The Story: a letter
In July of 2020, I closed a chapter in my career and opened a new one. I was leaving Intuitive after 6 amazing years there - and there was a lot of taking stock to do. How much the company changed, how much I changed. Was everything better off now than when I started?
I wrote this letter to leave behind for my team as a kind of encouragement: keep up the great work! But it was also meant as an indelible source of understanding and compassion for the very real challenges of working there. Everywhere has it’s challenges, but if you’re lucky those challenges make you stronger, and Intuitive is just such a place. Each of these things were things I struggled to do well at first, but each were things that this amazing company and culture taught me were possible.
After writing it, I felt a little shy - at the time, I wasn’t sure if I was writing this for my team or for myself. In the face of not knowing, (as well as a distaste for big flourishing goodbyes) I kept the letter to myself :). Now after a few years, after finding the drafts stuffed into a folder in my office, the motives are more clear. Honestly, I’m quite proud of the things I learned and am happy to share it - with my friends and former Intuitive colleagues, and with all of you.
Lesson 1. THE VALUE OF DESIGN
July 1, 2020
It’s hard to be leaving the company, but over the past few days I've received many wonderful emails from collaborators and colleagues complimenting the work we all did together. They share with me the pride they have in being a part of it, and the testimonials of customers who often praise the design and usability of the product. They share with me their conviction in the value of great design because they see it now in what they have made...and they trust what they are feeling.
It is so validating, and I won't pretend that this doesn't have a profound effect on me. It’s bittersweet. So much of what was achieved was done in the face of skepticism and criticism from the organization in the early days. Over and over again, I wish I had done better to speak to the value of design more thoughtfully, and sooner in the journey.
But maybe we had to wait.
Now that the work is done and the price is paid to achieve it, we all see that what we built and designed actually lives inside our customers. This goes so far beyond the vanity of crafting a beautiful object. This quality has great value, and our customers pay us for it! Not in the way people often ask us if they will: “Will anyone really notice if that gap is a little tighter?” They receive the values we encoded into the product itself, they participate in the care and pride of ownership and celebrate with us. It costs us so much more effort, but a great design strives not to ruin the moment by being transactional. Don’t ask them to pay for care with money.
The value of design is not something you can measure or easily define early in a project, and it is rare and difficult to achieve (as we see in our competitors). You CAN be successful without it. There are many successful medical companies out there who don't invest much in design. Because of this, the value of design is viewed as superficial by disciplines who use data to make difficult tradeoff decisions. Don't fall into the trap of agreeing: unless it can be measured, it has no value. Don't hide this goal of craftsmanship from your partners because you worry they won't understand it. They are human, and when you are done they will use their senses, not their trackers and charts, to understand. Have faith.
The world’s most advanced MVP. We put our hearts and souls into every millimeter of the Ion Endoluminal system to ensure it was as considered as possible from a user’s perspective. Minimum viable was redefined by an intense drive to do better and better in the time we had…and the outcome was more than anyone expected. The response from our users was powerful.
Lesson 2. trust is more powerful than conviction
Bear with me here.
I came into Intuitive with a passion for great design and an unshakable drive to get it done. In a sense, this made me identifiable to others and authentic in how I was perceived. It did not always lead to positive perceptions, though. For many years I found it difficult at times to hear the words of others through the din of my own values.
In those early years, I would often think: "Either I maintain my standards and alienate myself in the company, or I lower them and am accepted by it." I chose the former over the latter, and life was hard. There was a time where this dilemma became so great in me I almost quit. It felt like there was no way to win, and I blamed others for that. If I had quit there, none of what I'm so proud of today would have been achieved.
Instead I turned my expectations away from the company for a while and inward on myself. I stopped trying so hard to be understood and worked a lot harder on my own understanding: I found I could hone my beliefs and values in such a way that they were more relatable. I could listen better. I could become conscious of whether I was building trust or breaking trust in every conversation I had. I could apologize for my mistakes and set more clear expectations for what others could expect from me. I stopped fending off negative feedback and started welcoming it as a gift - a roadmap for fixing a relationship or a partnership.
It became clear to me that being worthy of trust didn't amount to conforming or agreeing after all - but by becoming more authentic and more true to myself and using the truth of others to inform my own beliefs. All boats were raised. Conflicts and tension, instead of being abolished, became constructive and energizing once partnerships became more trusting.
Be careful that your beliefs and values do not distance you from others by making you deaf and blind, the cost is too great.
The first shipping Ion system with the multi-disciplinary team that made it happen.
Lesson 3. all of it
A misperception I struggled with repeatedly during my career was the idea that designers are more invested in how a product looks than how it works...or how much it costs, or how much money and time it requires to develop the product. In project planning this thinly-veiled concern was often hidden behind the word "priorities" and mediated by the inevitable "Nice to Have" assignment to most things ID-related.
While it is true that great design is hard, and tradeoffs are a fact of life, I believe it should never be the intention of design to choose one value over another. In my work, I've always aimed for "all of it" which comes across often as naive. Over and over again, though, I find this approach leads to the best ideas even as it has gotten me in tricky waters with teams who have a narrower expectation of me. If we can shift the perception that designers care about one thing more than others to “designers care about all of it and aren't satisfied until we find it,” we will have more success. This doesn't mean only talking about what the broader team thinks is most important at the time - in order for them to feel like we have our priorities straight. In my opinion, it means talking about "all of it" all the time.
This is not to be confused as optimization of all things. "All of it" means all of it together, not all of it in isolation. It means balance, it means excellence as a whole. It means transparency and dialog: ID cannot and should not design without IxD in the room and visa versa. It means our brand partners should not be in separate buildings as they craft the story of our work to share with the world. It means designers should not wait for reports and photos from the field in order to connect with the people and places they design for. It means designers should not be dismissive of the challenges of engineering and visa versa. Designers should be expanding their work forever to encapsulate "all of it" best they can because that is what good design is.
Unadulturated engineering and ID. Undeniably beautiful, functional and…designed.
Lesson 4. Have fun
I learned this early in my career, but it became most important at Intuitive because of the rare opportunity working here is. Quite honestly, the work you are doing here is too important not to enjoy it immensely. This is not serious business; this is joyful work. You do this right, and you can die happy and content about your contribution to the world
But if it isn't right, you will feel it.
Ironically, all this striving for joy feels like agony most of the time, so don't confuse having fun with a lack of agony.
Having fun demands you do more than just get by. Thrive. Don't toil over something you know isn't leading somewhere great. Don't tell yourself you'll fix it in the next round, or in the next gen. If you feel it is wrong, then it is wrong, don't delude yourself into thinking that maybe it was the right thing to do all things considered (The right thing to do, all things considered, feels good). Don't stay in one place if you aren't effective or valued or empowered. Don't buy into the idea that all of your energy must be focused on creating value for the company, it must create value for you as well or you lose your ear for what value is. This meaningful work will become painful and grinding if you don't work on all of this... and the space you take up with your misery will only prevent someone else's joy from filling it.
Having fun means doing the best work of your career, it means learning every day. It means striving for something bigger than you and knowing you did your best. It means having the respect of your peers, and a place to put your best intentions. Having fun is seeing your work in the world and knowing it is of singular value.
Use your fun-meter to gauge the work. Listen to it. Go where it leads you.
The design team for daVinci SP, struggling to be serious for a team photo.