Have you ever been contacted by your client for minor details that you thought they should be able to handle themselves? Or felt like your work is only as good as your presence, and that your absence would spell disaster for your team or project? I used to feel that way until my father gave me some career advice that challenged my perspective. "Work to make your employer dependent on you," he said. While I took his words to heart at the time, I've since realized that creating dependency can have drawbacks. That's when I first conceptualized the idea of 'Design for Independence'.
In the realm of employee-employer relationships, 'Design for Independence' means creating self-sufficient processes and systems that operate independently of our presence. This requires careful planning, iteration, and a long-term perspective to bring clarity to our future plans.
Designing for independence also forces us to make processes transparent and introduce possible checks and balances. This makes the system resilient to changing circumstances, which is challenging but possible. It allows for seamless transitions when employees leave and opens up opportunities for growth and advancement.
While designing for independence may seem paradoxical since it makes us replaceable, it compels us to create more from ourselves than just completing the task at hand. It encourages us to think about the future and anticipate potential pitfalls.
However, there are also some drawbacks to designing for independence. It can make a process so mechanized that it removes the human aspect from it, reducing creativity and innovation. But this can be mitigated with careful planning and a focus on maintaining a balance between automation and human input.
Designing for independence isn't limited to employee-employer relationships. It can also apply to the design of brand identity and physical products. Brand guidelines, for example, keep a brand's essence intact even if the original designers move on. And iFixit allows users to be independent of repair services and the brand itself.
Legendary brands like Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Braun have all been able to perform and grow even when their founders have retired. They have been designed to run independently of their founders, allowing them to maintain their values and continue innovating for decades.
With the AI revolution now, more and more processes have been freed from human dependence, making designing for independence more important than ever.
I tried to apply this concept, to see if I can come up with an interesting solution. As an industrial designer, I've encountered this issue many times. Often, manufacturers need to make small changes to CAD files, such as altering the filet radius, for which they have to depend on the designer for these small modifications. Applying the concept of designing for independence, what if there was a limited functionality CAD tool that could let the manufacturer make these minor adjustments independently (within limits set by the designer, of course)? This is one feature that CAD companies can provide with their software in the future. This approach would reduce dependency on specific individuals and free up valuable time for designers to focus on more significant tasks. It's just one example of how the concept of designing for independence can be applied in real-life situations.
'Design for Independence' is a powerful concept that can lead to more resilient and sustainable processes and systems. It can lead to greater creativity and innovation while preparing us for the future. What do you think?
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