Mindfulness in Design: The Power of Asking Why

Asking “Why?” is the first step towards being mindful in design.

I instructed my class at the Integrated Innovation Institute of Carnegie Mellon University to always ask “Why?” when tasked with developing a new product or feature. The majority of my students were experienced software engineers who excelled at bringing a product vision to life and had joined the institute to embark on a product management career path. I emphasized to them that even when they received an answer to their initial “why,” they should question that first answer with another “why.” Keep asking until both the person mandating the product or feature development and they themselves arrive at a deeper understanding of “if and what difference that product or feature would make in the target customers’ lives.” I would tell them that asking “why” repeatedly would not only reveal how the product or feature would perform a task but also how it considers the environment in which it will be used, how it would impact the behavior of the person using it, as well as their social relationships and rituals. Above all, asking “why” repeatedly would make the organization more mindful of the positive and potentially harmful consequences of introducing the product or feature into the world.

Obtaining an answer to the question “why” is not always easy because those being asked may not have an answer. Moreover, finding an answer to this question depends on who you ask and whether that person has the humility, patience, and openness to say, “I don’t know, but let us find out.” Typically, in an organization, it’s not uncommon for people in a position to mandate a project to work with prior (possibly outdated) knowledge, a hunch, a hypothesis, or just a passionate belief. Another barrier to pursuing a series of “why” questions is ego. Every time a person in authority has to admit they don’t know something, it can bruise their ego or slow down the decision-making process. In turn, the need for speed to market may work against conducting due diligence in understanding the core need.

I’ve also heard from many clients that career prospects and rewards are often tied to products shipped and profits generated. Those engaged in expanding consciousness and cultivating mindfulness are frequently considered “nice to have,” and they’re often the first to go when revenues shrink. Organizations tend to invest in marketing and sales at the expense of front-end research when revenues decline. They tend to focus on selling more aggressively and intelligently rather than identifying the alignment between what people need and what they’re developing. When the pressure to salvage sales mounts within an organization, research tends to become more tactical, near-term and leaning toward evaluative rather than generative.

In this context, I recall the reaction of a VP to a Generative research project we conducted for Microsoft in the area of K-12 education. For our meeting with about 40 client team members, we had prepared an immersive display of insights, patterns, and frameworks for insight translation. The event design was interactive and involved collaborative synthesis. At the end of a four-hour-long session, a VP pulled me aside and said, “I have always leaned towards quantitative research because it gives me more confidence in the results. However, after participating in your session today, I realized that I learned a lot of things I had never thought of and now have many ideas on how to proceed. On the other hand, today I felt that my quantitative projects primarily confirmed my hypotheses — sometimes I hear what my vendor knows I want to hear.” My takeaway from that reaction was that, in the realm of design and innovation, investments need to be made in discovering what we don’t know to uncover opportunities we may not even be aware exist.

I’d like to conclude this article with a poem I wrote when leading tech companies started laying off people in large numbers, particularly after several companies disbanded their trust and safety teams. I hope this poem resonates with you:

watch your step

When you walk

with your eyes

on the next step

you slow yourself down

When you set your eyes

ten steps ahead

you gain speed

and momentum

when you set

your eyes

beyond the horizon

you run

across. mountains

oceans. and forests

Reflecting on the message of this poem and the importance of mindfulness in design, I encourage you to consider the impact of your work and the value of looking beyond the immediate. By doing so, we can create products and experiences that not only meet current needs but also positively shape the future.