Listening is a skill. As a designer, listening is as much of a skill as picking the perfect typeface… more so, really. But when we say “listen”, we often forget that the concept has many facets.
Like George Nelson showed us in his book How to see, listening — like seeing (vs. looking) — can have very different outcomes depending on how you approach it. More often than not, we approach it from the wrong angle.
We listen to reply.
We need to listen to understand.
1: Shut up
Seriously, you can’t talk and synthesize at the same time. When you’re only looking for the next tidbit to validate your point-of-view, you’re closed to any new viewpoints. As a designer in search of insights, this is obviously a hindrance. As a lawyer trying to make a case, it’s a different story, but we’re in design school, not law school.
A good designer can listen to understand. They can synthesize that feedback to uncover new insights and present something back to the world that meets the needs of the audience in new and unexpected ways. Great designers can, of course, do this with grace, style, craft, elegance and everything else that we regard as hallmarks of great design.
“If I had asked the world what they wanted, they’d have said ‘faster horses’…”
Henry Ford — automotive visionary
However, a key to listening to understand is the magic element of synthesis. Taking it in, rolling it around in the head — even for a micro-second — and applying it to the problem at hand. A bad designer doesn’t do this and simply replays what the audience says they wanted. This might make the audience happy for a short while (Hey, they “listened” to me!"), but ultimately, probably won’t solve the problem at hand.
A Case Study
Take two [very simplified*] examples: Apple and Sony — both good companies, of course, but one is admittedly more design-minded
When Sony approached folks and asked the question: “What would you like to see for the future of portable music?”, the people responded: “Smaller CD players!” … which , like “faster horses” was the limits of their vision. Sony delivered the D-88. Granted, this was at the forefront of digital music (and the CD-era), the popularity never took off.
Fast forward a bit. Apple asked the same question and got the same answer. They thought about it for a minute and said: “Well, you say ‘smaller’ and ‘CD’… which is more important, the size or the format?”… to which the people responded: “Oh, well, we don’t care about the format, it’s the small part that matters”. Reaching for a pack of cigarettes, one designer asks: “So, if it all fit in here, you’d be cool with that?”… Knowing hardware and emerging file types (and the size of the newest hard drives), the folks at Apple were able to take what they heard, uncover some insights, synthesize it, combine it with other things that they had expertise in and pop out something new for the world… and re-invent our relationship to music.
So, as you approach your next conversation, instead of listening to reply, try this.
Friend: “Blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah…”
You: “Ok.”
(then think about it for a while… and still say nothing unless a reply is truly necessary).
<and that’s it… just say, “OK”... and keep listening.>
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* the Sony/Apple story is a bit more complex, but the analogy remains the same. I do have the inside scoop, but the details are less important. If you're curious, though, hit me up and I'll share. I had shelved this post for months because of the simplicity of the history (and the potential for assumed inaccuracy), but...
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