Think like Spock

✨ Help Sprintfolio Chart the Stars and Boldly Go Where No UX Has Gone Before

Apr 29, 2024

This is something I try to instill in our designers, and something I remind them often, because unlike a big company; I am the cofounder, the product designer, the instructional designer, the research team and the marketing team. I can’t separate myself when I’m asking for feedback on Sprintfolio’s behalf. I merely can remind them, I am like them – a UX designer that is trying to be unbiased even though my very human nature fights against it.

After all, this is the reality and I am a human. Not an ounce Vulcan, unfortunately 😉

I believe in this regard, design within a startup setting is significantly harder than other fields. Visuals are devastatingly subjective, and many users have been using their eyes all their lives 🙂

What I’ve learned from this wacky adventure of trying to build a UX edtech startup is that you…

ABSOLUTELY…

CAN NOT…

MUST NOT…

WILL NOT…

lose your sense of conviction.

Because, how does one continue this topsy-turvy path that is riddled with obstacles and so much self sacrifice, competing against larger entities without as many resources - go on without getting crushed?

You simply CAN NOT be defensive about feedback.

The very core to being a good UX designer, specifically, is to be unbiased as much as possible.

It can be hard to take in feedback for creative folks who feel passionate about the things they work on. For myself, it is sometimes difficult since Sprintfolio was sparked from my shared pain points transitioning into this field.

To have conviction while also being unbiased is a practice that must be tended to.

I call this practice – ego resilience.

Finding the capacity to keep your ego intact and recover from difficulties. It is the ability to discern between logic and emotion, and execute on action with a risk barometer.

Like an effective rubber band that snaps back in shape, I have to maintain a sense of ego, but also be capable of letting my assumptions be knocked down so I can gain a better understanding on how to improve.

Recently a UX designer with 39K LinkedIn followers reviewed our website and sent over a long list of questions.

I was thrilled at the interest and sent a video reply. Here’s a quote from her response to my video that stood out to me:

"I was surprised to find that you have presentation days, and you have multiple designers working separately on the same project for the same client to create a pool of solutions for them to pick.
None of these are clarified on the home page of the Sprintfolio. What I originally thought was that you match one designer with one client and they work with them like a freelancer with the help of the AI assistant and a mentor. I thought like a freelancer, the design would be implemented directly to the product with the help of a developer.
That's why I had so many questions and I felt confused about the whole process…. What you're doing is something between a bootcamp project and a hackathon except that the subject of the project is a real-world product.”

Of course, I was incredibly appreciative for the interest. When I first read the message, a rush of thoughts filled my mind—reflections on our origins, the energy we invested, and the hard choices we had to make to evolve.

Originally, Sprintfolio was conceived as a matchmaking service: one designer, one developer, and one client stakeholder.

This model was highly sought after, providing immense value as a completely free service. However, it required a significant amount of energy, coordination, and effort on my cofounders’ and my part. We didn’t have AI to assist us, and we managed most tasks manually, running about 85 sprints in this fashion.

We started feeling like project managers more than product designers, and that was rather tiring. Of course, for the value it offered and the results that we witnessed, we tried very hard to keep this model, but it was incredibly unsustainable. It took time away from our own development and there were so many timelines to keep track of (especially since we were international and each sprint had it’s own timeline).

We transitioned to what I describe as 'mass sprints', offering multiple solutions per client. This model is similar to a hackathon, though we were cautious not to be perceived purely in those terms. We felt that traditional hackathons often cater more to developers than designers, and we didn’t want our designers to feel they were merely producing non-impactful case studies for temporary challenges. We were conscientious of the burn outs that designers were facing during economic hardships.

The fact of the matter is that without case studies, UX designers would be categorized as graphic or visual designers. Similar to math class – the sentiment amongst senior designers, if you don’t document your decisions decisions based on data, you are not “showing your work.”

Our latest iteration of Sprintfolio utilizes AI to expand impact.

For our public beta – we’ve crafted a model where designers can take the lead in the client-designer relationship, working on solutions that not only serve their portfolios but also provide them with valuable, actionable feedback. We ensure our client partners understand that we are thinkers, not an ultimate replacement for their design teams. They benefit from seeing their challenges approached from multiple angles, and if they wish for implementation, they have the opportunity to hire directly from a talented pool.

Here’s a graph of the way I see how we stack against other solutions:

My little band of 24 substack subscribers, I need your help.

Help me decipher this feedback from a designer that genuinely wants to understand Sprintfolio and promote it. When you review our website…

What’s the biggest value you see?
What’s the most confusing aspect of it?
If you had a magic wand, what would you change/add/delete?

As Spock has said, “"Insufficient facts always invite danger."

What am I missing? What questions are unanswered?

Leave your thoughts as a comment to this newsletter or send me an email to kai at sprintfolio.com.

What does the final frontier look like for us?

As I continue on this journey, the principles of managing emotions, biases, assumptions and maintaining conviction to solve the root of the problem — much like Spock and his silly quest to collaborate with those pesky humans —remain at the heart of what we teach and practice. Embracing feedback without losing our core convictions or becoming defensive is essential in the ever-evolving field of UX and AI design. It's this balance that enables us and our designers to thrive in a startup environment, pushing the boundaries of creativity and innovation.

Our commitment to refining our model with the insights gained from your feedback ensures that we remain adaptable and thorough. I remain committed to our ongoing mission: to explore AI-driven learning, to connect designers to personalized and rewarding real-world experiences in AI + Web3; to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Thank you for being a part of this voyage into the unknown. Live long and prosper 🖖