Craft In the Age of AI

A while back, my astute 90-year-old mother-in-law was talking to me about quantum computers and AI. She had just finished Michio Kaku's book. As her grandson approached, she asked me what he should be learning as we enter the AI era.

There's no denying that AI is radically redefining the notion of craft. Regardless of industry, it is transforming how we make. We see advancements in AI-generated art, media, and software on a weekly basis now. In 1-2 years, we will see the first compelling AI-generated movie (assuming a human writes it).

While these new tools can empower us, they are simultaneously replacing us. Companies already use AI-generated images instead of hiring photographers or buying stock images, and freelance gigs for writing and design have reduced dramatically.

We've entered a techno-artistic revolution reminiscent of Louis Daguerre and Nicéphore Niépce's 1839 invention of the camera. Just as AI expands creative access for people untrained in the arts, the photo democratized portraiture for the lower and middle classes. Many felt the camera would lead to the banalization of art, but the invention of photography led to something extraordinary in painting—Impressionism. 

Impressionists realized that photography surpassed painting in capturing fixed images of reality, prompting them to explore other dimensions such as color, light, and movement. Painters could now focus on conveying depictions and emotions that photography could not. Photography liberated painting, opening the door to more creative expressions of human imagination. It also birthed a new genre of creatives—the photographer.

However, creating in the AI era will mark a significant difference from the past. Instead of humans with cameras or paintbrushes exploring new territories, machines prompted by humans will create work at the potential expense of human makers. There will still be painters and photographers, and the good ones will likely be able to charge a premium. But making a livelihood with these skills will become increasingly difficult.

In many ways, tomorrow's state-of-the-art will render the mastery of yesterday's tools unnecessary. Whatever profession my son chooses must account for a future where our relationship with our tools will differ.

So what's a parent to do?

Yes, "AI is a tool that presents humans with new frontiers of creativity, suggesting a future where technology and art coalesce to explore uncharted territories of human imagination." At least, that is what ChatGPT said when I asked. While I agree to an extent, what skills should our young makers be learning?

My answer to my mother-in-law was for my son to double down on expressing his imagination. Until AI can replicate the beautiful mess of human imperfection and nuance that is our imagination, we will continue to play a vital role in the creative process. No matter which profession he pursues, critical thinking, original ideas, and the ability to articulate them will be essential. 

Critical thinking will allow him to look at the world discerningly, helping him see patterns and linkages between ideas and events. As much as I want him to live a life full of rich experiences, I also want him to have a nuanced perspective to interpret them.

Critical thinking leads to original ideas, but expressing them will require conviction to think differently. I have already observed the significant influence that social media has on shaping his opinions. Generating original thought is already a challenge, but the more we use AI to augment our thinking, the rarer unique ideas will become. AI will fail us if human imagination is reduced to a hive mind of repeated memes.

None of this matters if my son can't articulate his thinking. In the age of AI, a significant component of craft will be the ability to 'paint' ideas with words. Writing excellent prompts and providing nuanced creative direction will be essential and in high demand.

In the end, the real challenge for my son's generation will not be mastering AI but harnessing it in ways that amplify their uniquely human gifts. AI can generate images and words but lacks the soul that fuels creativity—our inimitable perspective. If we want the next generation to thrive, they must be encouraged to think critically, imagine freely, and embrace their personal experiences as the source of true innovation. My greatest hope is that these new tools express, not replace, his human voice.

Ultimately, the true challenge for my son's generation will not be mastering AI, but in using it to elevate their uniquely human gifts. AI can generate words and images but will never possess the soul, imperfections, or lived experiences that fuel creativity. For the next generation to thrive, we must encourage them to think critically, imagine boldly, and draw from the well of their humanity. Only then will these powerful new tools express, rather than replace, the inimitable human voice that defines the best of what we make.

Building Emotionally Intelligent Teams

Emotional Intelligence has been a popular concept in the business world for some time now and has proven its benefit to businesses in numerous ways.

Leaders who prioritize Emotional Intelligence (EQ or EI) principles in their leadership witness improved job performance, higher employee retention rates, and increased employee well-being. In short, better conversations lead to more impactful, happier teams.

Yet, companies rarely measure EI in performance reviews or hiring. They often focus on the WHAT, not the HOW. Emotional Intelligence is critical in building any team, especially a design team whose members frequently collaborate across marketing and product.

Adam Perlis (Academy UX) and I are teaming up on this article to explore ways in which you can build and lead an emotionally intelligent team right now. Read each piece as they are complimentary, and let us know if you'd like to hear more on the subject.

Let's dive in.

"The most effective leaders are all alike in one crucial way: they all have a high degree of what has come to be known as emotional intelligence."

-- Daniel Goleman

Daniel Goleman is a renowned psychologist who wrote the book on Emotional Intelligence in 1995. "Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ," brought the concept of EI to the forefront of public awareness. He has popularized that Emotional Intelligence is a crucial skill set for individuals to thrive and excel in today's complex and interconnected world. These skills are essential for effective communication, conflict resolution, and leadership. It is easy to see why companies would want their employees to have high levels of EI.

However, while companies acknowledge the importance of EI, they tend to focus solely on job performance when evaluating employees. This can lead to a culture prioritizing individual achievements over teamwork, collaboration, and emotional Intelligence. This can be problematic as individuals with high EI are often better equipped to work in teams, build relationships with colleagues and clients, and communicate effectively. Furthermore, prioritizing job performance over EI can lead to a toxic work culture that values results over the well-being of employees.

As Simon Sinek puts it, "we keep promoting and bonusing toxicity in our businesses, which is bad for the long game because it eventually destroys the whole organization."

So how can we hire and evaluate performance utilizing EI? First, let us take a closer look at Daniel Golemans EI framework, Four Abilities:

1. Self-Awareness

• Self-awareness is recognizing and understanding one's emotions, strengths, weaknesses, and values. People with high self-awareness can accurately assess their feelings and how they impact their behavior, which helps them make better decisions and handle challenging situations more effectively.

For hiring or performance reviews, some questions that could test this ability are:

• How do you handle high-pressure situations or setbacks without becoming overwhelmed?

• Tell us about a time when you had to demonstrate self-discipline and perseverance to achieve a goal.

2. Self-Management

• Self-Management is regulating emotions and behavior to achieve personal and professional goals, learning to control impulsive behaviors, adapting to change, and staying focused and motivated in facing challenges.

Relevant questions related to this dimension:

• Describe a situation where you effectively picked up on non-verbal cues and adjusted your communication style accordingly.

• How do you actively listen to others and make them feel heard and understood?

3. Social Awareness

• Social-Awareness is the ability to understand and empathize with the emotions and perspectives of others. This includes reading social cues, listening actively, and empathizing with others' feelings and experiences. People with high social awareness can build strong relationships, work effectively in teams, and communicate well with others.

Relevant questions related to this dimension:

• Describe a situation where you effectively picked up on non-verbal cues and adjusted your communication style accordingly.

• How do you actively listen to others and make them feel heard and understood?

4. Relationship Management

• Relationship Management is the ability to build and maintain strong relationships with others. People with high relationship management skills can build trust and rapport with others, which is essential for effective leadership and teamwork.

Relevant questions related to this dimension:

• How do you establish trust and rapport with colleagues or team members?

• Describe a situation where you effectively collaborated with others to achieve a shared goal.

Finding ways to assess situational judgment in hypothetical (or lived) experiences that tap into these abilities is an excellent place to start. There are also psychometric assessments, such as the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), to gain insights into candidates' emotional intelligence strengths and areas for development.

I've also brought leadership development programs into organizations and have seen the positive effect that they can have on a team. These programs can provide leaders with the knowledge, tools, and techniques to improve their emotional intelligence abilities.

When it comes to performance reviews, use 360-degree feedback to assess EI. Gather feedback from peers, subordinates, and supervisors to understand an individual's emotional intelligence abilities comprehensively. Ask team members to think about the HOW the WHAT was achieved. 

Towards the end of my tenure at Uber, we started doing this, which radically changed the review process. It opened up new conversations on teamwork and seeing performance differently. Not all high performers are the loudest in the room, and evaluating your team through other lenses can help unlock talent that otherwise goes overlooked.

Remember, this is just the beginning. There are various ways to build emotionally intelligent teams. Read Adam's article on employing Growth Mindset, Cultural Contributions, and EQ to enhance your team-building efforts further. We invite you to share your experiences and insights on tackling this vital aspect in your company. Together, we can create workplaces that prioritize EI and unleash the full human potential of your team.

Designing Culture

Design culture is crucial to the success of any organization that requires design. It is about delivering quality work and creating an environment that enables designers to thrive.

According to a survey conducted by InVision, 66% of design leaders believe that culture is essential to their team's success, but more than great craft is needed. The conversation around the work is crucial for success, and a lack of trust and understanding can prevent even the best work from launching. As a design leader, I have directed high-impact design teams at agency, startup, and corporate levels. Based on my experience, the winning recipe for designing culture contains three parts:

I. Celebrating craft with open conversation (IQ)

II. Promoting deeper listening and collaboration (EQ)

III. Driving the work with a clear and agreed-upon charter (Culture)

This framework can lead to happier, higher-impact designers and help your team foster stronger relationships with their partners.

77 Things book designed by the Uber Brand Experience team.

I. Craft (IQ)

Design is something to be discussed. The less discussion you have, the poorer your solution will be. Even if it's personal work, input from a friend will make it better or reaffirm your decisions.

In my agency days, we always had open crit sessions with work plastered all over the walls. It allowed us to "live" with the work, which often led to serendipitous conversations beyond that initial design review.

Taking this approach to Uber, one of the first things I did when I started was install a metallic whiteboard wall. This got our work off the computer and out in the open. Even product work can benefit from hanging it up.

Global Design Review at Uber HQ 2018.

Every Wednesday we'd gather around the wall for Global Design Review. We'd invite teams from all over the world to share their work in person or virtually. We'd discuss the challenges as well as the unlocks. Sometimes these revelations would help other designers on entirely different projects. A brand concept could lead to a product solution. A UI share could inform a product marketing campaign. It was a magical thing. Anyone who walked through the 10th floor at Uber was also welcome to sit in. It was something everyone looked forward to.

Most of the time, I didn't say much in these sessions. Instead, the team helped each other find their way through the work. The act of sharing design is incredibly clarifying.

Onscreen desk critiques are also great, especially when things are moving fast. They allow a director to see what their designer isn't bringing to review. But, unfortunately, sometimes the answer is hidden under the debris of what the designer thinks isn't working. In fact, I often invite my designers to simply hide (instead of deleting) work on a hidden layer for this reason.

Today, many of us work remotely, which poses several handicaps for designers:

• In-person collaboration allows for emotional connections and serendipitous discussion, which is challenging to replicate remotely.

• Remote work confines discussions to scheduled meetings and limits the ability to live with the work.

• Serendipitous conversations that lead to innovation are more challenging to facilitate remotely.

• Designers often lack immediate feedback from peers and leaders, which can hinder their progress.

I must credit Figma and Slack for the tools they've built, as a remote Figjam session does start to get closer, but we still need to catch up on the human element.

I'd absolutely love to hear how you handle this in your organization!

II. Collaboration (EQ)

If there was one thing the world could use more of right now, it would be deeper listening to each other. Unfortunately, we often listen to reply instead of listening to provide value. Deeper listening is crucial for successful collaboration. It helps keep politics and ego from getting in the way of good work. But the presence of mind to really listen to a colleague can be hard to summon at work. It's even more complicated when reduced to squares in a video call.

Emotional intelligence is a woefully under-appreciated skill in the workplace, particularly when we consider the value a great collaborator can bring to an organization. Companies have many ways to measure performance but few to emotional intelligence (EQ). In my next article with the Academy's Adam Perlis, we plan to unpack how to measure EQ from a performance and recruiting standpoint. But in terms of how to foster better collaboration, I've found the following principles to be helpful:

Be more curious.

Ask better questions.

Care about the answers.

Let's unpack them:

Be more curious

There are many ways to bring this principle to life, but learning more about your colleague's expertise and the problem they are trying to solve goes a long way toward building trust. It's vital to know more about them personally as well. Asking someone how they are doing is a question we should use more often. When someone shares information with you, reflect on what you are hearing and find opportunities to dive deeper. If you are genuinely more curious, you will ask better questions.

Ask better questions

Are you asking questions your colleague would like to answer? Are you asking questions that require more than a "yes" or "no?" Is the spirit of your question driving toward union, or is it political? Asking better questions leads to learning, but you must consider the answers and apply what you have learned.

Care about the answers.

There are many ways to show how you care about what you've learned, but for designers, the best way is to reflect the best inputs in the work. This is where the judgment and experience of the designer play a critical role. Not all feedback is helpful, but the best designers can find the diamonds. The joy of seeing a stakeholder's reaction when their idea helped create something great is one of the best feelings a designer experiences. We can express things in ways non-designers can't; helping your colleagues bring their ideas to life can create deep trust.

The above principles move us into a state of listening that provides value to the conversation. We listen to learn instead of merely replying and protecting our beliefs. The goal should be to exit a meeting with new ideas. This is the germ of an innovative company.

III. Culture (Vision)

All the designers I've met are empathetic individuals who often believe that design can change the world. They want to solve today's problems and make life better for their customers and communities. Creating a design culture that genuinely believes it is delivering meaningful work has multiple benefits, but how does a company's mission apply to a design team's work?

A slide from Uber’s, “Design to Include” charter.

A design charter outlines the team's purpose, goals, and guidelines. It defines the problem the design is trying to solve, its target audience, and the team's design principles. It hardwires the company's mission into the teams' design process if done right. If so, a charter should help define roadmaps, hiring strategies, and OKRs. They are philosophical and practical, but most importantly, design charters bring meaning to design.

Meaning helps guide the design creation. It makes the less exciting tasks more palatable and provides an optimistic goal to help focus the team during challenging times. It drives the innovation of the design system based on more objective criteria (i.e., customer needs, brand, and business goals) so that the design system becomes an expression of strategy instead of style. Of course, taste and style are still important, but when grounded as an expression of strategy, it takes the guesswork out of the equation.

Design charters are also the building blocks for collaboration with your design team. In fact, they will only succeed if they are aligned with the rest of the company. Cross-functionally, charters can become an interface for how other groups interact with your team.

In conclusion, celebrating craft with open conversation (IQ), promoting deeper listening and collaboration (EQ), and driving the work with a clear and agreed-upon charter (Culture) are the three parts of a winning recipe for designing culture. By following these guidelines, designers can foster stronger relationships with their cross-functional partners, lead happier, higher-impact lives, and create great work.

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Would love to hear what you do to lead your design org, and if you need help don’t hesitate to connect.

The Conversation

The future of work is often described in terms of where it will take place and what tools we will use. But I don't hear enough about understanding the emotional side of working with each other.

The best design I've brought to life was the fruit of great collaboration. Collaboration succeeds or fails based on the conversations we have. Are we truly listening to each other to create shared value? Are we merely listening to reply? Even if we are listening, do we have the language to respond? 

The EQ of knowing how to work with people is a woefully under-appreciated skill, yet it often determines the success or failure of a team or company. Companies measure performance in many ways, but hardly any measure a person's EQ or how well they can collaborate. 

Simon Sinek tells a great story on how the Navy SEALS, likely one of the highest-performing teams in the world, will bias toward trustworthiness and EQ over superior performance in selecting new team members. When it comes to the workplace, it's hard enough being human and doing business simultaneously, so how can we optimize the companies we build for collaboration and communication?

As a designer, I think we have a unique opportunity at hand. Designers have a special gift when it comes to collaboration. Design is collaboration brought to life. If done right, it's an empathetic exercise of addressing the pain points of everyone involved—both those of the customer and colleague.

When conditions permit, designers also have the unique ability to help organizations see their future. Visualizing possibility reduces the unknown. The known can act as a Northstar, while the unknown creates team chaos. When design genuinely solves a business and customer need, it can unite a team towards a shared, inherently optimistic goal. This makes the work meaningful to employees, and the two times I've seen this happen in my career, it had a profound impact on the company.

While design can benefit a business, humans were never trained to move work through complex organizations. When we consider how to improve the future of work, perhaps we think about how we emotionally work together. Instead of focusing on the tools, we focus on ourselves and our conversations. We understand that our words are the work, and perhaps the next era of great designers will consider craft and communication as one discipline.

A Call to Words:

As someone who has seen firsthand how conversations impact the success of businesses and design, I've learned that talent alone isn't enough. Even the most well-funded projects can only succeed with a shared vision and open communication.

I plan to explore this topic further and invite you to subscribe below. I'm also eager to hear about your experiences in bringing ideas to life, regardless of your profession. Let's learn from each other and start a conversation.

Thank you for reading!

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