Being Designerly: Experiment & Iterate

In this series about Being Designerly, we explore ways to be more creative by thinking, feeling, and acting like a designer. In previous articles, we discussed designerly behaviors and skills such as Putting People First, Being Curious, Being Observant, Thinking Critically, Having Empathy, Advocating for Users, Working Transparently, Communicating Visually, and Collaborating & Co-Creating. This one is about Experimentation.

Experiment & Iterate: test, learn, and improve.

Good designers do not begin with a predefined final design, but use a design process that diverges and converges until they have a final design. They try different approaches and methodically narrow down and keep refining based on feedback. 

Companies like Amazon and Facebook do this at scale. In an interview, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that there are thousands of versions of Facebook running at any point in time. Any engineer can test something by releasing it to a small portion of users (in the tens of thousands) to get real world feedback. If it succeeds, it is refined and released to everyone. And that has helped Facebook continuously innovate and improve.

This habit of experimenting early and often and improving until it is perfect is a more successful approach than trying to perfect an idea before releasing it, only to find out that it fails. Everyone can use this method of experimenting and iterating to learn, improve and come up with a better result faster. Consider new year’s resolutions (especially with 2024 a few days away) with high expectations that happen once a year. How about smaller goals for a quarter, or even a month, followed by moving the goal for the next period? You will achieve more by the end of the year, compared to the annual edition.

Here are a few ways you can experiment & iterate:

Experiment sooner, not later

Get into the habit of experimenting with different options and testing to see which one will work. I’m not suggesting a shotgun approach of throwing things on the wall to see what sticks. Instead, think through possible solutions and check them for desirability, viability and feasibility. When you find one or more ideas that check those boxes, test them without waiting to perfect them. Use the feedback to refine your solution. 

“Good enough” is good enough

In extreme cases, you may need to go back to the drawing board and start over, but most of the time, it will be refining ideas. This experimenting is taking you closer to your solution seeing the light of day while improving along the way. The key thing is to not to be stuck in a cubicle or in front of your computer wondering “what if” forever, but to set “good enough” solutions free and refine them. Experimenting is getting ideas out of your head in a tangible format and into the hands of others.

Just do it

Remember how you learned to ride a bike? Not just by seeing others do it, or your parents explaining how to cycle – you had to get on the bike and just do it. It is experiential — you have to do it yourself, and then keep practicing to improve. Get over the fear and inertia by starting small and simple. Tip: there’s nothing like a deadline to get you started. 

So, start experimenting, but don’t fall in love with your first idea. Explore and compare alternatives before you focus on one direction. Experiment early to succeed sooner. Experiment and iterate!

This wraps up the designerly skills related to the hands (doing). The last post in this series is up next with the behavior of always learning. You should also sign up for curated content on the topic every other week at news.beingdesignerly.com. I hope these will help you, designer or not, be more creative and innovative by being designerly!