Imposters gotta 'poster
I’m not exactly sure when I turned the corner from information architect to design professional, but if I had to document the time, I’d probably have to look at my watch in a dramatic fashion, look at the camera (which is not on, but is right in front of me), <insert an Oxford comma because they’re the best punctuation marks ever> and say, “now.”
I say now because I don’t think twice about giving design feedback to my crew of very talented designers.
I say now because I just presented the work of my team to another design professional and I totally held my own.
I say now because I’m being asked to ideate and plunge into a brave new world of designing awesome new experiences for people who ARE designers, which is fucking meta.
I say now because I’m being allowed to talk about design shit and generally breathe the same air as people who wrote the book on messy design. (This is entirely literal.)
I say now because I am an SME in the content space and I have access to SMEs in the adjacent design spaces who won’t let me down.
I say now because my boss has told me that I’ve gotta get over this imposter bullshit. I’m doing the work, ergo, I’m not an imposter.
I say now because everyone else seems to accept that I’m this thing and I hate being the last one to get the memo.
I can still be bad at the work and need to improve it. I’ve just reached my statute of limitations for blaming “being new here” for sucking. Being shitty at something doesn’t go away because I’m new at it anymore. It’s just being shitty (full stop) and probably crying over my bonus.
Pauses to yell at asshole dog, Reginald Templeton Toole, who is eating my adorable faux fur rug while simultaneously making super aggressively cute and unrepentant eye contact. <sigh> You guys haven’t met Reggie, but I assure you that he runs this house. He probably runs yours too. You just don’t know it yet.
But I digress…
If you had asked 25-year-old me to write down on a sticky note what I’d be doing for love and profit today, there’s no question I’d be writing, coaching writers, enabling writers, managing writers, or managing managers who manage writers. I still love those things.
I’m super passionate about the ways that people consume information. Get a few drinks in me at a conference and I will fight you over documentation strategies. (Or don’t. I’m kind of scrappy and definitely embarrassing.) But in this new age of design thinking and the brave new world that is the internet, things got a little squirrely along the way.
At some point I stepped out of line and opened my mouth a few too many times and somehow ended up where I am. Designing content experiences which are actually customer experiences… which are actually user experiences.
And it’s great, people. SO GOOD.
So while it’s been over 100 days since my last post (which I only know because my frand told me so) and there are so many things to talk about (pandemics, the crushing sadness of what’s going on with people I care deeply about in India, the new administration, BLM, social justice reform, drought, the Grishaverse and the release of the best character ever in Rule of Wolves, my undying love for my power zone training team), I’m choosing this one. Not to give myself a massive pat on the back, but because I’m a secret sufferer of crushing self doubt.
I know many of you are too.
And that shit is hard to shake.
So let’s take a moment to get real and give out a round of high fives to the ladies and gents who are trying new things and feel like they are imposters, but are driving absolutely transformative moments. You. You’re kicking ass. Your hair probably doesn’t look so good… but you’ll fix that shit after you get your vaccine and you’ll look super fine while you’re shooting your figurative shot.
And over here, I’ll be rooting you on… because a few of you are doing that for me. You know who you are and I see you. Everyone should be so lucky to have a squad like you!
