Ooof, I feel this. 2023 has been hard for the design community. Layoffs and burnout seem to be at an all-time high. Glad to see you’re in a time of renewal, and curious what new ways you’re focused on doing things differently?
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2023 has been exhausting. Burned out and hit rock bottom in terms of motivation and engagement. But then discovered new ways of developing my practice and closing out the year with a renewed will to do things differently in 2024.
For sure, it's been rough for us all. I think in my case, I've been thinking about being more open to the demands of design's role this year and going forward—Meaning I'm trying to embrace a more generalist role, avoiding silo's and lastly... (Ugh, ate all my characters...)
Thinking a lot about how prescriptive and bloated the design process has become. I keep thinking a lot about the old school Apple days where it was more about showing the work, being open and getting things done and with quality I see this resonates with other people too...
Two references that come to mind are Brian Chesky's talk at Config + other follow up interviews he's given, or Jack Dorsey's recently publicized letter to Block employees where he talks about returning to a culture of excellence and simplifying internal performance processes
Re-examining our processes is important when things get a little off (and identifying what our true objectives are). I watched Brian Chesky’s talk at Config (very inspiring), but haven’t yet read Dorsey’s letter—will have to check that out!