Core ideas that helps in designing you into a better you. A designer's POV to design you.
Welcome to Big Ideas to DesignU by me, Karthi Subbaraman.
Designing something means consciously looking at it holistically. Intentionally making choices. Incidentally crafting the form and shape. Removing existing ambiguity and drive to utter clarity. This is all i learnt as a problem solver in the past few decades.
I make a living by solving problems using design. As a system designer I often make products, services, business model, value propositions etc. I get paid heavily when the problems are complex and it adds phenomenal value to the organisation(culturally, financially etc).
On a hind sight, I use the same principles and techniques to solve problems that i am not paid for too. Stuff like making a meal for the day, organising my wardrobe, sticking to a run schedule, designing my second innings of life, crafting my body, designing my finances etc. These days i teach how to make products, services, businesses to some of the smart minds of the world. Sometimes teaching can get very boring as i can’t change the core concepts however I try to spice it up. So I decided to try different lectures using the same principles of design. That marked the birth of DesignX project where X is everything. It could be systems, products, services, spaces, business, productivity, growth, networking and all things life so to speak.
While teaching product design and product management, I realised my students are lacking a new pair of eyes to see the world. It is the same things but just shifting the way you see it can make a huge difference in how you perceive life. So I started teaching Life Design as a course. I gifted it to many of my students when the year started and it brought in amazing transformation to some of them. This inspired me to pull out some principles and make an effort to talk about just Designing ourselves. How hard that can be? Principles are a few. Methods may be many.
As a designer i am lazy inherently so i love the few and I generally chuck the many. So let us stay with principles of designing everything! Shall we get started?
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