humans are partnering with Artificial intelligence to understand how to save Mangrove ecosystems. (source)
19. These robots are making textile recycling in fashion easier (source)
20. Patagonia and Samsung found a way to reduce laundry pollution (source)
21. Thanks to Etsy, Nest, and the Environment Defense Fund, artisans have guides on what to do in case of climate disasters (source)
22. Emissions in EU fell, while the economy kept growing (source)
23. CO2 emissions are about to get worse (but maybe for the last time) before our ecological transition makes things better (source)
24. If we installed 1 gigawatt of solar panel in 2004 but 1 gigawatt every day in 2023, imagine how much progress we can make in the next 19 years. (source)

This list (and its last item) was inspired by the ritual list by Tom Whitwell.

These 24 are just my favourites from 2023. What are yours?

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Margaret Mead

Articolo disponibile in italiano su Linkedin.

Are you already exploring how to design in the climate era?

To facilitate your exploration, I would like to share my (intentionally) oversimplified* synthesis and interpretation of what I learned thanks to Futuregov, Design Council, Creative Mornings, Climate Designers, EIIS and a few books and podcasts.
I hope this brings you to participate in this exploration with other Climate Designers way faster than I’ve done.

* The word “Climate” is here an oversimplification of anything related to “environment” “ecology”, “green”, “sustainable”, “restorative”, “regenerative” and so on.

Concept 1: Why you? Because you care.

That’s enough to call yourself a “Climate Designer”.

Because those 2 words aren’t a role, a career, an honor to be earned, a status to reach. They are words to remind yourself to have in mind this question while designing:

“What’s the impact on humanity, the next generations, and the Planet?”.

Concept 2: Why your design skills are needed

United Nation’s original definition of “sustainability’ is:

“meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

That aligns with 2 key design skills:

• Address people’s functional, emotional and social needs;
• Imagine future experiences.

Addressing people’s functional, emotional and social needs

Creating solutions with less, zero or positive environmental impact is not enough to enable the ecological transition. We need people to adopt them and become change-makers.

Bill Gates addresses the economical costs of sustainable solutions with the Green Premium; until fossil fuels are cheaper than the alternatives, many people won’t find change affordable.
The same goes with functional, emotional and social costs: if climate solutions aren’t desirable, people won’t go for them.

Undesirable solutions require reinforced adoption via governmental policies or top-down organisational changes which lead to resistance or unbearable experiences similarity to what happened with COVID restriction or decades of badly designed digital transformations.

People would desire change:

• with cool brands and packagings promoting sustainable dietary options;
• with business platforms promoting purchasing of second-hand clothes;
• with interactive visualisations showing the potential of a more sustainable travel option;

Imagining preferable futures

It’s easy to imagine that everything is lost when exposed to news and scientific data.
That’s why designers can help by imagining future experiences between a spectrum with these opposites:

• humanity will mitigate the impact of humanity on Earth;
• humanity will adapt to survive the catastrophically changed Earth’s conditions.

Across this spectrum, there are many probable preferable futures to believe in and design, like the one imagined by Eric Holthaus on Future Earth.

Whether you feel “optimistic” or “pessimistic”, you can imagine and design one of the many solutions needed to mitigate the causes of the climate emergency and/or help adapt to its effects.

I recommend checking designers Marc O’Brien and Lilli Graf to get inspired across this mitigation/adaptation dualism.

Concept 3: The climate-actions-to-be-done

A ‘professional deformation’ might lead many to design new solutions.

It’s ok to start from scratch, but it’s to observe that is though, to keep in mind all the existing climate solutions that are ready to be imagined, implemented, reused or repurposed to change experiences — like those shared by Project Drawdown, Climate Adapt or the SDG Goals.

My design-mindset makes me group climate actions into these 3 “jobs-to-be-done”:

• observe to understand problems and consider available solutions;
• change things to explore if, why and how new solutions might work,
• share what has been observed and changed.

This helps me identify how some design skills (and roles) are needed for types of climate actions.
For example:

• Observation of scientific data would benefit of visual designers and interaction designers;
• change citizens’ behaviors would benefit of policy designers and service designers;
• A community sharing knowledge would benefit of interior designers and facilitators.

But there are more options to work on a climate project…

Concept 4: Working on a climate project

At this point, you might realize retrospectively that you are already working on a “climate action project”.

But at what level and with what role?

Sometimes you can control, other times only influence. Sometimes you can make radical and immediate changes, sometimes transform gradually.

I have divided possible contributions to climate action into 4 types (not mutually exclusive) to identify more opportunities depending on different interests, skills, and personal possibilities.

a. Designing Climate actions

Some people can easily be labeled as “activists” or “environmentalists.” Like them, you could directly pursue projects for observation, change, or sharing.

Continue to use skills and mindsets that distinguish you as a designer, asking yourself, for example, how might you help your neighborhood become aware of its water waste, prefer public transport, or prepare for resilience in case of floods.

b. Designing for Climate actions

Climate actions also benefit from functionality and desirability. They need narratives, services, and tools that help those involved to act effectively.

For example, try working as a designer for environmental organizations, bioplastics manufacturers, or renewable energy companies. You could design for Climate Actions if the company you work for is their partner or supplier.

Or make it happen…

c. Re-designing experiences

Companies not focused on climate action cannot disappear or transform suddenly. The negative impact on a social and economic level would be enormous, with high costs for many stakeholders and employees who would find themselves without jobs and resources.

It takes time.

So, you could be the person who observes, changes, or shares within your organization to make sure there are:

• Available data on the environmental impact of processes.
• workshops on the topic.
• informational materials and tools to facilitate change.

And beyond your organization, you could also transform the design industry systematically. In fact, even if your company is (still) against this ecological transition, you can…

d. Designing sustainably

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” — Gandhi

As a human, you have the responsibility and control to eat, shop, or move sustainably. As a designer, you have the responsibility and control of the impact of your design process.

Wherever you work, as a designer, you can start observing, changing, and sharing how a Climate Designer thinks, uses software, chooses materials, and much more.

Bonus: Continuing your Climate Design journey

And this is why we started the Climate Designers.

For Climate Designers like you, to share what to observe and change about the design practice in the climate era.

And I hope this blog makes you feel welcome.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” — Jodi Foster, actress and environmental activist

This is an edited transcript of Episode 018 of Design, In Confidence, mindfulness & design podcast with Stefano Bellucci Sessa’s learnings on creative confidence, emotional intelligence, and mental health.

In the first episode of the podcast, I shared how my imposter syndrome tried to stop me from starting it.

In confidence, that didn’t really get easier with time.

I still struggle a lot to be aware and in control.

A voice inside my head tells me that I should quit:

• making podcasts,
• being an innovation consultant,
• being a designer,
• trying to be more mindful.

That voice (in my head) sounds like Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame

A festival? Nonosense.
You belong to the darkness: you aren’t able to leave it and help others

Like Quasimodo, I want to be part of the “Festival of innovation and creativity”, but Frollo tells me that I won’t be accepted and should stay hidden.

Frollo is still there: but in the years I’ve learned how to deal with him.

Keep reading if you ever feel like an imposter, because you try to change, but you keep failing, quitting, and not getting any result.

Mentoring for others, and myself

I gathered the confidence to start the podcast after mentoring on ADPList.
People’s flattering feedback helped me realise how I could help strangers become more confident.

Weirdly, I struggle to equally help the person I know the most: myself.

I help others value their own potential.
But I make myself focus only on what I’m lacking.

I help others with constructive feedback.
But I only criticise myself.

I help others by talking nicely to them.
But I’m always really mean with myself.

My therapist and my lovely partner helped me recognise this contradiction.
And during their constructive and supportive feedback, I can hear Frollo:

See? You are a hypocrite!

That voice. The sentence. It’s not a joke.
It really happens.

By being aware of it, I could identify the vicious loop inside my head.

Only while preparing for this episode, I realise how powerful it is:
the words I shared so far come from the Frollo inside my head.

It’s not true
that I make myself focus only on what I’m lacking.
I’m getting better at also valuing my own potential.

It’s not true
that I only criticise myself.
I also give myself constructive feedback.

It’s not true
that I’m always mean with myself.
I also started talking nicely to myself,

And I thank all the “Esmeralda” that have been compassionate with me: my therapist, partner, colleagues and those of you that encourage me with your feedback. Thank you.

This helps me practise mindfulness and design, instead of trying to achieve the unrealistic result of being a perfect mindful designer.

Let’s look a that in detail.

Mindfulness and design are not solutions, but the process we practice to live a better life.

Being mindful and being a designer aren’t end goals.
Actually, the more we get better at them, the more we are aware of how much we could do.

One of my favourite quotes is by Neil deGrasse Tyson

As the area of our knowledge grows,
so too does the perimeter of our ignorance.

Everything is designed, but not everything is designed mindfully.
We make conscious or unconscious design decisions about how to think, feel and behave.

Since I started practising mindfulness, I become aware of:

• how much I’m not aware
• how much I’m aware of but not in control of
• how often I’m not in control of what I’m usually in control of

In the same way, the more I grow as a designer, the more I learn:

• how many unaddressed problems and opportunities I have
• how many new solutions I could explore
• how many old solutions aren’t good enough

Mindfulness and design cause this overwhelming awareness of how much we haven’t accomplished and how many times we fail.
Fortunately, mindfulness and design also help us deal with that.

Let’s look in detail at how they help us by:

1. Focus on process
2. Forgive
3. Prioritise
4. Restart

1. FOCUSING ON PROCESS

We progress every time we practice the process.

Remember

As the area of our knowledge grows,
so too does the perimeter of our ignorance.

– Neil deGrasse Tyson

The focus is on the process (learning how to think), not the result.

The more we practice, the more aware we are of failures and problems.
Just like an organisation adopting better design methodologies finds out how many problems and opportunities could be addressed, so it will happen to someone starting a mindfulness practice.

But those problems and opportunities are not new: there were there before, but there wasn’t awareness around them.

It’s normal to feel you are getting worse because you identify more results to be achieved. But actually, if you focus on the process, you realise that you are getting better at it.

Becoming aware shows progress in being able to practice the process.

But you might say:
”Well, but what about a problem I solved in the past, that showed up again?”

Let’s look a that!

2. PRACTICE FORGIVENESS

Not every failure is a regress, but a chance to progress.

As the area of our knowledge grows,
so too does the perimeter of our ignorance.

– Neil deGrasse Tyson

A problem has many similar instances: but it might show up in the future in unique ways.

Imagine being on a diet.
You handle it very well in your daily life, but there might be occasions (like parties or travelling) when you will have to:

• learn how to prepare ahead or improvise OR
• accept that there are way too many things out of your control and you need to give yourself a break in order to not starve

Failing doesn’t mean that we are a failure.

Failing means that we’ve encountered a challenge too challenging for our current level.

To get to that level in the future, we need to accept, own it, learn, and most of all, forgive ourselves.

Forgiving ourselves is a way to practice self-love; we might need time, support, and patience.

Forgiveness itself needs to be practised and built in iterations.
If we don’t think in black and white, we can identify when to practice forgiveness at different levels. For example:

• Forgiving ourselves from missing on day/week/month at gym
• Forgiving ourselves (or others) for not contributing to a project as hoped
• Forgiving ourselves for hurting someone else.
• Forgiving others for hurting us, or someone we love
• Forgiving others when they ask for forgiveness, or they don’t

Some situations are easier to forgive than others.
But they are all opportunities to practice forgiveness: even if don’t forgive.

If we want to learn how to forgive, we need to forgive ourselves also when forgiveness is too challenging for us. And try again in future.

If we can’t forgive ourselves, how can really forgive anybody else?

Or, as RuPaul says:

“If you can’t love yourself,
how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?”

3. PRIORITISE WHAT TO BE MINDFUL OF

Forgive yourself if you don’t progress on everything.

As the area of our knowledge grows,
so too does the perimeter of our ignorance.

– Neil deGrasse Tyson

It’s overwhelming – there is a lot to do.
But not everything must be done.

Imagine being on a project with a demanding client or boss).
They ask way too much to do: a lot to research, a lot of meetings, a lot, a lot. They are not reasonable and empathetic about how much you can do.
We need to manage clients’ expectations, but we also need to accept the limited control and influence we have on them.

However, there is always a bossy person we are more in control of: ourselves.

Managing the expectations we put on ourselves means prioritising and accepting what we MUST, SHOULD, COULD and WON’T be in control of.

As everything is designed, so it is how we prioritise.
We always make decisions of what we must, should, could and won’t do, but we don’t always make those prioritising decisions mindfully.

Just as we should forgive ourselves for not forgiving everything, we should accept that we won’t mindfully prioritise everything.

But we should practice asking ourselves:
Do I must/should/could/won’t mindfully design this feeling, thought, or behaviour?

It’s ok, when the answer is “Who cares!”.
It will be enough to maybe retroactively reflect on whether weren’t mindful enough as must/should/could, and learn whether we must/should/could be in the future.

But you might say:
”Stef, but you keep talking about small and specific moments: what if I try to kept failing for a really long time?”

Let’s look at that.

4. RESTART

Forgive yourselves for relapsing: it’s part of the process.

Change happens in phases.
Mindfulness, innovation and other areas call them in different (but similar) ways.

Relapse is considered part of the process.
We see ourselves as a failure after quitting, but that’s nothing so special.
It’s humanly part of the process.

We should accept it, forgive ourselves, and start again.

The stages are a cycle, because we should either pre-contemplate:

• Whether to improve the change we manage to maintain, OR
• Whether to try again after relapsing

You fail only by being unaware that you failed.

But if you are aware of it, so.. don’t worry!
You are doing great and it’s time to try again.

Choose joy and compassion over judgement

Be more like Esmeralda and less like Judge Frollo.

“You can look at the darkness — don’t stare.
It will make you what it is.

So the solution is to make magic.
Dance. Sing. Love.
Create environments where you can find joy.
Because you can create joy.

– RuPaul

Don’t identify yourself with a failure, thought, feeling or behaviour.
You are not a failure, a bad designer, or a monster.

Your imperfections or mistakes are not who you are.
Accept them as part of who you are or who you used to be.

To recap:

1. Accept that you might need to prioritise.
   Jumping like Quasimodo in the middle of a massive crowd… might be too much.
2. And if that mistake happens, it’s ok. Be compassionate with yourself: just like Esmeralda. Forgive yourself.
3. Focus on your practice and process.
4. And restart again.

Be more like Esmeralda.
But also find a few Esmeraldas in your life.

Contact me if you need any support. I’m happy to be your Esmeralda.
But keep in mind, that a therapist will be the best Esmeralda you can get: remember that if it’s ok for big organisations to hire external consultants, so it’s ok for you to talk to a therapist.

Be my Esmeralda: leave a comment, a clap, and share with others.
Use it as an opportunity to create a safe space to be each other’s Esmeraldas.

If you got this far, I’m sure you’re a great listener — which I thank you for.
And now, it’s time to listen to your thoughts.
And remember to thank yourself, for the time you spent to learn, and grow.

This is an edited transcript of Episode 017 of Design, In Confidence, mindfulness & design podcast with Stefano Bellucci Sessa’s learnings on creative confidence, emotional intelligence, and mental health.

In the past blog, I talked about design mindsets: How designers design.
Here, I’ll talk about the focus: What designers design.

Since I started mentoring, a few career changes asked for advise.
They changed careers because they wanted to:

• connect more with people
• be more creative

They discovered UX design and seemed great.
They did a course about it. Maybe got a job. And it’s all great, interesting… but they might think that:

• the course didn’t feel completely satisfying
• other people with a visual and/or coding background are way better than them
• do not identify themselves as UX designers
• not confident about changing career anymore
• their UX jobs are not as creative and connected with people as imagined

In confidence, I somehow went through all these myself.
So I’ll share my learnings on whether UX design is for you and most of all, other types of designers exist.

About UX design courses

You can easily find UX courses when looking for careers focused on problem-solving, creativity and helping people — that’s because they are trendy, catchy, and easy to explain and sell.

UX courses are a easy door to access to a world that is way bigger than them.

I’m not against UX courses.
I’ve done one, and it helped me. I’ve taught UX courses fo years — I know they helped my students.

I want to show you that you might have opened a door that finally showed you the light, but there is a lot that you might not be aware of (yet) about the design industry.

UX courses can’t tell you the ‘truth’ about the UX industry: there is more than one.

In many countries, not everyone working in UX studied UX.
Most people migrated (just like you) into UX from other industries, mainly:

• visual design (like I did)
• IT
• research studies

These first generations of UX designers now teach and lead teams.
Intentionally or not, they set a “standard” of what UX designers are and do.

The standard of what a UX designer is and does is not as standardised as you imagine. And it’s often outdated or misunderstood.

This brings to 3 main fake UX requirements, empathised by a lot of badly written job specs:

First: UX designers “must” make things pretty

Wrong: visual skills aren’t a must, but a should (sometimes a nice-to-have).

UX designers must understand basic concepts of visual design (like contrast or proximity) to design usable and accessible interactions, and better collaborate with UI/visual designers (who must make things pretty).

In many organisations, UX/UI designers do exist, but they are:

• hybrid roles (a compromise on not being able to afford 2 different designers)
• generalist roles (so less specialised with 2 different designers)
• mistakenly the most common stereotype of UX designer: simply because their portfolios are prettier, more likely to be shared online.

Keep that in mind when you compare yourself to them.
But also be mindful what you see on their case studies (and Dribble) might not be:

• desirable because their research skills aren’t as good as their visual ones
• feasible becausing they don’t understand coding

However….

Second: UX designers “must” code

Wrong: Coding skills aren’t a must, but a nice-to-have (sometimes a must).

UX designers must understand basic concept of development (like back-end vs front-end) to design feasible interaction, make the best out of technology, and better collaborate with developers (who must code).

Even developers don’t know how to code in any language.
So why should a UX designer?
But also, why shouldn’t YOU be specialised in a UX skill?

Third: UX designers “must” both understand and solve problems

Wrong: you can be a great UX designer if you specialise on one, and deprioritise the other one to a should or a nice to have.

It doesn’t make you worse than others, but differently better.

A UX course teaches you high-level skills to become what some call “Product Designers” or “UX Designers”. If you aren’t equally interested in all those skills, you can specialise in problem finding or problem solving.

Some organisations formalise this by dividing teams into:

• UX researchers: specialised in understanding problems & opportunities
• Interaction designers: specialised in creating and making solutions

It’s time for objections!

You might say

“Stef! But what are those names: my organisations have different ones!”

“Stef! I wish I could do research: my organisation doesn’t do it!”

“Stef, but I must do all that! My team is small!!!
Or actually, I am the only one in the team!!”

And yes, you are right.

Everything I explained is theoretical, just like your UX design course.
The reality will always be that every country, industry and organisation is not standardised.

UX teams and roles aren’t standardised because they are design solutions — just like any other solutions, they are differently implemented to meet specific needs.

Startups and small teams often have designers doing many things.
Big teams might have specialised designers.

Many companies don’t do interviews, surveys or testing.
UX only designs screens, sometimes without even making decisions of why, if, and what screens are needed.

That’s because every organisation has a different maturity.
A big part of what you’ve learned in a UX courses as a must for the design process, might be considered a “nice-to-have” in many organisations and (even if not) they might do it badly.

It’s frustrating, but it’s normal: a UX culture needs to be practised and built with time, and it will happen in competition with other requirements.

It’s frustrating, but look at the bright side: hiring a UX designer is an intentional commitment and investment to make it happen.

And gives you 3 options:

• advocate and facilitate for more (and better) UX activities
• if that’s hard, it’s ok — wait until you grow the confidence to do it
• if you want to learn quickly, leave for a place with a higher maturity

But when doing this, make sure you understand whether UX is too focused for you. Let’s look at what’s beyond the limits of UX.

Beyond the limits of UX design

Beyond digital: there are other products

UX means User Experience: how a product is experienced when used.

Not sure why, people limit UX to digital products. That’s why UX courses teach you how to become a digital product designer.

But you can apply the skills learned (research, definition, ideation, testing) also for products that are not digital: like a chair, a t-shirt, a fork, or whatever.

When you consider the needs, goals, input and feedback of those you are designing for, you are applying the human-centred-design approach.

And you might say:

“But Stef, why did you say human-centred-design?
Isn’t it user-centred-design?”

Well, no: people are human, not users.

Unless you want to design digital products for Black Mirror episodes, users do and experience other things outside of it.

And because everything is designed, what else can you apply a human-centred-approach to?

Beyond products: there are other experiences

People also discover, approach, buy, store, repair, and disposed a product when they do not use it.

There are people specialised in designing these.
For example, marketing teams design how to discovery, approach, and buy. Unfortunately, how to repair (which includes customer support) and dispose are often badly designed (intentionally or not) and there is a lack of circular economy.

To intentionally design beyond use, a holistic and systemic approach is needed, moving the focus from “user experience” to “customer experience”.

In some industries and countries, that’s formalised with the role of Service Designers. They design customer experience across digital interaction, physical artefacts, places and employees.

And remember: employees and other stakeholders experience the service too.

Beyond customers: there are other people

Employees need a good business experience to provide a good customer experience – it seems obvious, but it’s not. So design it better.

In my service design experience, I’ve seen (for example) customer support struggling to help customers because:

• of the bad usability of their software
• they can’t access information needed
• they might have inefficient collaboration processes
• they do have not enough budget for a good salary (to be motivated) or extra team members (to share the workload with)
• they have no training to identify customers' problems and solve them (yes, they are designers too)
• the company might not have enough solutions to satisfy the demand

This list can go deeper and deeper into what creates a dysfunctional organisation and/or bad business development.

Some countries and organisations make sure a human-centred design approach is applied to these with roles like service designers and/or organisational designers and/or business designers.

Lately (even more with the climate emergency), we start to see also place designers, policy designers or community designers, moving the focus from a human-centred-design approach to a society-centred-approach or planet-centred approach.

And you might say:

“Stef, but isn’t that the job of HR, logistics, finance, politicians, etc?”

Yes!
And that’s why you might have been limiting yourself.

Have you limited your Human-centred design potential?

Look at your career choices as a design process.
Think about all the phases of the Double Diamond.

You ‘discovered’ the unsatisfied needs of your career.
You ‘defined’ the opportunity of a career change (for example, a career focused on people and problem-solving).

The first diamond brought you to ask yourself: “how might I change my career?”

Since you are reading this, you also moved into the ideation of the second diamond.

You ‘designed’ a solution: a UX career.
Maybe you even ‘developed’ the solution: a course and/or a job in UX.

What went wrong?

If this podcast has been of any use to you, your thinking during the process wasn’t too divergent: you consider only a few options.

Maybe you didn’t diverge intentionally, because it was good enough to move forward. Maybe you didn’t diverge unintentionally.

In both cases, you haven’t done anything wrong. Don’t judge yourself.
If (as said before) it’s ok for big organisations to grow across UX maturity levels, so it is for you.

But be mindful if and when your “I want to be a UX designer” decision isn’t enough anymore, and it’s time to iterate that solution.

I hope I gave you the confidence and clarity to ask yourself:

• Do I really want to be a UX designer?
• Do I want to specialise?
  If yes, in understanding problems or making solutions?
• Is UX too specific and detailed for me?
  Do I prefer a role more holistic and systemic?
• But most of all…. Do I really want the title of ‘designer’?
  Should I keep my job, but with a human-centred-design approach?

You can change your career even without changing your job or industry.

Everyone is a designer.
Even if you are not a “designer”, you already make design decisions. Just as digital products were already (badly) designed before UX was a job title.

Do a UX course and pursue a UX career, if you want to design digital products. Or if you want to learn human-centred-design approach.

But be mindful that UX is not the only space to do it – there are other courses and other careers, including the one you already have (or used to have).

There is probably more need of people with a human-centred-design approach in other industries than in the UX industry.

Up to you whether become another UX designer, service designer, business designer or a better…whatever other things you can do. And both options might be a transitional phase to the other one, whether you need to

• work amongst other designers to design your confidence to apply human-centre-design in your industry
• or start to apply human-centred-design in your industry to move into a career as a designer

Whatever you want to do, I’m here to help if needed.

I’m planning to create online courses and the second season of Design, in Confidence: completely focused on how to be mindfully aware and in control during the design process.

If you need advice or you want to be updated as soon as they are available, Contact me at hello@designinconfidence.com or Linkedin.

Subscribe to Design, in Confidence wherever you listen to your podcast.
Or follow me for future transcripts.

Please review, and share it with others.
Tell people why you found this valuable, and that you are a safe space to find support in building their creative confidence.
If you got this far, I’m sure you’re a great listener — which I thank you for.

And now, it’s time to listen to your thoughts.

And remember to thank yourself, for the time you spent to learn, and grow.

Is UX design really for you? was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This is an edited transcript of Episode 016 of Design, In Confidence, mindfulness & design podcast with Stefano Bellucci Sessa’s learnings on creative confidence, emotional intelligence, and mental health.

Everyone is a designer. Even without ‘design’ in the job title.
But it’s not what we design that really makes us different or similar.

How we design is what matters most.
Defining my design mindset helped me:

• better compare myself with other designers
• understand what different values I can bring and need from others
• understand what kind of biases I might have during the process

It helps me manage my mental health as a creative, so I want to share my learnings with you.

A few notes, before the design mindsets

As said, it’s not about what we design and it’s not about the why.
The design’s purpose would bring the conversations around ethics, importance and usefulness, which is not my point here.

There is not a good or bad design mindset.
It’s actually the opposite. It’s about how you’re different — not better or worse. You might be “worse” than others only in specific scenarios where that mindset isn’t enough. And you might actually be flexible enough to change your mindset.

Mindsets are not in black&white, but a spectrum.
I’ll share them as opposites, but you might be one of them in different moments, as well as somewhere in the middle.

The types of design mindsets

The problem finder–problem solver spectrum

This shows how they aren’t binary, but a spectrum.
Quite often we need to both understand a problem and solve it, but not everyone is equally good across the spectrum.

In some projects, I was (in different moments) finding problems and creating solutions. On others, I was working with amazing researchers, which made me aware of how ‘limited’ I am in being a full problem-finder.

I learn how to find problems, but I’m aware I’m in the middle of the spectrum: the “opportunity definer”.
This gives me the awareness of some biases, limits, and potential – I “jump to conclusions” earlier than problem-finders. It’s something that I try to control when researching alone, or use to help researchers stuck “admiring the problem”.

The system–detailed spectrum

This often defines what a designer designs.
Some problems need a holistic approach (e.g. a process or the strategy of a bank) others deep dive into specific interactions or components (e.g. how to help a customer asking for help).

We often need both mindsets.
System needs of system thinking. Details need focusing.

For example, using system thinking to understand the circular economy in a neighbourhood, but lacking attention to detail (e.g. packaging used in the local restaurant) might bring problems.

To manage my mental health, I had to make a further distinction in the system-details spectrum: defining and accepting what I can’t control.
Otherwise, I get stressed and overwhelmed trying to impact both systemically and at a detail level.

Think of details while making an impact systemically, or think systemically while making detailed impact.

Or any other compromise in the middle–otherwise you will comprimise your mental health.

It’s ok to not control everything.
It’s ok to “content ourselves” with delegating, influencing and collaborating. Or by letting things go: not everything needs to be in scope.

Since I introduced think and make, let’s look at them.

The thinke–maker spectrum.

Years ago, IDEO introduced Design Thinking making people realise that “designers think”: the making is just a part of the process.

When I made a distinction between creativity, design and innovation, I explained how design decisions help innovate successfully by meeting defined criteria of why, what then, how to change.

There is a design mindset to think what success criteria are; one to make something to meet those criteria.

I also call this the “strategy-delivery spectrum”, making me aware of:

• whether I will impact in the long or short term
• whether I work on something tangible and complete or something abstract and unfinished

Changing job and projects moved me across this spectrum, forcing me to reframe my expectations on what gives me a sense of accomplishment and when it’s ok to let go of perfectionism.
A brand needs to be finished, a product might be partially delivered, a strategy can be rough, a student might have made just a little progress.

Be aware of where you are on the thinker-maker and system-detail spectrums because career progression will push you towards thinker and system.

This awareness helps control expectations on what gives a sense of accomplishment and need for control. Without, we don’t let go of the desire of making a detailed impact leading to micromanaging others or not delegating tasks – a source of stress for us and/or others.

Remember that not every project should satisfy fully your sense of impact.
A project or job is just a part of where you are.
I like to be a thinker, but I illustrate more when missing the making on projects too abstract or strategic.

The connector-hero stream

Realising that I’m in the middle of this stream was a key point of my career.
I’m no hero, but a facilitator.

I design solutions, workshops and educational material so others can be heroes. Other facilitators might do it, for example, by investing resources and providing information.

Accepting I’m not a hero was extremely beneficial to my mental health.
I’ve always felt that society’s toxic masculinity and design education expected me to become a Donald Draper, Philippe Stark…or Tony Stark.
I don’t care about being a hero: I care about others doing something amazing and knowing that I’ve somehow helped them.

Some designers managed to go even beyond that: the connectors.
They designed contacts, partnerships, relationships, so multiple heroes and/or facilitators can come together. These designers manage communities, organize organizations, procure resources and similar.

Connecting is a design mindset too.

We all are designers.

We design with different mindsets: the how.
We design with different focuses: the what.
We design with different purposes: the why.

You are a designer if you understand and evaluate how to do things successfully, making choices of why, what, and how to meet defined criteria.

And it’s not easy. That’s why I consult to facilitate the design process and share this podcast. Hoping it helps you design your confidence.

And let me if it does help you.
Let me know if identifying your design mindset helps you design your confidence.

Subscribe to Design, in Confidence wherever you listen to your podcast.
Or follow me for future transcripts.

Please review, and share it with others.
Tell people why you found this valuable, and that you are a safe space to find support in building their creative confidence.
If you got this far, I’m sure you’re a great listener — which I thank you for.

And now, it’s time to listen to your thoughts.

And remember to thank yourself, for the time you spent to learn, and grow.

This is an edited transcript of Episode 015 of Design, In Confidence, mindfulness & design podcast with Stefano Bellucci Sessa’s learnings on creative confidence, emotional intelligence, and mental health.

If you think something should happen, but nobody is making it happen, try to make it happen

It’s what people call “initiative” – expected in workplaces, needed for promotions, and key to being creative.
But nobody explains it, so I will share what I’ve learnt about it.

When is your time to shine on a project?

I used to play Dungeons & Dragons.
When a monster comes out, all the players roll the dice for the initiative. It determines how quickly everyone realises there’s a danger and decides to act.

In meetings, it’s less deadly, but worse.
Sometimes the same people keep saying the same things, others are silent. Like it’s never their turn.

I used to be in the latter group.
And when a meeting was stuck with people repeating the same things, I had an idea that would have helped the conversation to progress, but could hear a voice in my head:

Well, probably everyone else had that idea too.
But they are not even sharing it, for how obvious your idea is.
Don’t share it, otherwise you will slow down the meeting even more.

Sometimes, the meeting got unstuck.
Someone said something then considered clever by everyone.

But I found it obvious – they said what I would have said.

Has this ever happened to you?
With something to say in a meeting, or do on a project.
Or even an idea of a business or art piece.

If so, let’s find out how to practice initiative to design your confidence.

Practising initiative

It’s not easy. I started by being mindfully aware of “obvious things people say”. Then I forced myself to acknowledge how many of my “obvious contributions” received unexpectedly great feedback and impact.

It’s important to define what “obvious” means in this process.
It doesn’t show how better I am than others, or how worse they are.

We are different, with different points of view that makes us see things in different ways. This makes different things obviously evident to some, but not others.

Your “unique added value” (“your thing” as Lucy Whittington calls it) is either:

• Something so obvious to you, that you don’t realise about it
• Something that gets you frustrated, because nobody else does it.

Think about the times when on projects:

1. nobody does something
2. nobody asks you to do it
3. you get frustrated because it doesn’t happen
   (or because they ask someone else to do it)

That was your thing, but they didn’t know it.

Without the initiative, no matter how much your knowledge, expertise, and ideas make you unexpectedly unique, others will always asks you to say or do what you are expected to say or do. Initiative makes you go beyond the limits of what’s expected from you.

In the past, I shared the difference between your limits and those put by your culture. Here, I focus on your own limits: because initiative requires you to dare do something new, and maybe scary.

“Dare to give” what makes you care and contribute in a unique way

Gather the confidence needed to “dare” to contribute.

Taking initiative is your opportunity to “dare” to “give” your unique and real potential to others.

Imagine you are on a bus and a pregnant woman (or old person) gets in: it’s not who cares the most who will give their seat, but who cares enough and takes the initiative to stand up.

It’s the same on a project.
No matter how much you care about it, you will fully contribute when you dare — taking the initiative to confidently contribute with what else you can give.

Being humbly confident of what makes you unique

It’s ok to be overconfident, it’s not ok to be proud.
Be humble and open to failing because initiative might bring you to:

• do or say something right, that everyone loves – hurray!
• do or say something wrong – And that’s ok, but find out why it’s like that and show yourself ready to mitigate risks and consequences (if there are)
• do or say something right, but in the “wrong” way – sometimes your contribution will be “too new and unexpected” because of the existing something that limits the trust others give you (e.g. you have a “lower status”) or the information required to understand what you said (e.g. you suggested a new technology they don’t know about it). Whether it’s fair or not, take mindful control of that by adding additional or better information or the support or endorsement of others.
  Be patient.

Understand on what tasks or inputs of a project or meeting you should focus your initiative

Don’t say or do whatever you think you should say or do every time.
I’m not suggesting that.

For example, sometimes meetings get stuck because “there are too many cooks”. In that case, being another talking head might help less than taking the initiative of facilitating the conversation.
For example, you could:

• timebox the conversations to make sure a few people don’t have endless opportunities to input
• make what people say visible to everyone by writing it down so it’s clear there is no need to repeat it (something obvious, often forgotten)

On a project, you can take the initiative to own smaller OR less urgent but important tasks before they get too big OR urgent.

The upside-down of taking initiative

I hope it’s clear from my episodes that I inspire and be inclusive of those less confident. I practice being part of the solution.

However, I’m aware that my taking initiative (even more being a white man) becomes a problem to some.
I occupy a turn, sometimes being one of the first to talk or act and sometimes making people feel they shouldn’t even roll the dice.

At the moment, I’m (sometimes) aware of this, but not (not always) sure how to be in control of it.
I’m trying to learn how – and hopefully I will share about it in the future.

If you have something to share already, please let me know how you mindfully and confidently contribute without undermining other people’s confidence.

Or how you take initiative to contribute in your unique way.
Or, if this has been useful.
Please, share, comment, clap.

Subscribe to Design, in Confidence wherever you listen to your podcast.
Or follow me for future transcripts.

Please review, and share it with others.
Tell people why you found this valuable, and that you are a safe space to find support in building their creative confidence.
If you got this far, I’m sure you’re a great listener — which I thank you for.

And now, it’s time to listen to your thoughts.

And remember to thank yourself, for the time you spent to learn, and grow.

This is an edited transcript of Episode 013 of Design, In Confidence, mindfulness & design podcast with Stefano Bellucci Sessa’s learnings on creative confidence, emotional intelligence, and mental health.

As a freelance designer and innovation consultant, in confidence, I’ve found my clients frustrating at times:

• it’s not clear what they need
• they have unrealistic expectations
• they give feedback without valuing the work done.

When this happens, I can hear a voice in my head like Palpatine (Darth Sidious) from Star Wars.

Gooooood…. I can feel your…. hunger.
The client…. must be blamed

But later in my career, I understood I was the problem.
Yes, there were some “bad clients”. But I was also a “bad designer”.
Or better, most times we were all just doing our best.

Keep listening to understand how mindfulness and design help me build better relationships with clients and manage my mental health.

Client management is not easy.

We should accept this. After, we realise that we’ve been blaming clients and, most of all, lacking empathy towards them: seeing them as bad clients instead of someone with needs.

Clients usually have:

• limited time
• different expertise
• big opinion about the design

Which is… fair enough. They have a bigger stake in the success of the project. This should be obvious, but from what I see on many memes and discussions on online design communities, it isn't.

If you are a designer picturing the client as “someone evil” ready to destroy “your” design, you are wrong.

It’s not “your” design – it’s “theirs”.
If you don’t like this, you should be an artist, not a designer.

As a designer, you might be an expert on fonts, interactions, innovation, colours.
But the client is the main stakeholder and a better expert of the business, its past, and its future. However, they lack the time, expertise and mindset to make the best out of it.

That’s why they need you.
Be a proud and confident designer, but also humble.

Your expertise don’t make you better than the client, but different. And because you provide a service to them, you should bridge the time/expertise/mindset gap they have.

You should give them the tools and the knowledge to understand and be critical of what you’re doing in a constructive way.
Let’s look at this more in detail.

Including clients in the design process

Explain the why and the how of the design decisions to help them understand, contribute and see the value in the design.

Help them see why you expect a good impact.
But don’t expect them to have your criteria unless you agreed on them at the beginning of the project.

If they disagree with you:

• humble up: you might be wrong and you have to review your decisions
• be patient: you might be right, but they might need more time and information to understand it

No matter who is right, you need to accept that it will always be the client’s decision — it’s their business or project, not yours.

If great leaders, your clients might fullying delegate decisions to you – which is great… but:

how are you really so confident about your client’s business to make important decisions without including them at all?

To me, you’d sound like a doctor giving me a diet without knowing what food I like, how much I exercise, not knowing what food is affordable to me.

If you have that confidence, let me know how you do it.
If you don’t, let’s see how to include your client.

Explain to the client how you make trustworthy design decisions

Design is about making choices and compromises. Don’t show only the options that you’re going for, but also the options that you are excluding and make sure they understand what compromises you are making.

Keep them in the loop

Understand how often it should happen, because every project and client is different. Sometimes taking big leaps forward on your own it’s ok; other times the client should be part of every step.

Facilitate how the client can provide their input

Remember that the client has limited time, so help them focus and use their time, by clarifying:

• why you are asking their time
  To make them aware of your decisions? include them in your decisions? make decisions?
• what input is required
  A choice between options? more options? feedback? more knowledge?
• how they should share their input
  Immediately or later? Formally or informally? Randomly or mindfully?
• what are the consequences of their input

Your job will always be helping your client make informed decisions — also those delegated to you, which you “inform” by nurturing trust.

Check if there is a Palpatine in your head if you think the client is the only one contributing to the problem. And humble up and start collaborating.

And what if you tried all this, and the client is the problem?

When the client is the problem

Problematic clients means even more facilitating their input, keeping them in the loop and working on communication.

This is ok, but make sure you “charge” the time and effort required.
Whether you are upskilling the client or dealing with their rudeness, be mindful of the impact on your time and your wellbeing.

Client management is a service you are providing — like products provide customer support.

You should expect a “Return of Investment” on client management by making sure it’s sustainable on your finance and wellbeing or, otherwise, quit the client.

When stress and overwhelm happen, I try to hear a Yoda in my head, that reminds me:

‘When you look at the dark side, careful you must be …
for the dark side looks back.’

Protecting your mental health from clients

Client management at times isn’t easy on me.
The last thought before falling asleep. The first waking up.
It’s stress generating.

Practising mindfulness is helping me.

As the Buddha says, when we get hit by an arrow, we get hit by a second one after giving us even more pain.

“In life, we can’t always control the first arrow. However, the second arrow is our reaction to the first. The second arrow is optional.”

You cannot fully manage difficult clients.
But you can manage how that impacts on your mental health.

It’s not about stop caring about a project, but being mindfully aware of what it’s under our control or influence, and not.

I can try to improve ways of working, upskill clients, gain their trust.
But I need to accept it takes time, and I might fail.
I might not have enough time, expertise and (honestly) interest.

Accept what you don’t have control of, and focus on the positive impact of a project.

What you have most control of is not the success of a project, but your ability to take away something from it.

Sometimes I need to fight with my pride because a project won’t become a beautiful case study. But, as mentioned in the portfolio episode, what matters are the takeaways – they make me a better designer, better at supporting my next client and managing my mental health.

It’s not easy, but I do it by practising patience and compassion.
Like Yoda reminds me:

Patience you must have, my young padawan

But I’m sure your tips and thoughts would help me too.
So let me know how you mindfully support your client, but most of all, manage yourself – which is where you have the most control of.

Subscribe to Design, in Confidence wherever you listen to your podcast.
Or follow me for future transcripts.

Please review, and share it with others.
Tell people why you found this valuable, and that you are a safe space to find support in building their creative confidence.

If you got this far, I’m sure you’re a great listener — which I thank you for.
And now, it’s time to listen to your thoughts.
And remember to thank yourself, for the time you spent to learn, and grow.

This is an edited transcript of Episode 013 of Design, In Confidence, mindfulness & design podcast with Stefano Bellucci Sessa’s learnings on creative confidence, emotional intelligence, and mental health.

It’s ok to not change and innovate

I’ve been working in innovation all my life: I like to change and help others change. But I understand that it’s not fun for everyone:

• it’s not easy
• it’s overwhelming
• it comes with a lot of risks and effort

And that’s why I’m making this podcast (and blogs).

But what if you don’t want to change?
I think it’s ok to not be willing to change.
I won’t be patronising and convincing otherwise.
But keep reading to learn why it’s anyway important to nurture your creative confidence and be mindfully aware and in control of the design choice of not innovating. Because not innovating, it’s a design choice.

Not innovating is a design choice

Before I start, I remind you what I mean with:

• Innovation: the act of changing a defined environment.
• Creativity: the confidence of changing things by questioning them and exploring new opportunities.
• Design: ability to change successfully with purpose, intention, mindfully, and while mitigating risks.

What triggers innovation?

People want to change because of internal factors (like curiosity, enjoyment, competition, purpose), or they have to change because of external factors.

Examples of external factors are:

• a new law in your industry.
• people (customers, employees, partners) leaving
• new conditions, like a new technology or a pandemic.

There are good reasons to not innovate, but…

Despite triggers, you might not be interested in changing because you have:

• No interest in new technology or processes
• No problems
• No competition
• No time or money for it

Let’s look at these in detail.

No interest in the new

In confidence, I don’t care about new technologies.
Many of my peers catch up on the latest tech, while I’m not an early adopter.
I don’t buy want I don’t need because I like to be minimalist and sustainable, but I honestly don’t have enough time to catch up with ‘the new’ – it’s a distraction from my business as usual.

But I tried Snapchat once.
It felt challenging, and I felt old – is that what younger people use?
Missing out on the latest products is not a problem for my personal life, but impacts me as a designer – I’m not aware of how customers expectations change.
I can decide to avoid younger people as customers, but sooner or later, they’ll become older or more products will align with those expectations.

Be mindfully aware of which “doors” you’ve never opened. Be mindfully in control by always re-evaluating the design decision of not opening them.

Nothing working badly

What if you are strong, with everything working fine, lots of customers and the best resources?
Fair enough, if you don’t want to change.

Change comes with a lot of effort and risks, even more, if you have a big legacy of data, skillset and many other things.

However, no matter the good reasons you have to not change the present, you should have the creative confidence to look into the future.

You need to understand:

• if other resources will get better
• if yours will get weaker
• how much time will be required to switch

Internet speed was still crap when Blockbuster didn’t feel threatened by Netflix. Once internet speed improved enough, customers switched to Netflix, and it was too hard for Blockbusters to switch to a different business model.

No competition, time or money

Why change if your business or your job is not a risk?
Often organisations lack the internal trigger to try new technologies or processes – even more if they don’t have the money or time for it. But:

• What if you lack money and time for innovation because you waste money and time?
• What if, even if your job isn’t a risk, your health and wellbeing are?

Your organisation might not be designed for efficiency of time and resources. Even more if in the past, ignoring that things were changing while changing you – making you poorer, busiers and more stressed.

I worked in the public sector, where most innovation projects weren’t about drones, blockchain or artificial intelligence.
Most public sectors projects had two types of situations:

• too many people access the service, because processes and resources never changed, but the number or type of people needing support change becoming harder to manage
• people mistakenly ask for support, because they are unaware of the available support or look for solutions at the wrong service.

And the second situation worsens the first one because people’s problems become harder to solve, and service staff is also distracted by people that don’t really need their support.

So, what to do?

It’s ok to not anticipate or be the change like others do, but practice design and creativity to understand:

• when and how to react to the change
• when and how to adapt and survive

So that you mindfully design how to change instead of being changed without awareness and control.

How to practice creativity and design without changing?

First of all, accept that change happens; denial won’t help – the pandemic showed us. And it also showed us that some businesses didn’t only survive but also used it as an opportunity. I can see three groups:

• the lucky ones – those required little change or not at all to thrive during the pandemic
• the resilient one – those adapting quickly by redesigning the service
• the prepared ones – those that considered a scenario like the pandemic and had something planned

So, you cannot intentionally be lucky, but how to be resilient and prepared? Practice “What if scenarios” occasionally by asking yourself questions like:

• What if I lose my main client?
• What if my staff suddenly needs to remote work?
• What if lose one of my key resources?

Pick the business model, canvas, and play with it.
Develop the expertise and mindset to resign your business in different ways while preparing plans in case those things really happen.

You might want to start to:

• create a specific team always dedicated to research and innovation
• create a dedicate a specific time (1 hour, day, or week) when periodically people across the organisation, think outside the box

It’s ok if innovation doesn’t happen afterwards, but be clear with these people what the purpose is and why ideas don’t really go anywhere.

Or let me know how to practice creativity and design, even without innovating.

Subscribe to Design, in Confidence wherever you listen to your podcast.
Or follow me for future transcripts.

Please review, and share it with others.
Tell people why you found this valuable, and that you are a safe space to find support in building their creative confidence.

If you got this far, I’m sure you’re a great listener — which I thank you for.
And now, it’s time to listen to your thoughts.
And remember to thank yourself, for the time you spent to learn, and grow.

This is an edited transcript of Episode 012 of Design, In Confidence, mindfulness & design podcast with Stefano Bellucci Sessa’s learnings on creative confidence, emotional intelligence, and mental health.

Pro and cons of long breaks

It’s obvious to say that work breaks are great. Whether you like your projects and your work or not, you can finally:

• spend time with others, your family, your friends,
• unwind
• detach yourself from your project and clear your head

But coming back home for me wasn’t always easy.
I could hear a voice in my head like Jack Skellingtonon from Nightmare Before Christmas that goes

🎶

What’s this? What's this?
There’re post-its everywhere?
What’s this? What’s this?
Where do I start? Where?!

🎶

So, yeah, I kind of forget what I was working on and what other people were doing. And it was hard to follow up.

Also, the project sometimes stopped suddenly because we’re in the middle of something important. Taking a break made us lose the momentum of the activities we were doing.

Stick around, if you want to find out t how mindfulness and design help me be aware and in control of long breaks from the creative process.

Plan a handoff to yourself

It might sound obvious, but many forget.

I tried it the first time a few years ago. When we came back from holiday, everybody forgot everything we were doing, myself included. I could look back to this list that helped me bring me and others quickly back on track.

So, before your break, take some time to write down:

• The focus of what you were doing.
• The progress made
• Compromises made and barriers overcome
• New assumptions and risks

So, when you come back, you can remember what you need to prioritize and start from — it will be less overwhelming.

Find your own way to make that list– as long it helps you quickly be back in the mindset before your holiday.

Taking time off, while others keep working

In this case, it’s slightly different. Supporting each other to make sure everyone can be onboarded again is at the base of good teamwork.

In the past Christmas, I was in a great team that went on holiday in different moments. We made sure others knew what we left hanging before going off, and others prepared an onboarding when the other was back.

Make the best out of being out of the loop

Instead of seeing this as a problem see this as an opportunity.

During a project, you are deep into it, probably slightly confused by the too many things that need to be done and too many inputs received.
Being detached thanks to the holiday allows you to look at what you were doing with a critical eye.

If you work with others, they will make progress.
In that case, your critical eye will be really useful to understand whether they correctly made progress or not. You are at the same time:

• familiar with the project enough to understand everything
• detached from the project enough to be neutral

They will have to explain to you progresses, changes of focus, data collected. You will be able to tell them whether they have done it correctly or not.

Planning design process before and after the time off

Avoid going on holiday with an activity that isn’t completely finished–like the planning of something or a group of interviews.

Be mindfully aware and in control of how the time off will interrupt your process so that you can use it to your advantage. The design process requires wearing different hats — so make sure your break matches with a change of mindset.

For example, finish the round of user interviews before your holidays, detach, and then analysis them after the break.
Keep in mind that dealing with lots of information after the holiday removes biases, but it’s overwhelming. In that case, you might prefer to analyse the data before, and synthase it after — making sure that the analysis made sense.

The same with planning ideation before the holidays, and prioritisation after. Of course, as I said before, make a good “handoff” by writing down the ideas in a self-explanatory way. Otherwise, once back, you won’t remember what the ideas are. A post-it with a word is not an idea anymore once forgotten.

Capitalise on the time off

The last suggestion is to plan an activity that runs on its own during the holidays. For example a survey or an online experiment. They will capture information while off, that you’ll have ready to use once back.

In conclusion

Enjoy your time off. Plan activities before and after. Make the best out of being out of the loop.

And let me know how it goes. Let me know how you design your confidence when coming back to work after a long break.

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