Back in February 2011 I left Dare and began freelancing. At the same time we started building a loft conversion in our flat, and doing a head to toe renovation of it. Terrible timing in hindsight as there were so many decision to be made on a daily basis, most of which we had no background knowledge so there was a wealth of research to be done.
Fast forward to right now and we’re back in the head to toe renovation phase. Luckily this time both my partner and myself has some time to dedicate, not just to the decisions but also to getting hands-on with some of the work that requires less skills.
2011 is when I first got into public speaking and it’s also when I started blogging a lot more. A lot of that I contribute to the flat renovations as it sparked my imagination. I love metaphors and analogies and my first ever blog post was about the similarities of a traditional architect and an Information Architect.
The past week and a bit my brain has fired up again with various analogies. One that struck me the other day is the similarities between the discovery phase in UX/ product design and the phase we’re right now in when it comes to the house renovations.
Over the past 10 days we’ve stripped back our house to its bare concrete bones. We’ve come in with assumptions around how we thought we’d wanted to use the space, what we could build on vs. would have to tear/ pull down. It’s been chaotic. It is chaotic but bit by bit the answers have become clear. We now know what walls to keep, where to widen door openings to let in more light, where to knock down a wall to create a better flow and usage of the space, and that though it’s added d a y s to our workload, ripping off all the wall textures and the layers and layers of wallpaper that were hidden underneath is the right choice. They would not have been solid enough to put plaster on, as we and the builders, initially thought.
During a lunch meeting the other day I shared that this phase where it’s absolute but still somehow ordered chaos, it’s one of my absolute favourite phases, both in UX/ product design and in house renovations. This is where my brain works the best, where everything is connected, I get to be the “spider in the web” that pulls on all the right strings (and people) and make everything come together. I love it and, if I may say so myself, I’m pretty darn good at it.
I often coach teams and individuals about not jumping straight into solution mode but to allow time and invite all the chaos and complexities that you need to unveil in that first discovery phase. I can be uncomfortable and one may wish quickly fast forward to the definition and design phase. But the discovery phase is so incredibly important. It’s what forms the foundation for what’s to come. It’s where you identify/ validate the problem space and the potential solutions, for the right people and the business. If you skip that, you risk building (on) something that won’t give the best result, provide the solid and robust foundation that you need for future iterations, and you may even go down the wrong route.
As UX/ product designers we need to learn to love to embrace the unknowns, the chaos and not having the answers but instead figure out how we’re going to order said chaos, identify what questions that needs answering, which ones that can wait and which ones we need to answer now, and then how we are going to get to the answers we need.
If you ever need a pep talk or tips on how to conduct discovery phases, or handle the chaos and uncertainty then drop me a line (anna@uxfika.co).
Here are some photos of our current chaos
The chaos when everything is ripped out and before it’s organised in the skip 
Order chaos in the skip 
Once a space has been cleared and stripped back completely
