Chapter 14 – Don’t Let Details Get in the Way of the Big Picture

There comes a time in every project where the details become absolutely critical to success. The key, though, is to understand when that time is and when they are a hindrance.

Let’s run through a scenario.

A leader comes to the team with an exciting idea for a new product. With boundless excitement they begin to lay out their vision and try to get some brainstorming going. In this energized and creative mode, imagine questions being injected:

“Have we decided on a payment gateway?”

“What about the secondary-settings screen? Should we consider a pop-up?”

“What design framework will this use?”

“Have we thought through the hierarchy of the heading tags?”

“What about the user stories?”

“What about multiple languages?”

“What is the expected load time?”

You may have heard these types of questions. The type of questions thrown on the tracks of a hype train that does nothing but derail the momentum.

There are a lot of important questions that need to be answered in order to ensure the idea is viable, attainable, and the right company and market fit. Things need to be hammered out so that the team has the best possible chance of success. What’s more, you may be absolutely full of experience and information that can provide excellent guardrails for the planning.

For the benefit of your career, though, it’s important to learn when these should be asked and when you should allow an excited and free-flowing session to continue. To partake in an initial, exciting brainstorming session and attempt to whittle down every outside case piece of minutia is to ensure you’ll never be invited again.

This ability to enable excitement and ideation is a useful skill for a designer (adjacent to chapter 13, Learn How to Fight Through Ambiguity). Focus on the big picture and add to the creative flow rather than choke it out.

There is no grand prize for the person in the session who finds the detail that halts the ideation. There is no charm or accolades to be had for stopping a big idea with tiny points. Allow some assumptions to be made. Allow grandiose ideas to be proposed. Give accommodations to your coworkers that if the large, difficult ideas gain any traction, you’ll be able to sort out the details later as needed.

Imagine being one of two designers in a company:

The first is an open-minded, creative, and trusting person who receives others’ enthusiasm with enthusiasm in kind. When someone entrusts them with their exciting idea, they do not immediately poke holes or worry about the minutia. Instead, they fuel the idea and offer unique perspectives, helping it expand it into something amazing.

The second person is one who thinks themselves very intelligent and experienced with concepts. When a colleague with great energy tells them of an idea, they can immediately see the flaws in their thinking and let them know about it. They’ve done it before and know a myriad of little issues that won’t allow it to continue. What’s more, if the person hasn’t thought through the decisions needed in the process, it’s hard to get on board.

Of these two designers, which do you think receives more visitors with great ideas? Which one is sought after when somebody wants to try something new or big?

Doing this does not grant permission to forget important details that always prove vital to a project’s success. It doesn’t mean we can just hop aboard any idea and take it for a doomed ride. Rather, it’s an approach to allow an idea to form and grow amongst an invested team, to allow everyone to unfold ideas of “what if” before applying some of the rigors of our training.

If you want to be sought after and included in the big, important movements and projects within a company, learn to ignore natural impulses to chide or correct, and instead meet the enthusiasm of others with your own. Allow yourself to wonder what could be possible. Assume that if the ideas prove powerful and interesting, you and your team are capable enough to address the details later.

Don’t let details get in the way of the big picture.