Changing the Format
I'm a good designer. Today wasn't great.
I built something I still think is great, and it isn't doing what I built it to do.
Here's what I got wrong. I assumed changing the format would change the perception. I'd handed over something clearer than the thing it replaced, so why would that cause problems?
Sometimes it's flipped. Doing things differently sometimes scares people away rather than bringing them in, and I hadn't accounted for that at all. I assumed I'd impress people enough. What landed instead was that the way they'd been working was about to change.
So it's not a hundred percent good. Not everyone's happy about it.
I don't want this to be a piece that makes me look like a bad designer, and I thought about not writing it for that reason. But I've never got much out of reading only about the days that went well, and the people whose judgment I trust didn't get there by being right the first time.
Because on reflection, the feeling of failure recedes. In a month I won't be able to find it. What came out of today, the learning, is what stays, and it'll make every future thing I do better.
There's a phrase I keep going back to: go with ease. The struggle of this moment balanced against the ease that comes later. Today felt terrible and produced good things. I'll take that trade.
Reflection like this is a practice. Still Yourself is six short sessions built around it: arrive somewhere quiet, notice one true thing about where you actually are, and write down one line.