raise your hand if you remember this

I spoke at Omicron Delta Kappa's Freshmen Leadership Reception on Monday night, and got the chance to speak to some Freshman Council members afterwards. For those of you who know what this is from, breathe easy - they assured me that (for now), FC is safe at Georgia Tech.

Probably more pictures of myself than I'll ever post again...

Tonight, as we're anxiously waiting in the calm before the storm in Atlanta, I found this old gem. Fittingly enough, we've been joking about this as we approach President's Dinner. An old picture, a great memory.

a generation of question-askers

I bought my mom an iPad recently. Last week, we went to dinner to celebrate her 50th birthday. We were sitting at Ecco in Midtown on a gorgeous night, and I was asking her how she was liking the new iPad. She remarked to me that she hasn't sat down at her computer in at least 4 or 5 days, but she's still afraid to take it with her anywhere because she "might break it."

Great conversation, gorgeous night at Ecco in Midtown Atlanta.

My mom is sort of afraid of technology. I find it frustrating to teach her how to use new pieces of technology. She grew up in a time and a place that didn't encourage learning by doing. I grew up in a culture that supported playing, exploring, and trying things out without asking permission. Our paradigms of how we approach something are totally different.

When you think about it, Generation Y is a bunch of question-askers. We aren't afraid of asking questions, because we've always had the tools to find the answers. When it came to computers and the internet, we very rarely asked our parents how to do something, because they knew as much about the technology as we did. As a result, we were allowed to explore, to learn, to break things if that's what it took. We had a much higher tolerance for questioning, answering, and failing in our early lives, because it didn't take time to try again.

I wish I could get Shan to write a guest post about success, failure, and startups. Michael Fairbanks said last weekend that to understand what you really should be chasing, "fail frequently, fail fast, fail originally" - Gen Y is in the perfect place to do that. To take risks. It's sort of exciting, given our backgrounds and upbringings, to think about the next 30 years of innovation in technology. To think about the next 30 years of thinking in human-centered design.

The iPad is a great device for Mom. Once she overcomes that initial barrier, that fear, it encourages her to play, to touch, to try. What's the worst that could happen, I asked her - that you break it and we have to get a new one? It's a low investment to learn to ask good questions and seek good answers.

designing cradle-to-cradle

In honor of Earth Day, a question: for any of you in [product] design, who generate physical things as a result of your work, have you ever designed anything to be cradle-to-cradle?

Chicks dig recyclers (true story). World of Coca-Cola, Atlanta, Georgia.

As in, something that can be completely repurposed and completely diverted from the waste stream?

It's a difficult proposition in medical devices, because of biohazards and body fluids, but I'd be curious to see some good examples of how, in this age of smarter consumption, designers are coming up with smarter creations as well.

On another note, I've posted three times in two days! That's got to be some sort of record or something. I'll take a cookie for that.

gumption is one of my favorite words

There have been a few times in my professional career where I've walked into a room and surprised someone with the gumption I've displayed. At Georgia Tech, I walked into the Athletic Director's office and told him that I was going to get my way through hell or high water. As a brand new engineer, I told my boss's boss that I would not release product because I couldn't tie my name to bad science. And this past week, I told our senior management team that I can't support a project that I don't agree with.

Jonathan Sacks wrote, "We bear responsibility for what we could have prevented, but didn't." Martin Luther King said, "A time comes when silence is betrayal." Sometimes, you have to say no because saying nothing is the same thing as saying yes to something you don't believe in.

Standing up for what I believe in at the Unite for Sight conference in New Haven, Connecticut.

As time goes on, it gets easier to say "no" to things you don't stand behind. Sure, sometimes it's still scary. You don't necessarily know what the consequences are, or how it changes the perception of you in someone else's eyes. But we are responsible for the design of our own lives. And I have infinite respect for people who display the gumption to say "no" - pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically - to the things that they can't justify doing.

Likewise, I am continually amazed by people who have the courage to unabashedly go after what they want. People who aren't afraid to have difficult conversations. People who harbor no pretenses and make no compromises. I'd like to think that one day I'll have that kind of gumption. I'm not there yet, but I'm working on it. 

first shots off the mold, and all the emotion that goes with it

It's been a day.

A lot of you have heard the stories I’ve told of being responsible for a major product launch (less than two months now, and counting, if we ever get our QE back). Most of you that know me personally also know that I'm pretty even-keeled. Our head of BD told me I'm too "smiley." My boss, in fact, told me last week that I don't get mad enough.

Today, I was all over the emotional spectrum. It was interesting to see our team react to my excitement about first pieces off the mold, my frustration about losing my Quality Engineer to another project for another week, and my stubbornness in taking a stand about the scientific analysis we have to perform to release a new product.

An artsy (and purposely ambiguous) photo of first shots.

Anyone that works in product development will tell you that they don’t learn nearly as much from the things that go right than they do from the ones that go wrong. We’ve had plenty, over the past 15 months, go wrong on this project. Today, I let some of that bubble to the surface.

A lot of people are afraid to let their feelings be known in the workplace. I think we're afraid of confrontation because we mistake confrontation for conflict. Even in our personal lives, we don't necessarily want to show our excitement in case we're disappointed later.

But sometimes, we need to embrace how we're feeling. I've spent three weeks being incredibly mad about having a team member pulled at a critical point in the project. I was exhilarated to see a design that we have been refining and iterating for months, finally make its way into a part. And I was exhausted to see that despite all the progress we've made, we've still got a long way to go. The trick is being able to channel those complex emotions into momentum for action. To use those emotions as constructive motivators, as lessons learned. The last 10% to get a product out the door is the toughest 90% of the work. I'll be down in Mexico in two weeks building parts for the first time.

But today, some vindication. First shots off the mold look stellar, and more importantly, they WORK. It's rewarding to come full-circle and see a functional part nearly a year and a half after first starting down this road. I'm sure it will be even more rewarding to see a design that I contributed to and filed IP for, finally being used on a patient in a few short months. Talk about hope made visible, in the form of polycarbonate injection-molded parts.

this video will never get old

Take four minutes and watch this.

“The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms.” - George Santayana

making hope visible

Spending the weekend in New Haven, Connecticut, at the Unite for Sight Global Health Conference. There have been so many great conversations centered on healthcare in the developing world, and I'm sure there are more to come, but one thought on design for the developing world.

Michael Fairbanks of The Seven Fund told us earlier that with one question, he can predict the economic prosperity of a nation for years to come. That question is "Do you believe in competition?"

Unfortunately, the global health contingent, and subsequently, this conference, is being driven by nonprofits and by medical professionals. Those groups are necessary and much-appreciated - we need people focused on policy, on aid, on one-on-one patient care. But the real innovation, the sustainable developments that will change a country, come from industry. They come from the translation of the research into practical products.

Out of 2,200 attendees, the vast majority are medical students, undergrads, and nonprofit managers. But, industry and entrepreneurship are taking a stand. There are numerous examples of for-profit enterprises who are seeking to be socially responsible in their mission, and industry posing smarter questions in how to make our models work for more people in the world.

The game has changed. It's no longer "Is there a fortune at the base of the pyramid?" The question has been fundamentally reframed, if even by a small group of people, to ask, "How can we create a fortune with the base of the pyramid?" Corporate social responsibility is no longer adequate, and industry is slowly but surely, rising to the challenge.

We don't have the answers yet. We don't know exactly where to take it. But the questions we're asking are making hope visible this weekend.

photographic inspiration from Cartier-Bresson

There is a captivating Cartier-Bresson exhibit on display at the High. I didn't know who he was before the exhibit, but I found his work enchanting and very real. As the wall tells you when you walk into the gallery,

... each frames a small group of characters in a scene of stunning simplicity.

French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana. A simple green door and a captivating shot.

One of my one-year reflections for the blog was that I need to take more of my pictures. I recently bought a new camera (and I highly recommend it, if you're looking for a point-and-shoot). I'm not a serious photographer, but this camera makes me feel like I could be.

Cartier-Bresson strove to capture life and people in the process of living. This is the definition of ethnography, and one of my favorite parts of being a designer.

Playing Holi with friends and family.

On the bridge to the Stent Wing at the High.

Thomas looking artsy outside of an art gallery in the French Quarter, New Orleans.

It is through "living that we discover ourselves, at the same time as we discover the world around us."

the new rules for design & science

A bit ago, Tim Brown from IDEO wrote a post called "Design Renews its Relationship With Science."

My own view is that the latter half of the twentieth century saw a steady decline in designs interest toward science and technology as engineering inserted itself between the two. This is not a criticism of engineers who, in places like silicon valley, performed wonders with the new technologies of micro-processors, storage, networking and software to create the products and services we rely on today. The same is true in other fields such as aeronautics and bio-medicine. No, my criticism is of the designers and scientists who have relied on engineers to provide the translation between their two fields. My concern is that in this translation much is lost that could benefit scientists, designers and the end user.

I think "design" has gotten clique-ish. We hear the term designer and we think artsy, creative types who hang out in art museums and doodle in their margins. We've mistaken creativity for quirky stereotypes.

I saw a friend of mine last week at the Cherokee Club who is a designer by training, and he remarked that he didn't know I "design." And it's true: I have no background in graphic design, I've never taken a course on fabrication, I like my margins neat and doodle-free, and although I like museums of all sorts, I have no appreciable ability in sketching or drawing (well, I can draw a mean stick figure). I am more science than I am art.

Working on one of the first designs I created - on the apex of a pig heart.

... and then eating said pig heart after the experiment (I kid, I kid).

I try not to feel bad about calling myself a designer. But no matter what you call it - design, ethnography, imagineering - design is about how people interact with things. How we can create products and systems that interact with people the way people need to be interacted with. And that's what I'm interested in.

The lines are blurring between design, science, and engineering. Here are some new rules about navigating the gap.

1. Function first, form to follow. The world is full of designs that beautiful, but not useful. Don't just sell products. Solve problems. In a world full of "stuff", it's irresponsible to create something beautiful that isn't also useful...

2. Form does not have to be sacrificed in a functional device. ... and it's ignorant to create a highly useful device that people aren't attracted to. As our lives get more complex and our experiences richer, we tend to seek out services, systems, and products that engage us and satisfy us on many levels. We are trained to seek beauty in our lives.

3. Good design doesn't cost more than bad design. Good design just takes perspective and presence to observe how people behave in the world, and to listen to their experiences with the things that they use.

4. Listening is underrated. As a design tool, as an ethnographic method, as an engineering talent. The best way to understand what it is that people need is by asking the question and then shutting up long enough to actually hear the answer.

5. Designing a product is just as important as designing a procedure and a system of use. What good is a medical device if you can't get it to the bedside? If you don't have an appropriate channel strategy, distribution network, or carrier, no matter how clever the science or useful the product.

one day without shoes is tomorrow

I take pictures of my feet (see the side of my blog for the photostream). As I was looking through the One Day Without Shoes materials for tomorrow, I realized how many pairs of shoes I own / have owned. To be fair, my mother and I wear the same shoe size, and she's not exactly shoe-deprived. But it's strange to put our joint shoe collection in direct juxtaposition to children in the developing world who have never owned a pair of shoes.

Rockin' a pair of Toms in Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Tomorrow, April 5, Toms Shoes is sponsoring their One Day Without Shoes, a campaign to raise awareness of the millions of kids in the world who have never owned a pair of shoes. I know most of you have heard of Toms, but for those that haven't, it's a socially conscious for-profit enterprise that donates one pair of shoes for every pair bought to kids in the developing world.

But the coolest part is not that they donate the shoes - it's that the shoes that they donate are custom-made for the children they're going to. They aren't giving people what they can make. They're listening to what it is that people need, and making shoes accordingly. In a world where companies often focus on what their "core competence" is, and what the adjacencies to that space are, Toms is making shoes that people in the developed world want to wear, and shoes that people in the developing world need to wear.

Tomorrow, when I'm not in the lab or the prototype shop, I'll be working without shoes to let people know about the millions of children that walk miles to school without shoes on. I'll be lasershowing without shoes to remind people that kids are dying every day from soil-borne diseases that are entirely preventable and require little more than a covering in high-risk areas. I'll be errand-running without shoes to let people know that in some parts of the world, shoes are a status symbol that keeps children out of school when they can't afford to meet the dress code. What will you be doing without shoes to bring awareness to a child in need?

i like to take pictures of signs

I like to take pictures of signs.

The Hinman Research Building at Georgia Tech. Love the typeface, and the brick, and the lighting...

One of the things that I’ve been working on for the past few weeks is some artwork for a product that we are readying for launch. The product itself will be printed with this design and associated words, and although I have no formal training as a graphic designer, my team is taking a chance on me for my own professional benefit.

I’ve said before that part of my process of professional self-discovery was learning that I am lyrically creative. I am moved by words. I have to watch myself - it’s tempting to fill this 1-in x 1.5-in space with words. But nurses don’t like words. Patients don’t need words. And so, I have to find a better way to communicate what needs to be communicated for patients to have the best possible outcome.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am insecure in my abilities. As an engineer, I want to be good at mechanical design. Engineers aren’t typically known for their diction or writing skills. They’re known for their ability to take things apart and put things back together. As a young engineer, it’s been hard for me to accept that I do not have to be good at everything, or that being good at one thing does not precludes me from being good at another.

Engineering is a fancy term for problem solving, and problems aren’t always solved by fixing broken components. It takes more than just a knack for tinkering to be able to solve problems. It takes vision. It takes an ability to look at a system... and also its components. It takes empathy, and an understanding of who it is we’re designing for, and what it is they actually need.

Part of the way we design our lives is aspirational. I carry around a camera and Play-doh not because I take amazing pictures or build intricate clay models on a regular basis. I carry them around because those are things that, when I make the conscious effort to use them, make me a better designer. To me, if photographs capture the stimuli in the world as it is, and sketching and prototype provide the response, then writing about our experiences in our world fills the gap between.

Back to sign-loving. I’m currently in New Orleans, which is proving to be sign haven. It’s given me some new insights on how to communicate with people the way that people need to be communicated with.

The capital of Luisiana.

Had to do it.

A personal favorite from sign-spotting today.