Find your Design Superpower

Here we are, already at the 7th edition of the Notes by Chris B Co newsletter. It feels great to be arriving in your inbox each Monday morning. Hopefully, you’ve found some value from my first six editions. If you missed any of them, go here to check them out. I’m looking for more subscribers! Please share with your friends.

Here's what I've prepared for you today:

• Design Superpowers

• What is my Superpower

• How to find yours

01 / DESIGN SUPERPOWERS
What is a Design Superpower?

Well, it depends on who you ask. I’ve read and heard the term mentioned a few times in design and creator content I’ve consumed over the years. I think each user of the word always has a slightly different meaning.

I would define the question as, what design power do you have that makes you unique? Or what makes you super employable or valuable to a company or your clients?

In his video Finding your Design Superpower, Ran Segall from Flux Academy suggests that understanding your shortcomings is the key to finding your Superpower. His weakness is an inability to complete the final 20% of a project - but his Superpower is doing the first 80% at a super speed. There are many situations where these skills are super valuable. Ran has identified working with start-ups as his ideal client base. They are desperate to get products shipped early to test the marketplace.

In contrast, Chris Do from The Futur discovered his Superpower after spending decades leading a design agency and teaching design classes. After sitting in on him during one of his lessons, on the drive home, his wife told him, “You’re a great teacher; you have a real skill; this something you are meant to do. But, I think you are wasting your talent teaching 12 students who are privileged to be there.” It took Chris some time to consider what she’d said, but in time, he found a way for it to all come together. He had discovered his Superpower, and The Futur was born. The Futur’s mission is to teach one billion people how to make a living, doing what they love (without losing their soul).

02 / WHAT IS MY SUPERPOWER
Let’s answer using the two methods above

Firstly, the opposite of my weakness.

For a long time as a designer, I’ve known that from all the core skills an Industrial Designer should have, my weakest skill was design sketching. I really suck at sketching. I tried to rectify this while still at Uni - I used a valuable elective on a Design Sketching class in my third year. I bought sketching books. I followed the lessons. I tried, somewhat…  But the passion for it never caught on, and my skill never developed like others. From that point in my third year, I knew I would have to counteract this weakness with a strength. Can you guess what the direct opposite of design sketching would be?

Computer-Aided Design. Better known as CAD. But I went more specific than that - I went deep into using a software called SolidWorks. In future editions, I will write much more about Solidworks and how I use it in my daily work and life. Let’s say I’ve conservatively spent over 15,000 hours using the software (~20 hours per week, x 48 weeks a year, x 16 years). Basically, SolidWorks lets me take an idea and turn it into reality in 3D. Unlike design sketching, which is just an early step in the design process, CAD work can generate all sorts of outcomes for the user, including visualisation and manufacturing.

Here we’ll also look at the second method.

This superpower is less defined as one thing and more a collection of skills, happiness and opportunity generators that can lead to a more fulfilled life. This is the process Chris Do went through, leading to The Futur's birth.

I’ve used the template Chris Do presented in this video. To view my slides, click here. I’ve left a blank slide at the end for you to copy and complete for yourself.

Then what I did following this was duplicate the slide and highlight each of the factors that were activated during periods of my employment history. I haven’t included EVERY period, but enough to give you the idea of how things have progressed for me over time.

Lastly, you can see where I’m at right now. As one would hope, after spending 15 years working in a career, I’m nearing a point where almost all of my key factors are being met. For those that aren’t being met by my work - most I cover with my leisure and family time.

03 / HOW TO FIND YOUR SUPERPOWER
Using Chris Do’s method

Which is a bit more developed and suited towards finding your direction.  

Using the template provided, list 5-10 items along the following criteria:

1. Skill
   What are you good at? What’s your trade?

2. Happiness
   What gives you joy? What do you do for fun?

3. Opportunity
   What trends or fields are growing right now?

4. Passion
   What do you geek out over? What do you lose a sense of time over?

5. Service (to others)
   How do you improve the human condition?

Your Superpower will come from the most used combination of the factors you’ve listed as important to you. Both Chris and I believe that maximising these will make you a super powerful and unique person.

There are some follow-up activities you can take, but I’ll let Chris Do talk you through those in his video.