February 2025
Service Design
In Progress! Check back soon!
View Post
“The synergy of a group is as important— if not more important— than the talent of the individuals.”
I never intended for this book to make an appearance here in my portfolio. One of my deepest loves is music - something that Rick Rubin, an award winning and highly influential producer, knows a lot about. I decided to read his book after listening to a recent album where he was one of the primary producers.
While reading, I took note of how many punchy takeaways there were; nearly all could easily be applied to a UX designer’s daily life. While Rubin frequently uses the term “artist,” he seems to be doing so as a simple synonym for “anyone in a creative role.” That’s how I read this book: both through the lens of being an inherently creative person and also through the lens of a role that has to constantly balance creativity with business decisions.
“Communication is the core of skillful cooperation. When giving feedback, don’t make it personal. Always comment on the work itself and not the individual who made it. If a participant takes a critique personally, they tend to shut down. Be as specific as possible with your feedback. Zoom in to discuss the details of what you’re seeing and feeling. The more clinical the feedback, the better it will be received.”
Collaboration is an industry-agnostic skill but goes deeper with design. Since design is an inherently creative field, effective communication around individual’s creative decisions is vital. Design critiques, when run effectively, center the decisions being made independent of the creator.
“In time, almost every [designer] finds themselves too close to the things they make. After endlessly working on the same piece, perspective is lost. We develop a kind of blindness. Doubt and disorientation may creep in. Judgment is impaired.”
One of the most difficult aspects of designing is losing novelty over time; it becomes impossible to view certain products and decisions without bias. While working as the sole designer on projects in the past, it was a challenge to challenge my own decisions over time.
“We can only tell where something is in relation to something else. And we can only assess an object or principle if we have something to compare and contrast it to. Otherwise it’s an absolute beyond evaluation. We can hack into this principle to improve our creations through A/B testing. It is difficult to assess a work or a choice on its own without another point of reference. If you place two options side by side and make a direct comparison, our preferences become clear.”
Articulating design decisions is an art form; I think Rubin hits the nail on the head regarding this topic. Tom Greever agrees via his book: presenting two possibilities side-by-side is the best way to show the impact of ideal design decisions. When presenting work to non-design stakeholders, this is the ONLY way.
“[Designers] are ultimately craftspeople. Sometimes our ideas come through bolts of lightning. Other times only through effort, experiment, and craft.”
I found this particular quote to be deeply relatable: everyone’s creativity works differently but I deeply resonate with how Rubin describes it. Sometimes the only way to solve a problem or generate fresh ideas is to step away from it and think about it passively. Ideation sessions are typically run in a very different format; this is often why working iteratively yields the best products (in my opinion)!
“The best work is the work you are excited about”
This is another industry-agnostic principle but one that I also believe goes deeper with design. There are entire exercises (ie moodboarding) dedicated to building excitement before beginning the design process solely for this reason: better work comes from excited contributors.
“Success is as much ruling out a solution as finding one that works.”
“When working through ways of solving a puzzle, there are no mistakes. Each unsuccessful solution gets you closer to one that works.”
One of the most frequent questions I see designers asking each other is “how do you measure success?” Typically, answers center around gathering the ideal mixture of qualitative and quantitative data, but occasionally there will be a wildcard answer saying that there was no ‘success.’ This can be an eyebrow-raiser for those outside of the creative space, but what this actually means is: the desired outcome was not achieved but now we know a lot more than we did before (typically due to a lack of preliminary research.)
“Living in discovery is at all times preferable to living through assumptions.”
Most enterprise UX teams refer to the early stages of the design process as “discovery,” making this quote perfect. Most seasoned designers know that this discovery process is never truly over; it’s a cyclical and continuously iterative process. More broadly, this quote perfectly encapsulates the need for research: perpetual discovery eliminates assumptions.
“Perfection is finally obtained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there’s no longer anything to take away.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars
While not a direct Rubin quote, this perfectly encapsulates the blight of many product managers. More often that I can say, the solution to a problem has been to remove a design element/feature rather than add to it.
“Innocence brings forth innovation. A lack of knowledge can create more openings to break new ground.”
“Experience provides wisdom to draw from, but it tempers the power of naivete. The past can be a teacher, offering tried and true methods, familiarity with the standards of the craft, awareness of potential risks, and in some cases virtuosity. It lures us into a pattern that absolves us of the opportunity to engage innocently with the task at hand.”
Best for last: Tangential to #2 The Clean Slate, this principle another industry-agnostic one for designers. Most job descriptions have things listed such as “[industry] experience preferred” when in reality, it might be more effective to hire someone with an entirely different skillset. There have been two major projects in my career where I heard some form of “we didn’t think about doing it that way” when I’ve suggested a solution; I think this was because of my lack of experience more than a surplus of it!
One of my biggest takeaways from the book centers around what it means to be a good collaborator: sometimes the best (and most encouraging) thing to do during ideation is to be entirely free-flowing; in other words, there are no bad ideas. Many matrix deliverables have a “what if” option when generating ideas; this exists to get people ‘thinking outside the box’ while also keeping people thinking in terms of what is most feasible.
Outside of design-specific takeaways, this book was fantastic! I have already recommended it to a few folks as a way to re-center creativity in an environment where business decisions often must take priority. I believe Rubin knows what he’s talking about!
12/10.
