Design ideas become stronger when we are brave enough to share our unpolished concepts.

Throughout the Forging Resilience Project, it has been startling to continuously observe and hear how students are worried to share their work for fear of criticism and rejection. Students describe how when they throw their “heart and soul” into a project, receiving negative feedback can be especially painful. It is wise to remember that, as one student states, “we are not our work!”

Design ideas grow in strength when we are brave enough to share concepts with peers, experts, and also everyday people. In sharing our ideas, we test assumptions, activate empathy, invalidate functions and features, and generally build better solutions for people. The process of designing can feel messy, with many sketches and unresolved jumps from one concept to the next. Sharing this messy aspect of our work in its simplest representation can often be a way of sparking co-creative potential. You might even realize new perspectives in your project that lead to incredible new value that you couldn’t possibly have imagined on your own.

For teachers, we advise conducting silent coaching and letting peer feedback guide studio learning. Sketching and visualizations are also important to show progress. Instead of showing highly rendered gorgeous concepts, try sketching your concept and the value created in the simplest of line sketches. Don’t worry about the color or shading – focus on what value is being created and for whom. After all, it’s what the concept can achieve in terms of opening up new conversations and dialogue. This potential does not always need highly refined or beautifully rendered drawings to achieve.