Simon Doggett - Beyond Lens Flare: Practical Delight for Modern Design Teams

Thanks everyone. So it's that classic thing where I wrote that back in April when I was talking to Ingrid and Michael about this talk and then I've completely changed it. So this is actually what I'm going to talk about. And I'm going to tell you a few stories about me and the last few years of my life, but also we're going to talk about movies. So I'd like to start with talking about films. So cast your minds back to last Christmas, December 17th specifically. I had two things happening that day. In the afternoon I was spending it with my design team and we were going to go for our Christmas party and drink some wine, which was nice. But in the morning I had a ticket to see a certain movie that was coming out that day. You might remember it. Is there anyone in this room that didn't see this film? Wow, that's more than I was expecting. Okay, sorry, there might be a few spoilers. But you've had plenty of time now. So I'm a really big movie fan and like many men of my age, this was not just a movie, this was a cultural event. And I'd had many exchanges with my wife about leading up to the theatrical release whether we'd be able to go and see it together. We'd just had our second baby and he was six weeks old and my oldest son is three, so way too young to see this film. It's also got a bit too much fatherly stabbing in it. So we desperately wanted to see it together. Couldn't see a way to make it work. So eventually my wife just says to me, just go the opening day, go first thing in the morning. You don't want to get spoiled. I couldn't face the thought of spending Christmas off the Internet avoiding Star Wars spoilers. So I went to a 9.30am screening on that day. It was great, it was packed. And I remember having that sort of weird out of body experience that you have where Star Wars story, and this is so exciting, and I almost can't process it while it's happening in the moment. So it's a bit like a theme park ride. I was all jazzed up on the anticipation of it and the dopamine and obviously all the caffeine that I had. So let's fast forward to late June. So about six months later, and I was having my morning coffee in the office, and I was looking at my RSS subscriptions when an article from my one single favorite film critic pops up, and this is him. He frequents a site called birthmoviesdeath.com, and he is obviously not the real Incredible Hulk, but he is the Incredible Hulk as a film critic, and he writes in all caps, and it's very, very long-winded, and it's extremely geeky, and it's excellent. So I highly recommend you check it out, and he wrote this article about Star Wars The Force Awakens, and you should all read it. It's extremely long, but it's really worth your time. So I'm going to summarize a few key points to try and bring you along with me in how I felt in that moment as I read this article, and he opens with a question. Don't worry, I'm not going to do my Hulk voice. Um, what the heck is Star Wars The Force Awakens actually? About. And I was like, oh, this is going to be good. I'm really looking forward to reading this. And after a few opening paragraphs, he starts to talk about the work of its director, J.J. Abrams, the guy who architects the experience of the movie, if you will. Hulk feels like we go through the same sequence of events, this is from the text, every time. One of his movies comes out. The movie is deemed fun, energetic, and pretty acceptable overall, but it is also common knowledge that the slow reveal of time tends to make the effect of these movies fade away. People find they do not endear themselves to repeat viewings. People find that they often fall apart upon close examination. But the truth about these films is that our enjoyment of them is fleeting. And immediately, I was a bit knocked for six by this, and I started thinking about my screening back. Christmas and how I felt about it and how much I could remember. But also all the other J.J. Abrams movies that he's directed, not produced and not his TV shows, but just the films that he's directed. So for reference, here's a list of everything he's directed. And it's actually only five films, which I was surprised by. I mean, obviously, there's all the other stuff and the exact producing and Bad Robot, his production company. But as a director, there's these five films. You know, they're all massive. Some are blockbusters. You've probably seen most of them, if not a couple of them, and they've all been hugely successful. But what you get down to, what the Hulk was trying to say is, how much do you remember them? So he has a theory. What is it about J.J.'s specific modus operandi that encourages such a response? What makes a movie have this kind of effect time and time again? It actually goes right. Right past a simple error to a core simplicity. The stories are literally designed to please in the moment and not to last. J.J. Abrams movies are desperate love seekers. They want to be loved and adored and will bend over backwards to try and get that effect. But they're never thinking of themselves or their own well-being. They're only thinking of you. They're only acting, anticipating, editing themselves to the point of incoherence. When discussing the film, J.J. Abrams admitted that there was a popular mantra they used while crafting The Force Awakens where they would stop frequently and ask themselves, is this delightful? Oh, this really got me thinking. And then he goes on to list all the ways that from a story level and character level, it's actually quite shaky. I'll let you guys read that yourself if you're interested. But I started thinking about the other four movies that he directed in those terms and in this kind of context of delightful moments and visceral scenes. And immediately there was this one single shot that's burned into my memory from 2006's Mission Impossible 3, which is Tom Cruise being thrown against this car. So I'm just going to let that loop for a while because they really, really threw him against that car. Ouch. That was the first thing that came into my mind. And going back to this list, I started thinking about the two Star Trek movies that he'd made as well. And sure enough, there's a piece from 2013 about Star Trek into darkness. And it says the following. And he's really quite spectacularly angry about this movie. Did you notice how little actually happened of lasting consequence? How little of lasting a character's emotion ever carries into the next scene. Things happen, and then they don't matter moments later. The end result is a surprisingly weightless and meaningless film, all sound and fury symbolizing nothing. By failing to engage in clarity and conventional drama, these films rarely seem to get their hooks into people long term. Wow. So what am I trying to say? I'm basically trying to say that there is this scale of delight which sits at one end, and it's got disappointment at the other. And they're actually much closer than I think that we like to admit to ourselves. The temptation to polish, polish, polish, and chase after as much of that audience dopamine as we can, like JJ purportedly does, is really, really strong. And in so doing, we're losing influence over, what we're best at as a group, which is taking a whole experience, doing the research, knowing the audience isn't us, and cranking out something that is truly end-to-end and is held together with a proper narrative. True product strategy, complete journeys, covering all the angles. So what I'm really saying is, don't be like JJ. I'm not saying that polish isn't important. Obviously, he's a really successful guy. I understand that's a bit facetious to say, but if the thing you're making isn't the right thing in the first place, then the emotional impact and the consequent delight can really quickly head into that disappointment direction. And it's tempting to be like him and focus on fluid micro-interactions and motion design and engaging copy and cartoons and lovely, big, strong imagery, but let's try and take a step back before we even think about the surface layer. It's a bit like we heard earlier about having that brand layer first. If we pull ourselves out of the box that we're being put into and be a bit more belligerent, I really think that there's an inherent lack of permanence in what we do in digital design. The stuff that we make is ephemeral enough as it is, and so we need to hold on to it for the sake of quality and I think for the sanity and satisfaction of our teams and ultimately for our users. So, I'm going to take you through a list of seven things to do that will prevent you from falling into JJ's mystery box and endlessly trying to please your audience. Thanks, JJ. Sorry. So, number one, go deep on service design. I know there's some Facebook and possibly an Instagram person here, so I'm, I'm going to be mean about them now. I'm really sorry. There's a large body of water out there you can throw me into afterwards. And I'm not talking about the logo change either, but I think it helps illustrate some of the problems that can happen at this core user experience level, even at design-focused technology companies. So, I used to work in menswear, e-commerce, a fancy site called Mr. Porter where we sold fancy things, and this enabled some of my, you know, basis shopping instincts. I learned a lot about brands, and every now and then, I'll think to myself, oh, I like that designer. I wonder what they're posting to their Instagram feed. I think it's a fairly normal thing for people to do now. And so, you know, I'll go and have a look. Maybe I'll follow them. And a few years previously, I was in Chicago with my wife, and whenever I used to travel, I would always go to the local menswear boutiques and local stores just, you know, for research purposes, trying not to buy things, but came across this fantastic menswear store, this store called Haberdash. Here it was. Sadly, it doesn't exist anymore. They had a really nice selection of leather goods from a Portland-based company called Tanner Goods who make these lovely belts and wallets and other sort of leathery bits and pieces. This is them. So, I bought a couple of belts, and then the next time I was in the States, I was in Austin, and then I bought a matching wallet, and then my wife bought me that little Journeyman guy up there, which is really nice for our wedding anniversary, the following year, and I think they make bags and stuff now, so I was thinking, well, I'll go and look on Instagram and start following them, so I did. This is their page. I had the stuff that I was expecting to see, and then some weird things start to happen. That very same day, five other companies who I've never heard of start following me, and like the most recent two pictures that I've posted on my personal account, so if we have a look in context, you'll start to see why this is a bit weird. So, we've got Barton Goods, Relic Wood Co., Wolf's Apothecary, Double Zero Wallets, Rugged Material, BB Gun Leather, Wollcraft, that's my favorite. I'm not quite sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly, and these are the last two pictures on my account. So, the first one, top left, is, is me and my friend Michelle. We just took a quick selfie after we'd run a workshop for some HR directors about talent management. And the other picture is me and my wife on the steps outside where we got married in London five years ago, which I posted on the day of my wedding anniversary. You can see I've got a bit less gray hair there. Neither of these pictures are particularly relevant to a company that makes artisanal, handcrafted leather goods. Right? So, But sure enough, the act of me following a brand that I already know and like causes this flood of activity from rival companies who make similar products. And my favorite was actually the Wollcraft guys, who arguably make some nice looking stuff, but felt the need to comment on the aforementioned picture of me and my wife with, well, dot, dot, dot, not one, but two, two okay hands. Now, I don't know if this is some naughty scripting that's happening and it's got nothing to do with Instagram. It might be the case. But then, it could actually be a commercial product that they're selling to brands as part of a kind of me being aware of them. I don't know. But it's happening more and more and it completely sucks the life out of any user delight I have from using that application. I suddenly no longer care about the UI or the speed or the filters if I'm going to be spammed by bullshit. So, I don't know whether the design team know about this sort of stuff or they just foresaw it, but it's the kind of thing that I think we all need to be thinking about. And this is an example of what's happening at scale. And if it's not your fault, you can throw me in that water after this. So, Peter and Kristen, Peter of Adaptive Path fame, he recently, he released his org design book a couple of weeks ago, which I think is required reading for everyone if you're not on it already. And he's basically saying we should be aligned by customer journeys. It's fairly obvious stuff, but it's incredible how difficult this is to do in practice. And there are too many hard design challenges happening without any designers present. In retail, where most of my experience sits, most of those challenges sit in operations. And there's no service designers in those teams. And people are interested in getting the stuff that they ordered in the way that they want it. And they're not particularly interested in what the iOS app UI looks like, for example. So I think we need to be going after that much, much harder. Number two, hire specialists and celebrate their specialisms. I think it's time to push back against this syrupy, generalization of product design. We have to use all our powers of empathy for good, especially when it comes to our own teams. There's been this undeniable conflation of UX and UI within a lot of design teams, and it makes it really hard to hire the right people for the right products. I've also got quite a few former designer colleagues who've pushed themselves into product roles fairly recently just to have more control over customers. and the roadmap. So I think we as design managers and those of you who are the candidates, celebrate your specialisms. Talk them up. Go much, much deeper. The number of resumes that I've sifted through with generic flat UI, stuff on Dribbble that all look the same makes it really, really hard for people to stand out. And when putting together your dream team, it's best to have a few people with tricks up their sleeve. It could be an awesome user research facilitator. It could be the rarest unicorn of all. An amazing, experienced content strategist. So I even had a prototyper in my team who made physical stuff. And he was always getting in trouble with our facilities people with his glue gun and drills and was making a mess everywhere. But that's what he needed to do his job. Nobody else has told me who I should have in my team. And I think that should go the same for you guys. So go diverse. Go deep. And I think good things will come out of that collective. Whilst working on your team of specialists, give a lot of thought to how your non-design savvy stakeholders and team members will understand their skill sets. Again, celebrating differences actually helps put product people at ease. When I walked into the first few weeks of my last job, each product squad, the decentralized design team, they just assumed that every designer had the same kind of base level generic skill set. So they could go from concept to sort of full blown UI and there was just some magic happening here. And sure enough, the product guys didn't know their skill set and assumed that they could do that. So I think the amount of discomfort from designers being forced into learning on the job stuff that they think they should already know and not having the skills to deliver 100% of what's asked of them can be really, really tangible. And I think the amalgamation of product design into this one single kind of catch all has in many cases led to slower, lonelier work, picking off tickets and not tackling the hard problems. So I think the more that you can communicate that variable skill set in a way that's simple and easy to understand for a non-designer and non-technical audience, I think the happier a team you're going to have and a more delightful product will be the end result. So number three, skills over objectives. So following on from hiring specialists, let's talk a bit about retaining them. Too often I've seen objectives set around shipping dates. And not around personal growth and development. Or even worse, no objectives at all. So go back to craft and go back to widening and deepening that skill set. Once you have enough trust from your teams for them to feel honest about where they feel they're falling short, then you can help progress them. I remember starting my previous job and one of the mid-weight designers had already resigned before I could do it. And I was sitting in her exit interview. And she said to me that she'd learned nothing during her time there. And it just made me really sad. So I think it's our duty to fight against that. So maybe this is more for the team leads and design managers out there. But your team is only as effective as the projects you're able to secure for them. Coaching is as important as much about going laterally to your fellow product folks and engineering folks and business colleagues as it is coaching your own team. I was lucky enough to work alongside Mary Williams who organizes a conference called The Lead Dev which you should definitely send all of your lead devs to. And she's now CTO at Moo.com. And she has this great talk about developing engineers which is just as applicable to designers as well. And she has this one great quote that I think is absolutely fantastic. And it's, someone can coach you to perform better even if they're less expert than you. So that's the name of her talk. That's the link to it. You can have a look at that. Now that many of us have decentralized teams, I think there's a lot that we can learn from engineering orgs and how they organize themselves. And they've been working together in squads for years. And if there's big differences in the operational side between design and engineering and product, then it doesn't really lead to a high performing team. So I think the days of hovering art director syndrome are gradually going away. And I think the more that we can align ourselves with engineering, then the better things are going to be. Number five, be commercial. Now maybe this is the retail guy in me. But I've come across plenty of design teams who are completely divorced from the commercial realities of their work. I don't think that user delight can happen if designers don't have a basic understanding of the financial end to end. We can look at that Instagram example earlier where there are clearly business decisions happening, or maybe not. But that can completely suck all that delight away. And I'm sure that takes a lot of work. have grinded super hard on other stuff to make there. And science isn't an excuse to ignore the thing that's paying your mortgage. Some design teams have found this mode where they're almost like a team of design scientists, over-analyzing and being overly academic about everything. Just running a workshop can devolve into weeks of over-preparation and over-thinking. I don't think it's healthy unless you're actually an academic. This is a quote from Tom Petty, who leads up the design team at GoCardless in the UK. He says, this was actually about Barclays Bank. It's a really great post. So whilst we're all occupied by building purpose-led businesses and fostering cultures that prize autonomy and mastery, let's not forget that if the numbers aren't there, then nothing is. Set yourself a time limit. If you haven't already noticed, there is a bit of a global war happening for design talent right now. We've got more choices than ever before in terms of the industries that we can be part of and the opportunities that are in front of us. So knowing that, if you're walking into something that feels huge, and where that true expression of, of achieving great user experience feels really, really far away, set yourself a milestone. If an organisation is moving too slowly in tandem with your own career, then it's time to move on. Don't be too emotional about it. We're in such a crazy period of change at the moment that 12 months from now, I'm not sure how impressive it's going to be just to say that, oh, we finally have a responsive website now, or our native apps are finally fully API-driven, or I finally scaled my research team to more than two people. All these things that right now could feel very hard and intangible. As someone who's spent their last few jobs in retail and commerce, Amazon terrify me. I don't think there are any Amazon people here, so that's good. I'm scared of them. I don't think Amazon.dk exists, right? Who is an Amazon customer here locally? Okay, that's interesting. So we had Amazon Fresh launch in London a few months ago, which is their grocery delivery service, and as a loyal Prime customer, we dove straight in. And after my third or fourth delivery, they sent me one of these. This is the Dash microphone. And if you want an example of a company that knows how to use operational excellence as a driver for really good user experiences, then this is literally it. So this is a WiFi-enabled microphone. It sits on top of our microwave in our kitchen at home. And you can use it to add stuff to your grocery basket, which can then come at 7 o'clock the next morning. And they sent me this for free. So you just pick this thing up. It's about the same size as this thing. And there's something about talking to an unresponsive robot thing that makes you kind of go all benign with your voice. But you just pick it up and you say, Spaghetti. And then you sort of look in the fridge and you go, ooh, milk. And it works. And there's no lag. And all that stuff is magically in your basket. And it's an incredible thing. I think it genuinely fits with how my head thinks about buying groceries. And that's not the only thing that they've done recently which is frighteningly good. We also have Amazon Prime now in London. I have two kids. The eldest is four. The youngest is now 10 months. And a few months back, my wife was out for the evening. I was doing a dual bedtime, which the parents among you know can be tricky. And it wasn't going so well. Since the eldest one woke up the youngest one, that happens a lot. And they sleep in the same room. So I'm trying to hold hands with the older one. He's in a bunk bed up here. And I've got the baby here. And I'm trying to give him a bottle, kind of like this. But it doesn't really work. And making up a bedtime story for the top of my head so that the elder one falls asleep. And he finally falls asleep. And I'm left with the baby who's now quiet again. So just before I attempt to do that, you know, that move where you try and get him into the cot without waking him up, I dim the screen on my phone. And I pity shop the crap out of this thing for myself. So this is the service where you can order a service and they deliver it within an hour. And obviously I can't leave the house because I'm looking after the children. And I'm feeling very sorry for myself. So I just go for it. This is what I ordered. This is really embarrassing. So there's four types of ice cream. Two different types of snacks. They even have flips. White fudge pretzels. Which are really hard to get in the UK. Americans amongst you will know how great they are. I paid six pounds for those. That's a lot. But I didn't care. And then placed my order. And then 35 minutes later, once I'm back downstairs again, the kids are asleep, I hear the scooter outside my front door. And there's a guy with a brown grocery bag full of my filthy, filthy ice cream. And I think when it comes to using the light, in that moment I was the most delighted person in London. So... For the rest of you who work in e-commerce right now, you'll understand the operational level of service design that's gone into that experience. And it boggles my mind. I mean, I bet they have a persona on the wall somewhere that fits like panicky parent who needs ice cream or whiskey or red wine or something. And I don't want to be an ad for Amazon, but I'm not working on post-screen interface devices yet. I've not done anything on voice search. I'm not doing any VR. No super high convenience shopping. No Internet of Things. And if you see this competitive shift happening in your industry, then you've got to set that time limit for yourself to fight for the right level of innovation to compete. I think it's terrifying how quickly this level of user experience can just become normal. So give yourself that milestone. Set yourself that time limit. Set that time limit to effect change. And if it fails, don't give it a second thought. Move on. So lastly, I think as designers, we would never question our own importance and our place in the world. I think there's so much work out there. It was something that never really crossed my mind until I was responsible for a team and a budget and a department. There's a constant fight for existence. And certain kinds of company that I think we're not always aware of. If you're in a digital agency or a startup or a pure technology company, this probably doesn't apply to you. But if you're in a company that's been around for a while, is now going through its digital transformation, then there's a lot more risk. Media, retail, finance, energy. Everyone has been spinning up digital teams. You might be in some of them. Over the last few years. Sometimes multiple times. Sometimes with an agency. Sometimes not. Usually, there is a single sponsor who has access to the board and is fighting for your continued existence. And that existence is often predicated on a line in a budget report somewhere that somebody more senior to you is accountable for. And that money can shift and change. And like any other economic variable, it's volatile. This goes back to what I was saying earlier about commercial awareness within design teams. But a head of design has to be looking at the next altitude and can see where the points of failure are. What happens if there's a change in leadership? Who's going to fight for that budget? Are you going to get the opportunity to prove your value? Can you even speak to that? We must not be complacent about the idea of design. And digital design in particular, having the same degree of permanence and the same right to exist as marketing or sales or even engineering. Just because we see where the trends are going and just because we're talking to customers, it doesn't mean that good business decisions are going to be made. So think hard about how you won't become a victim of bad decisions and can help influence the right people to make sure that you're able to do good work. So, to summarize, these are the four things to think about to find your delight. Service design, hire the right people, keep them, skills, coach people, coach everyone, and fight against that disappointment. Know your commercials, set that time limit, and don't ever get complacent. And above all, don't be like JJ. Thank you very much.