Delicious Confusion

Hi everyone! Welcome to my mini-world of chaos where I (try to) share everything within and beyond Design. Yes, you may frequently find yourself between blogs varying from "Design system guidelines" to "How to take care of a cat." Sometimes my tribe can be a LITTLE overdramatic..

So, first things first. I am Mehak Samaiya, a Product Designer at Juspay. Most folks recognize me as the one with the loudest laugh in the office. I'm also an extrovert who is responsible for starting conversations. I do design stuff too.. just FYI.

I had a lot of ideas before penning out this blog, but nothing felt as necessary to convey as this one. You remember days when we have so much on our plate work-wise and are too tight on bandwidth to even think of something else. Days we spend juggling our work-life balance.. Days we spend in existential crisis.. Days we unfortunately (unknowingly) end up JUST functioning. When we function mindlessly, we make half-baked shit. Shit that's not thought through. Shit that gets handed off, well, somewhat unwillingly. We've all been there.

So, why does this happen? Is it because of a poorly managed schedule? Is it because we have not understood the product well enough? Are we making it complex unnecessarily? Is it because of that naggy project manager? Or is it the creative block? None of that.

When you get assigned to a project, albeit a small ad-hoc requirement, what's your first reaction? Are you excited about it? Are you getting butterflies in your tummy about learning a whole new thing? Are you happy you got to do it first - out of everyone else? No?

At (most) times, we are so deep into the machine mode that we forget to appreciate the beauty of our profession. Where else in the world will we get to be a part of SO MANY challenges, all holding Design as one of the founding pillars of the solution. And all we can think of is, what's the deadline? What's the exact thing to be handed off? I don't get it, there is too much confusion here..

I'm not saying these things should not be thought of at all. No, being aware of timelines and deliverables is very important. But for a moment, step back and enjoy the delicious confusion around the challenge you're about to take charge of. Yes, it will take you many iterations and a lot of collaborative feedback to turn that delicious confusion into a delicious solution. But isn't that what you're here for? Fuel that delicious confusion with an obsessive curiosity and see how things change.

Gosh, I sound like Rancho, do I?..