The 7 habits of highly effective designers

The IxDA mailing list had a recent thread on the 7 habits of highly effective designers. It reminded me that I had sent this exact content out to the Yahoo! Design Group as my farewell message. It was my way of passing along the wisdom I had learned working at Yahoo!.

I cleaned it up for public consumption, and I pass it along now to you. Items 2-4 are really only directly applicable in a large organization such as Yahoo!; Nonetheless, they should give you some perspective on your own situation. I hope you find them useful. And I highly encourage designers to take #7 to heart.

1. Understand the user needs/goals before you design. I could expound on this one in length, but instead here is my pithy aphorism: "First define the problem, then design a solution."
2. Partner with a sympathetic PM or developer who will help champion your design. All of my design successes at Yahoo! had this as a common component.
3. Connect with your fellow designers. This is something I wish I'd done more of in my time here. It not only connects you with other like-minded colleagues, but it also exposes you to other areas of the business and might open you up to internal transfer opportunities. Cross-pollination is definitely a good thing.
4. Write up design bugs. This is the most effective tactic I've found for keeping important design details from falling through the cracks.
5. Use a highly responsive tool for creating design mocks. I have tried out many programs over the years including Photoshop, Illustrator, PowerPoint, Interface Builder, Visual Basic, AppleScript, and a host of others for creation design mocks; Visio is my current favorite on the PC, and OmniGraffle on the Mac. They are both very responsive and mostly keeps out of my way letting me focus on the design.
6. Know Thyself. I highly recommend reading either Now, Discover Your Strengths or StrengthsFinder 2.0 and taking the test therein. I found it extremely valuable to know and focus on my strengths.
7. Apply your design skills to your passions. There is a huge need for design thinkers in all areas of our lives, not just web and software. I've had success applying my design skills to several non-profits. I'm optimistic that designers can help solve the biggest problems facing us today. I believe that designers will play a critical role in crafting Public Policy 2.0™ in areas as diverse as the environment, human rights, commerce, and law. I'd love to see one of your names in the news when it happens.