What is Your Why?

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Welcome to The Daily Sprint.

Here's a question.

Have you found the purpose in the work you do, or is it literally a grind?

As designers, we need to define purpose in order to make strong design decisions, but what drives you to be a designer?

I'm Darrell Estabrook, the founder of designing a platform for all about product designers who want to design with a why?

I coach designers and to leaders through real-time, interactive product specific guidance.

Find out more and get on board with a free newsletter at designy.com.

That's design “with a y” .com.

So welcome.

I'm glad you're here.

It's episode 13.

That's a prime number.

And if you're an agile geek, it's also a Fibonacci Prime.

So how did you get into design?

Why do you like it?

What drives you?

Well, I got into it kind of by accident, one might say, although I don't believe in accidents.

Back when the internet was new?

A friend called me up while I was a senior in college and said, hey, I'm going to start an internet dialup company.

Do you want to join me?

And I said, okay.

And there we go.

Photoshop 4 and starting to create web apps.

Not necessarily my major since there wasn't anything internet about it.

But why do you love designing?

I can't get enough of it.

It's because I see design everywhere.

It's the fabric of what we do.

Everyone is creating something at some time, whether they're thinking about it or not, you're planning something, you're making physical things, and there is a design process, and we just go about making it bumping into it.

Maybe it works out.

Some people are better at it than others, but it's literally the fabric of our existence as people.

So I love it.

I see it everywhere.

Digital design, technology, it's just cool to make something work.

So it's kind of an interesting superpower when we're talking about technology design, product design, and things like that.

And over those years of designing, it seemed very obvious that one of the cruxes of having a strong design is having a strong purpose for that design.

If you don't know what you're designing for, like what the outcome is, then how could you ever make a design decision that makes sense?

Right?

It's going to be random or arbitrary.

Or emotional only, and then it falls apart under scrutiny.

So that's been a really driving force, and that's part of designing, and you get into it, you'll see, your purpose driving design is everything.

If you don't have purpose, what, what are you doing?

But with that, what drives you as a designer?

What's your purpose?

Because that's the same thing.

You kind of bump this up a level and what design decisions are you making in your life and what's driving those things?

Do you have a purpose for the work you do?

Or is it literally a grind, right?

Are you designing just until the next user story or just until the end of the day?

Or maybe until the end of the week?

I don't know, until retirement?

How far does it go?

Well, I want to tell you my why.

Why I'm into design, what it means for my life and potentially for yours too.

So I published this on the design-y website.

And you can actually go there, designy.com, design with a Y.com, and I have it in the main menu, my Y.

And It's just the story of what drives everything.

So I built my whole career around refining a purpose driven approach for design leaders, and that's no accident.

What drives me as a designer, it's very simple.

Jesus Christ.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, there.

Back up a moment.

Help me connect the dots.

This is, after all, a blog about software design.

Bingo.

Have you ever taken the time to look back at the waypoints of your life?

Waypoints are moments which were like any other day, and you wouldn't have otherwise made any special mention of them.

They aren't the planned milestone days like graduation, birthdays, or embarking on new adventures?

They aren't those major decisions like moving, accepting the job or getting married.

They aren't even the days of sudden calamity, like the loss of a job, or the death of a family member.

Now, way points are those decisions you made without contemplating their significance.

Yet in the end, they amounted to the defining directions that shaped your life.

There are countless waypoints I could explore, but for this account, I'll highlight too.

The big ask.

Growing up in the 1980s seems like ancient history to even mention it.

Well, the technology at the time was a fledgling concept of even owning a personal computer.

The day-to-day human interactions were the same as they've been for 1000s of years up to this very day.

That is, I was a pushover in school.

It was called teasing then, but it doesn't matter the label.

Essentially, it amounted to my dignity being deflated at the mouths of outspoken kids.

I was the kid that just wanted to go through the day, do the assignments, and play with my friends.

The outspoken kids had more enjoyment at embarrassing me in front of any audience they could muster, even if it was only themselves.

This was relentless pressure for a 3rd grader.

My parents had been new Christians since I was 4.

It was life changing for them and it was all I knew.

We went to church every week.

We read the Bible.

We prayed as a family.

We loved God.

God was big.

God was real, and we lived it out.

The way point came walking to the bus one morning.

All the pent up teasing, weighing heavily on my 8 year old mind.

I remember this as clear as day.

I was watching the texture and shape of the concrete sidewalk change with each step, and I prayed, Lord.

I need you.

That was not some wistful prayer or quick nod to the big guy upstairs, nor was it something wrote, scripted or recited.

It was an honest, deep hearted, and humble as one can be, even as when talking to a friend.

Then fire came down and consumed all my enemies.

Not hardly.

But that wasn't the desire.

That way point of submission was the beginning anchor for everything else in my life.

By the clear and persistent grace of God.

The big idea.

At the turn of the millennium, I was in my 20s and 5 years into web design.

The world was still opening the gift of the internet.

It was a new concept of dynamic user interfaces and data on demand.

Agile was not a thing, and neither was UX design.

Most companies were grappling with this near immediate ability to deliver software with their ingrained old way of doing it, one methodical, laborious step at a time.

My work shifted from designing content websites to working with engineers who worked on productivity software for organizations.

In doing so, I was introduced to an entire cohort of people who were designing software.

Yet, while their desire was to help people do their work better and faster, they lacked the time, ability, interest to create user interfaces that truly connected users with their tasks.

I saw my role as a designer as the literal interface between users, business, and engineers.

Engineers saw their role as the actual driver of what made software effective.

There was this tension of which comes 1st, design the UX or design the infrastructure.

I had seen firsthand that without an intentional design for the user experience, the results of the engineering would dictate it in the shape of data.

That never seemed to turn out well for the users.

One day, I was talking with an engineer on this topic and he said, you know, form follows function.

This was his way of barbing me that engineering came 1st in the process.

He pressed that defining the how would therefore define the experience the software took.

At that moment, it popped into my mind to say, form and function, follow purpose.

Well, I knew design could inform engineering, even design needed something higher.

If the user experience wasn't aligned to a business strategy, even it would be a means to an end.

He paused for a moment of deep thought, and then said, That's true.

That way point redefined everything I ever thought about design's role in software, let alone every creative endeavor a person undertakes.

There's a reason creativity works this way. And it's even higher than me.

The big peak.

These 2 waypoints have matured over the past 40 plus years and converged.

Personally, I accepted Jesus as my savior and continue to grow and follow him.

I realize naturally, I'd rather follow my own way, and not gods.

That's sin.

Romans 3:23 says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

This happens to be the default state of all of us.

A perfect and holy God requires judgment for that sin.

That's eternal death.

Romans 6:23 says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I cannot do anything to redeem myself from this coming judgment.

Good deeds, I may do towards others cannot be counted as payment for my personal sin against God, ready or not.

Judgment is coming for each of us.

Hebrews 927 says, and as it is appointed unto men wants to die, but after this, the judgment.

The only way for my sins to be forgiven is if God does it.

The good news is he has already done it.

John 3:16 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Jesus, who is God, came as a man and died for my sins. Through the death of the brutal cross.

He rose from the dead on the 3rd day as the promise of eternal life for all who believe. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 says, for I delivered unto you 1st of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the 3rd day, according to the scriptures.

Confessing and believing that this gift of salvation comes through Jesus was the only thing that stood in my way for me staying dead in my sins and being forgiven of them.

Romans 10:9 says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

And I did.

I've been living these years day by day, growing in the grace and knowledge of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 2nd Peter 3:17 and 18 says, Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware, lest ye also, being led away from the terror of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to him, be glory both now and for ever.

Amen.

This same forgiveness is an open invitation for you too.

Acts 8:37 says, and Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest, and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.

Professionally, I concluded, one can only make strong design decisions once the purpose is clear, and people respond to it.

Most designers and people leading software don't know how to apply a purpose to their daily work in the strongest way.

Sure, there are goals and objectives, but applying those to a decision they have to make today is not the norm.

I've learned it takes diligence to make design decisions which are strongly aligned on purpose instead of reactionary, convenient, and by accident.

Every time I've made those decisions on purpose, they're success.

Every time I've winged it, I've been self-indulgent design wise.

Designers demonstrate design leadership when they perfect this skill.

They can also teach it to others.

Even so, I lived for years as though these were separate tracks in life.

I wish I started living it sooner, but one can always start today.

I kept these concepts separate.

God is just God and design is just design.

To that end, I limited 2 things, how far I could push applying design to its fullest potential, as well as sharing the unlimited potential God has designed for each of us.

These aren't separate.

They're both strictly tied together.

The big purpose.

Every design points to a designer.

This day-to-day existence we live in is a designed system. Systems are not random.

Their intricate complexities aren't simply patterns, their rules, their interdependent, and they carry information that can only be explained by design.

At this most basic observation, our existence points to god who designed it.

Psalm 19:1 says, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork.

Romans 1:20 says, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead.

So that they are without excuse.

Everything designed, is the visible outcome of a purpose.

If God designed our universe, then God's design is the highest purpose.

For us to practice design without God, in mind is to hit the glass ceiling of reasoning.

We fail to understand how the whole system fits together, including our lives.

UX has always existed to improve the user experience of software, but why?

Things in this universe don't always work the way you expect.

That is, you don't plan for the car to have a flat tire today, or the code you deploy to bring down the server.

You didn't expect the sandwich you ordered to be so small, or that Joe down the hall would react that way to your comment about his shoes.

We live in a broken world.

One in a state of entropy and disappointment, just like our sin, if left alone, there would be total destruction.

UX intends to anticipate and avert that disappointment with thoughtful and purposeful design towards success.

UX done well is uplifting, helpful, loving, kind, and ultimately a means of providing light in a dark world.

Philippians 48 says finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true.

Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report.

If there be any virtue, and there be any praise, think on these things.

Can you X solve all our human problems?

Yes and no.

It certainly will improve people's lives, and that's a good pursuit.

Philippians 48 is a wonderful guiding principle.

It's one of the tenets of designing.

Keep pushing upward.

Keep learning new techniques. And keep improving your skills and those around you.

But design, no matter how perfect, will never overcome the root cause of sin.

Only Jesus can do that.

Ultimately, that's the only solution that matters.

What drives me as a designer.

I know everything I design, no matter how humanly successful, is temporary. Software is fleeting.

I create digital things which are obsolete, sometimes by the end of the meeting, when strategies change through exploration.

There's likely nothing I've designed that will ever outlive me.

If that was my sole purpose in life, I would be very distraught.

However, I'm not only designing for people, I'm designing with people.

Sure, the users and stakeholders always matter.

However, I can't let the day-to-day interactions with my colleagues and clients pass by as though they're in my way towards getting the product released.

These interactions are actually more important to the product work I'm doing.

My hope is through designing well through human means, they will consider their need to get to know God, their designer.

The good news is design work should reflect God's work.

You may be a successful designer, and taste the blessing of God's image through human work, but your ultimate destiny is trusting him through Jesus with your soul.

So you can fully apply yourself to fulfilling his purpose for your life.

Your talent is on loan from God.

Are you using it the way he intended?

Today is a great day.

To design.

So what's your why?

Do you have one?

We all do.

Have you identified it though?

If you have, is it something that will stand for eternity or is it just stable enough to get you through today?

You can make that decision today.

Let me know in the comments or if you want to sign it send it privately to designee.com.

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