Before a few weeks ago, the only experiences I had with flying were commercial airlines and action movies. This summer, I’m participating in the Scott Scholars Design Studio Internship. My team has been asked to create an app for the pilots in the 55th Wing of the United States Air Force, an extreme task for a group of six young adults with no flight experience whatsoever. To tackle this challenge, my team and I have been applying both interpersonal skills and aspects of the Stanford Design Thinking method.
The most critical phase of Design Thinking, and the one that sets it apart from all others, is Empathy. Empathy can be applied in all aspects of the designing process, from technically-focused work to the team dynamic itself. When approaching a problem, Design Thinking encourages designers to step out of their typical role and into the place of their end user. For example, my team stepped into the shoes (and seats!) of pilots and navigators in the Air Force. By immersing ourselves in the environment of those that we were designing for, we could better understand the needs of our clients. Sitting in the pilot’s chair during the flight simulations we participated in lent me a unique perspective on the work we were doing. While flying, everything can and will go wrong. Small malfunctions at five hundred miles an hour quickly compound into massive issues that a plane crew must deal with in a short amount of time. It became clear to me, as I pulled the yoke up in a desperate attempt to avoid a bad landing, that the Air Force needs to streamline as much as possible to avoid devastating errors. This emphasized the importance of empathy. Without going in the sim or hearing the stories from pilots, I never would have known just how difficult flying a plane could be, especially with a lack of accessible tools for the job. I also realized just how much I didn’t know. Most of the Air Force’s issues related to aspects of flying that I’d never even thought of before, like the impact cold weather has on the plane’s altimeter, or the difference between a true heading and a magnetic one. It was humbling to remember that I didn’t -couldn’t- know everything, and reminded me to keep a beginner’s mindset when empathizing with end users. I’ve never worked in their profession. Pretending to know more than I do would only get in the way of true understanding. The same ideas of keeping a beginner’s mindset and putting yourself into the shoes of others can also be applied when working with a team. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that your teammates are people too, with their own motivations, desires, and needs outside of the work environment. By empathizing with your teammates as well as your clients, you develop a better understanding of why your colleagues do what they do. This helps in managing conflict. Having an understanding of what makes a person tick can help to find a solution that fulfills both the needs of the group and the needs of the individual. This will almost always create a better solution than if you cater solely to one or the other. Empathy also encourages setting aside personal biases and ego in favor of facilitating greater understanding between people. By practicing empathy, it’s easier to accept that you may not be the smartest or most knowledgeable person in the room. Ego death will make ideas flow more freely between team members, and much of the judgment that comes with believing you’re somehow superior will vanish. Empathy is a powerful tool that isn’t used often enough, especially in today’s world. By practicing a beginner’s mindset and putting oneself into other people’s shoes, teams become exponentially stronger and the link between designer and end user lends more intuitive, game changing results.
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