8Knorks—design around dinner, in Chandigarh

8Knorks is a dinner table where eight voices combine and rise to discuss the future of design, and its impact on the people for whom we design, around their stories, their success, and their constraints.

The table is set in the beautiful Chandigarh, on 12 July. A Friday evening. Windy.

Say it aloud

Does your current work engagement give you a chance to be vulnerable? Was there a time when your design hands were tied for whatever reasons?

And could you say it aloud? Not always I guess. We are born with some constraints and we live so.

8Knorks gives you a chance to say it loudly that you are vulnerablebecause you are never quoted anywhere.

Vinish Garg tweets about an invite only dinner event—8Knorks, in Chandigarh

The organization may lose that customer. We may lose that contract. And so we do not shift the left sidebar to the right side.

We work with so many constraints, really. And these constraints never allow us to ask tough questions.

The click on CTA and the notification of new sign up on father’s day, gets so important that we rarely bother to imagine what happens to that customer on children’s day.

8Knorks give you a chance to ask really tough questions. And you get all the time to discuss and try to find answers too.

The theme—tough questions in design

The hardest part

What is the hardest part of your work, in current or recent sprint?

  • Design approvals
  • Erratic product management
  • Unstructured customer feedback, and so annoying meetings

Here is a reason to identify and then discuss the hardest part in our work.

Products Fail

It is so well-documented that products fail everywhere. It can be:

  • Weak leadership
  • Questions around product-market or market-product fit
  • Poor investment in team culture and processes
  • Scaleability (funds, people)
  • Wrong pivot

But, what is that one factor that could have (really, could have) saved the sinking ship? A stable and reasonably mature product that is designed for the right problems of the identified customers, at the right time.

As for services agencies, they should should get rid of *anti-product thinking* and start designing products that actually sell and scale.

Bold

  • “But they are huge and they have the sources and budget to work on a design system!”
  • “But the client did not agree, and we had to deliver fast! “
  • “But our lead engineer quit without a proper handover and the project had to extend! “

For many services agencies, these part of their Cbnb—Culture, Bed, and Breakfast.

Join us to discuss what to do with the broken pieces, to reuse, recycle, donate, discard, or to fix.

We see how folks invest in fangotherapy, dipping feet in mud for cleansing unwanted elements. 8Knorks is the space to start cleaning our unwanted work variables. Think about it but we have very limited seats.

“If we are not prepared to ask tough questions from each other, we may not be prepared to solve even simple problems.”

12 July, Chandigarh.

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Vinish Garg

Vinish Garg

I am Vinish Garg, and I work with growing product teams for their product strategy, product vision, product positioning, product onboarding and UX, and product growth. I work on products for UX and design leadership roles, product content strategy and content design, and for the brand narrative strategy. I offer training via my advanced courses for content strategists, content designers, UX Writers, content-driven UX designers, and for content and design practitioners who want to explore product and system thinking.

Interested to stay informed about my work, talks, writings, programs, or projects? See a few examples of my past newsletters—All things products, Food for designInviting for 8Knorks. You can subscribe to my emails here.

Vinish Garg is an independent consultant in product content strategy, content design leadership, and product management for growing product teams.