If a tree falls in the forest, but nobody is around to hear it, does it really make a sound? To pose another question: if you create something to solve a problem, but your solution is unwanted or more of an issue to handle than the problem itself, have you really solved the problem? This exact scenario is why empathy is so incredibly crucial in designing absolutely anything; if you do not empathize with your end-user (who may even be you or your team!), you are risking all your effort being for naught. To risk the use of yet another cliché—you must put yourself into the shoes of your user. You must understand the pain points, get an intuitive feeling of what it is like to be experiencing what they are, in the environment they experience it in, and craft your solution with the sum of that scenario in mind. In doing so, it does not become impossible to create a bad solution (not in the slightest), but instead it simply becomes much easier to create a solution that matters.

Another useful technique is that of the “beginner's mindset,” the primary goal of which is to not allow preconceptions (both those rooted in falsehoods, as well as those in truth) to get in the way of genuinely innovative ideas. By adopting this mindset, which can be done by approaching the topic as if it were entirely foreign, one may find that the generated ideas are far more diverse and disruptive than ones coming from a place of internal preconception. It can be difficult to achieve this mindset—leaving all preconceptions at the door is no easy ask—but even simply approaching it with an open mind can be illuminating. One does not need to entirely abandon a previous mindset to at least expand it from a place of sincerity, as it is with the mindset of a beginner.

Lastly, it must be noted that projects that matter on a larger scale are likely unreasonable to be completed alone, thus, there must be collaboration and teamwork. Where there is collaboration, there is likely conflict; such is the nature of combining human creativity. Being able to handle these conflicts as they arise is one of the most fundamentally important steps in achieving these larger shared goals. Speaking personally, I believe that conflict resolution works best when there is active dedication to the matter. More concretely: teams need to accept that conflict is a healthy and natural part of the design process, and they should integrate conversations about it into the fabric of their work. What exactly this may look like will depend heavily on the structure of the given team, but by simply keeping the concept in mind, I personally believe it becomes easier to accept and be okay with compromise.