Unsolicited advice on how to build confidence as a designer, and how to build confidence in your work.
If you've ever talked to me about design work you might have heard me talk about how it's kind of like being a lawyer. You do a lot of research, ask a lot of questions and slowly, through whatever process you work with, you build a case.
Along with your case, you'll be building confidence. Your own confidence in your work and decisions, both individually and as you grow as a designer. Your team's confidence in you and your solutions. Your customer’s confidence in your company and products. Etc.
You'll need that confidence when you come to present your work, and you'll use it as you shepherd that work through to completion. You likely won't start with it, I know I rarely do. That's expected and it's perfectly normal and good.
There is no bulletproof way to de-risk design work. There is no such thing as the perfect design or a single best way to do something. On the early side of the design process, it can very much be about the subjective reaction to the work. That's an ok place to start. But as you go through the process, as you explore, workshop, iterate, test, and validate, you remove uncertainty and subjectiveness—you build your case. That's design. But there are some other things you should be doing along the way to make the process more effective and to build confidence in the work and in the process itself.
As someone who feels uncomfortable with not knowing things, and not feeling confident, I struggle with this. I started keeping this list to remind me that it's ok to feel that way, and there are things I can do to make that feeling go away, and at the same time, ensure the work is as good as I can make it. I think of it as kind of a reference for myself, and for others who, less rare than I would have ever expected, come to me for advice on things.
Get started. That's it, sometimes the biggest confidence builder you'll see on a project is the once you'll get just by doing that first step.
Share your early work. And then keep sharing. This can be a tough one, but regardless of how good you feel, and I know I usually feel pretty shaky at the start, you'll need to get outside opinion of your work to move it forward. I've found the best way to do that, and the best way to establish momentum, is to share as early as you possibly can.
Come prepared with rationale. When you do share, be prepared to explain why you've done what you've done. It can be surprisingly easy to lose your rationale along the way, and just let the work build upon itself. Sometimes you'll even land in a good spot that way. And, honestly, it can be a great feeling to just work through a problem. When this happens, go back and interrogate your work and find that rationale. You'll need it to explain to others when they have questions.
Come prepared for questions. You should always be expecting questions, and, frankly, if you don't get any, especially early on, you should probably see that as a red flag. Questions are core to design work, and you should want them. They can sometimes seem like a negative inditement of your work, but that absolutely shouldn't be the case. Prepare for them, get comfortable with them, but don't feel like you need to have all the answers. If your work uncovers more questions than answers, that can be a good thing. An opportunity.
Come with questions of your own. At the start of the design process, you'll likely have a lot of ideas, and a lot of questions. It's a designer’s job to try and answer those questions with ideas. When presenting your work, when looking for feedback or validation, you should also be bringing along questions you're looking to have answers to.
Come prepared to defend your work. Don't be afraid to push back. As you're bouncing ideas around, sharing your work, and asking questions, you're bound to generate some friction. For the most part, this is good, but occasionally you'll be challenged. When this happens, one option that you should keep open is to challenge back and you should use that option if you feel strongly that what you're doing is good or has truth or merit to it. Too often good work is compromised, or worse, because of a strong opinion or challenge to it. If you think there is something to what you're doing, stand up for your work.
Don't fake it 'till you make it. I know some people disagree with this, but one thing I love about my work is that, when you really do it well, you uncover the truth. You uncover problems. In my mind, being honest about your lack of confidence, and being vulnerable with your work, is one of the best ways to raise confidence in the end.
Hopefully, something in here is helpful to you, even if it’s just a timely reminder of something you already know.
Not all of this advice is relevant to all people or situations. Most of it isn't strictly relevant to design, but I'm fairly confident that you can make all of these things work for you, and they can help you build confidence, and, most of the time, make your work better.