“Like the soil, mind is fertilized while it lies fallow, until a new burst of bloom ensues.”
–John Dewey

Presently, it will be a year since I started working at Nokia. Since starting, I have been involved in several back-to-back projects with the usual short time frames and high demands. If ever ideas began to flourish in the midst of these projects that were outside of the scope, I did not have the time to give them attention to grow. They withered and faded in the bustle of productivity.

One of the great things about my graduate school experience was being in an environment and culture that encouraged exploration, cultivation of new connections between disparate ideas, and tolerance for failure. Even though I had less time and more stress in school than I currently have at work, the conditions made it possible for me to wander, to go off on ideas just to see where they led. Built within the framework of my graduate work there existed space to explore. Pursuit of tangential ideas was expected and it often led to the learning and production of designs that were beyond what could have possibly been asked for.

Reflecting on the past year, and while setting objectives for my next six months with Nokia, I realize I miss the wanderings of my grad school experience, and desire to have those wandering be a part of my current experience. While it may be something my team would support and understand as valuable, the greater organizational culture may not tolerate the sacrifice to production. Wandering needs to be part of the culture and holistic, Just as Google’s 20 percent personal project time is part of their culture, wandering needs to be understood within the culture as contributing to productivity. For that to happen, it needs to be supported as a productive activity, where the ideas that surface are encouraged to become realized.

During casual conversations, others have commiserated their need to wander as well, to have time to pursue an idea when it comes up, to not have it slip away. I wonder how much creativity and innovation is lost when people don’t have time to nurture their ideas. In the innovation gold rush, can wandering be an untapped mine of creativity? How can we use design as an approach to understand the needs of people and business, and help shape organizational culture to support both?

Are you a designer who checks Twitter incessantly (or at least occasionally) and also wants daily insights into the thoughts and desires of the people who use the products and services you design for? Then perhaps you should start following your users on Twitter.

As a still relatively new Nokia designer, and having little experience with Nokia products and services previously, that’s exactly what I’ve started doing. I found, Mark Guim, a 25-year-old, self-described Nokia fanboy who currently resides in New York as he pursues a second bachelor’s in nursing. He has a Twitter feed and also is the editor of The Nokia Blog. I started following him on Twitter about a month ago, and have really been tickled by how much I’m learning about his feelings about Nokia’s products, from technical features to experience.

“after a week with Nokia E71, I’m back to N85. Love the qwerty but damn pics and videos come out purple.” -thenokiablog, 9:07 AM Dec 31st, 2008

Seeking out your users online isn’t a new idea, even on Twitter. Increasingly, marketing folks from the products and services I use (and likely complain about: hi Comcast!) have started following their customers on Twitter, which is great I’m sure for spotting trends, damage control, and promotions. But if Comcast follows me, they get mostly nothing about how I feel about Comcast services (though it might be good if they paid attention to all the user-centered design stuff).

Conversely, Mark broadcasts his feelings and day-in-the-life interactions with the Nokia products he uses in a way that most designers only dream of when putting together journals and other reporting paraphrenia for design research. It also feels a lot like another design research activity: shadowing. Not only do I get Mark’s thoughts, but also his interactions with other Nokia users who interact with him.

“interesting points from commenter: ‘Nokia N97 is no where near revolutionary enough to wait 6 months for’ http://is.gd/dQFD“-thenokiablog, 10:14 AM Dec 28th, 2008

Could Twitter or blog shadowing become a new design method? I’m curious if other designers are using Twitter or other services as a means to gain user insights by following specific people’s online publishing and behavior. And while I haven’t done it, I wonder what it would be like to start mapping the insights and really using them in future projects.

I haven’t really said much about the Nokia Design team that I’m part of here in San Francisco, but here’s the whole lot of us! From left to right: me, Raphael Grignani, Rita Parada, and Carrie Chan. Jan Chipchase took this photo.

Nokia Design has offices in Helsinki, London, and Los Angeles. Our office kicked off in August and represents Nokia’s effort to be more involved in the Bay Area design community. Within Nokia Design, we fall within Nokia’s new Service and User Interface Design (SUID) group.

I’m still trying to understand how SUID fits into Nokia Design, and what Nokia Design’s relationship is to the rest of Nokia, so don’t ask. ;)

Obviously, I have not been writing much recently. There are a number of reasons for this. First, I needed a break from all the design thinking to remember how to function with the rest of the humans. It seems they don’t often talk about design or know what I’m talking about.

Second, I’ve had a lot to do in the way of preparing for my move to San Francisco and Nokia. I moved out of my apartment and will be leaving Pittsburgh in a few days for a road trip that I haven’t completely planned yet. In general, I’m visiting a few folks in the east, then heading to the top of the country, hitting state and national parks along the way. Some stops include Geneva, New York; Vienna, Virginia; Charlottesville, Virginia; Great Smoky Mountains; Badlands; and Glacier National Park. I’ll eventually arrive in Mammoth Lakes around early August, where I’ll stay for a bit before heading to San Francisco. I’m doing this by myself and living in my car or a yet-to-be-purchased tent. I’m pretty excited for the adventure.

Finally, it’s been difficult to blog as I have not had a laptop since mid May when we had to return the ones the School of Design let us use during our time there. Not having a laptop has really cut down all the design reading that often inspired posts. Of course, not being in school and exposed to great teachers and peers has also had its impact. But I suspect I will pick up again when I start working.

Until then, don’t expect much from me unless I bite it and buy a laptop or make posts through my iPhone from the road.

I am happy to announce that I will be joining Nokia at their new design office in San Francisco this August. The group is headed by Raphael Grignani, who inspired me with this response when I asked him what he would expect from me.

“I expect you to devise and execute with the project team digital design solutions that are compelling and relevant to people. You should be able to adapt and improve the various design methods and techniques you are familiar with to cope with challenges in designing solutions with people’s behavioral changes and their impact on society in mind. I require that you are equally comfortable in contributing or leading a project since project-lead roles rotate. I expect you to share your experiences, opinions, and passions with the others and to learn from them as well. Finally I count on you to be a thought leader that actively contributes to the design community at large – blogging, conference talks, teaching and mentoring students, etc. To sum this up, I want you to talk a lot, to ask a lot of questions, to be eager to learn, to share your opinion and to value creativity above else.”

If you read my blog and know me, you’re probably thinking, “That sounds like Jamin.” I thought it sounded like me, too. And after considering some compelling alternatives, it felt like the right decision. I’m really excited about joining the team. And really excited not to be looking for a job. ;)