How To Design Way More Than Anyone Else

I'm going to walk you through a 2-step process that I think will make you design more and better. And so whether you're just getting started as a designer or you already are experienced and just want to learn how to design more, this process just works. And just to give you some context, my design studio, baboon.studio, worked with companies worth over $160 billion. And I don't say that as a promise that if you follow this process, you're going to get the same results, but to show you that it works. Step number 1 is to To iterate a lot, and so this is a project that I've worked on two months ago, something like that. Three months ago, it's just to show you kind of the amount of iteration that I usually go through when I work on projects. This was like a six weeks project, something like that. I think five, and so you can see that there is a lot of exploration, a lot of references, but there's still a lot of screens that I've designed. And basically, what I want to tell you is that is every new idea that you have, even if it's A title, even if it's a button, even if it's a rectangle that you want to add somewhere, an image, every iteration should be a new screen because we want to have that history of all of the variations, all of the explorations that we've done. And the goal is to find those key features, those key details and designs that we really like and to mix them together to create that unique interface, that unique experience, and ultimately a product that stands out. The goal that I have as a designer is to iterate so much that it's impossible for me not to get a good design out of it. It should be impossible to not have something good at the end of the exploration, at the end of the iteration process, at the end of the week, for example. And so I can imagine some people are going to say, yeah, but iterating just on like a button or something, you could come up with, I don't know, 20 variations and that's it. You've iterated a lot. But what I'm trying to say is, sure, if you think that iterating on that specific button or that specific text styles or color is going to improve your product, is going to refine experience, absolutely you should iterate on that. You should not restrict yourself just because it's like, oh, it's just these tiny little details. It should still matter and it should still be an iteration because again, the key, and that's also what happens when I design, is I want a lot of inspiration. And I'm going to talk about it a bit later in the video. We want to iterate from the biggest thing possible, from like the layout, from the meaning of the product. We even want to just iterate on what is this product about? Why does it exist in the market? Is this in the right market? Is this the right experience that we want to have? Why does it have this many features? For example, we want to iterate at this level, but we also want to be extremely granular. The buttons that we have, where are they on the screen? Why are they there? What buttons are there? And so from the biggest possible details and flows to the tiniest of variations on the product. Like if you think of it as a graph with the vertical and horizontal, we want the horizontal to be that deep iteration from 0 iteration to 1,000 iterations. And we want to be able to go as far as we can. Like we want to go extremely wide in terms of iterations because iterating a lot is going to create 2 benefits for you as a designer. The first one is it's going to create rational and credibility. When you present your design, when you present the ones that really stood out for you as a designer. Because let's say you've designed 20, 40 iterations on the same screen, on the same flow. People are going to ask you why this design, why this flow, why this decision. And you are going to be able to back it up because first of all, you're going to really understand the product and the flow. You're going to be like, well, after iterating so many times here, here are all of the iterations that I've done. And you can decide if there are others that you really like compared to this one. And that's also amazing to collaborate. Some designers are going to prefer a specific feature that you've done or a specific layout. You can mix it with what you have or what they have. And I think that's an amazing skill to have as a designer when you collaborate with other designers, but also it's just going to help you design better and faster. There are so many different design inspirations here and throughout the whole product. And by the way, none of those designs that are here are the final product. They're just explorations. This is all just drafts. All of these have been evolved or rejected, but you can see there are so many different explorations, so many different variations. And so you have to look at so many different screens, so many different designs that you're going to notice patterns. You're going to get better taste as to what you're looking specifically, because maybe in the beginning as a designer, you're not really sure what you're looking for in a design. What's a good design? What design you want to make? But as you go along, like when I iterate a lot and specifically, like for example, I want to iterate on like a card or a model. Like maybe I have an example here. Like let's say I want to iterate on this, this top bar to be expandable and you can drop something in there and then you get to process it and then you can go through it. Like I want to find design specifically with that interaction or that specific component or design element. I'm going to have to go through a ton of products from a lot of different industries to find that specific element. And that's going to give me a lot of education just naturally by default, because I have to go through the product to find inspiration, to understand, okay, what is the usual process? What are the usual states when I do that? Because I'm trying to design something new. I'm trying to design something fresh. And so first of all, I'm going to have to iterate a lot on this. The first iteration I'm going to make will be pretty close to the references that I have, but then, and that's the magic of iterating a lot, is that you're going to mix and match different styles, different features, different ideas together. And that's where the magic happens. That's where you create that uniqueness in the product and the experience that's still simple because it's rooted in actual real products and that cares about creating the best possible product for their users. That's how you learn. That's how you are able to grow as a designer. And so that's the first step. That's the first milestone is to iterate a lot. And I think that's just an amazing way to design because there is no fear, there is no pressure. And we're going to talk about it just later. For like the second part of the video, but there is just no fear in those designs because you're not delivering a copied version of another product. Like I feel like that's usually the fear of designers. That was my fear when I started out, and I was like finding those inspiration and copying them to understand how it works and how I could apply that to my product. But your product is different from their product. You're not solving the same problems. You're not designing the same flows because if you are. What's the goal of your product to begin with? Like you need to stand out in some ways. And so the beauty of iterating a lot is that you're going to start with those copies from other products, but then you're going to remember that design you saw yesterday or a week ago, and you're going to combine them together and create that, that set of iterations. And by the end of it, the product, the design, the feature is going to be so much different from what you started with. There is no pressure in that because you're never ending up with what you started with. And real quick, if you're trying to improve your product, to do better, to have more impact, We can work together on a design sprint to help you scale your product. We've worked with companies worth over $160 billion. The process is super simple and straightforward, and all you have to do is to complete the form and we're going to see if we are a fit to work with each other or not. And the second step is to diverge. And remember what I talked about with that graph of horizontal is the amount of iterations you, you do and that wide range. Of iterations, then the vertical line is the depth and the diverging thinking. And basically the goal, or how I would define diverging designs and how to become a diverging designer, is by how extreme you push your ideas. How far can you go on the spectrum of going extreme creativity versus extreme traditionalism, from extreme simplicity to extreme complexity? Like how much of that range do you cover in your iterations and as a designer? And I think it's extremely important when you iterate a lot to explore those diverging ideas, because like we just said, maybe a feature, maybe an idea, maybe a layout is going to impact the rest of the product. The rest of the project together is going to make the product that much unique and different in the market and from the competition. And so diverging is extremely helpful and useful for that. You can just see here, for example. This is one example here, one idea, and then right below it, completely different idea here. And then you go to this one here and it's also again completely different. And then you jump back to those right here and it's again completely different. That's the goal of iterating. You can see there are so many different ways to do it, so many different options. Every new idea in terms of layout is going to be a different, a different screen. Like this one is aligned on the left, this one is centered. And this one is like a sidebar. Push into those what-if design, what-if situations for novelty, for those designs that are going to make the client understand why they paid you, why they hire you, why you're so expensive. Even if you're not expensive, why you are a good deal for them. But that's how I really like to approach that and how I like to think about product and iterating. If we thought about iterating and diverging again on that graph and We just turn it into a grid, like a bingo card. How many of those squares would you cross that you've done one iteration and it was a little bit diverging? How far would you go? How many squares in that grid would you cross? That's how I try to approach it and to think about it. I don't really think about it that much when I design, because for me it's natural to do that. And it's pretty fun as well to diverge because you're not stuck. I get it. It depends on the clients. It depends on projects, on the teams, on the managers. But every time I try to help a designer who is showing me his or her portfolio and case studies and design, I'm always saying that the project doesn't matter so much as what you learn out of it and what you get out of it as a designer. You're not going to stick around on that job, on that project forever, right? Your career as a designer, your life as a designer and creative is going to be so much more than just that. And so don't limit yourself to the scope. Don't limit yourself to what they like and what they don't like. Even if it's something they don't like, keep it for yourself and just grow and learn as a designer. You're going to learn so much more. You're going to evolve so much faster by pushing your limits. You're pretty much pushing your limits on what you know how to do. Because maybe you look at those designs and you're like, I have no idea how I could do so many, how I could design so many designs, so many iterations, so many variations every day, every week. You're probably wondering why there are so many variations, so many iterations of the same thing. Well, it's because the client was not happy with any of those. And in some ways it's because we've also been shifting the product meaning and trying to bring a new strategy to the table. And I think that also shifted a little bit the scope of the project. And that also impacts your mindset, right? Because you do imagine if you design so much every single day and every week the client is not happy with it, you have to keep pushing. You cannot just back off. You cannot just stop or give up. You have to keep pushing and keep going. And as you can see again, from all of the inspirations that I have, all of the design references that I grouped in here, the depth of How diverging you go is directly impacted by the depth of your inspiration. The more design resources you have, the more designs and visuals that you can have for that specific project that you're working on, the more diverging and the wider it's going to be in terms of how much you iterate. And so I've talked about it in other videos, but I really want you to like find those websites, those resources that compile a lot of different inspiration. I have videos about it. Find those inspirations, find those apps, and always, even if you're not working on a project or even if it's the weekend or whatever, always be on the lookout for those designs, those visuals that you like. Okay. And then for people who stick around, because not everybody sticks around, so you get the special reward that nobody else got watching this video. I'm going to give you that next extra, like that layer you put on top of iteration plus diverging thinking. And that layer is speed and quality. The benefit of doing what I'm saying here, the process that I'm following, is that you're going to gain a lot more speed and quality. And it doesn't require extra work because already pushing yourself to the limits, you're really trying to think, okay, one more iteration, one more design, one more extreme idea that I have. This is where the growth happens. Just like in a workout, in a workout, if you do 10 sets and you stop at 10, you are just keeping it stable. And I think that's a win no matter what. Like you need to stay consistent. And I think that's a really big quality as a designer that not everybody has. But again, to take that workout example, you could stop at 10, and I think that's already a win, but you, you have those extra 2 reps in yourself. You can push to 12 reps. And it's the same for iteration. It's the same for diverging thinking. You can push for those extra screens that you have in your mind. Just the little ideas, like you should be obsessed with that because that's going to naturally help you become a better designer and make designs faster. Because ultimately, Speed and quality is the differentiator between a junior designer and a senior designer. Any designer, like no matter your level right now, you could do what I've just said. You could iterate more, you could diverge more. You could do that. It might take you a month, it might take you a year, but you will do that anyway. You will reach 1,000 screens even if it takes you a year. But a senior designer, a lead designer, speed and quality is going to be a really big differentiator. They're going to do it. Like just like that, they're going to do it in 3 days, in a week. And not just that, not just in a week, but it's going to be better than what you've done in 6 months. And so then it's all about volume. There is no hack on how to design better and faster just like that. There is no shortcut. It's all about sheer amount of volume. And that's how I've been able to evolve so much faster as a designer is because I always feel like I'm not being good enough, or I almost compare myself to other designers that I work with, and I really want to stand out, to be better. And so to do that, There is no other option. It's just more work, more designs. And I think that's a really big lesson that I've been able to understand and apply in my life, in my career as a designer, is that people care more about what you've done than how much experience you have. And so if you're able to consistently design more, faster, and better iterations and experiences and flows and products, you are not only going to stand out as a designer, but it's also going to come with a price. You're going to be able to charge a lot more. Money because people care about speed. They always want better design faster. Even if it's internal, like even if it's just the manager wanting better and more designs every single day and they only show the products every, I don't know, 2 weeks to the client, they're still going to pay you more money just because you're that much better, just because you don't need handholding, just because you can create really good designs fast. And so that's really like the next level that you're going to, it only comes with experience. It only comes with sheer amount of volume. Like you just need to put in the work. It's not because you've done 100 iterations on one button that changes places on the screen that is going to solve it, right? The challenge is not about that. It's not about the shortcuts, not about the fake iterations or the fake volume. It has its place. If you feel like this button has to be iterated on and needs to be refined, That's perfectly fine, but you know what I'm talking about when I say volume in iterations? Like, you need to push for those extremes. You need to do more. Don't stick on one idea. Don't stick on that first idea that you have. Put your ego aside and push for more. Say, this is a good idea. I think it's a solid idea, but let's try different things. Let's try different paths. Don't stay on the same line. I think that when you add that depth, when you add the different layers, the different paths that you could take, that is really where the product can become something different, where the experience can become unique, where the features that you make are intentional, are thoughtful, and where you can remove all of that fat and stay super lean, stay super focused on what the user needs to do at that specific screen, that specific key moment in time. That's just how you craft amazing experiences, amazing products, and how you create your own reputation. Like, you need to be different. As a designer, if you want to stand out, you need to be— by definition, standing out means you're not Like everybody else, you stand out, right? And so the only way to do that really as a designer is to go all in on what is unique about you, your uniqueness, but also to do what people are not willing to do. I spend hours every week looking at as many designs as I can. I'm designing, I'm redesigning, I'm making content about designs and redesigning stuff after I'm done designing for projects. So if you want to be different, if you want to get paid a lot more than what you're paying, what you're getting paid right now, do that, do the unscalable work.