Saying Good Riddance to 2020

​ ​ ​ ​ Hello Indiana, So this will be my last email of 2020 and like pretty much everybody I know I will be heaving a huge sigh of relief to see this year in my rearview mirror. However, it would be a mistake to dismiss 2020 as a horrible nightmare and move on. There are lessons to be learned from all that we have been through from the pandemic to polarised politics. Let's be honest; as a sector, we got off fairly likely in 2020. In fact, many of us have been busier than ever before. However, that doesn't mean we cannot learn from our experience and what we have seen others go through. So in this email, I want to share four lessons I am taking away from 2020, starting with how important it is to be prepared. We Need to be Prepared 2020 has made it very clear that things can change rapidly and that we need to be prepared for a variety of worst-case scenarios. This is particularly true if you run your own agency or freelance business. We need to have ample savings behind us but also have built a robust sales funnel that is not simply reliant on word of mouth recommendation. We also need a diversified client base, so if one sector suffers, we can turn to others to pick up the slack. However, being prepared is also important if you work in-house too. Job security is largely a thing of the past which means we need to be networking with potential employers, ensuring our CV is up to date and making sure we have a personal financial buffer. We also need to be prepared to adapt if colleagues are made redundant, and we are expected to pick up the slack. Are we working as efficiently as possible and do we have some space in our schedule for the unexpected? But being prepared isn't just about mitigating risk; it is also about being able to adapt to a changing environment. We Need to Focus on Outcomes, Not Approaches COVID has forced us all to rethink the way we work. We like to develop working methodologies, but when the world changes around us, those approaches may not always remain suitable. Unfortunately, we have a habit of holding on to our ways of doing things long after their usefulness ends. We also blindly carry out the same reoccurring tasks without questioning whether there are better things we could be doing with our time. Take, for example, workshops. As a community of UX and digital professionals, we love to run workshops from design sprints to customer journey mapping. However, when you have to social distance workshops no longer remain viable. Unfortunately, it would seem many have hung on to the idea of a workshop despite these restrictions, trying to recreate them with tools like Miro and Zoom. But remote workshops don't work as well. When circumstances change, we need to take a step back and ask ourselves what outcomes we seek to achieve, rather than fixating on the method we use to achieve them. For example, a workshop is not the only way to produce a customer journey map, so why hold on to an approach that is just not suitable online? There are better ways. 2020 has been a year that has pushed us to challenge how we work, but it has also taught us that we can do more than we think. We Can Do More Than We Think Possible I am gobsmacked at how fast humanity can act when it is under threat. Vaccines that normally take a decade to create have been produced in under a year; hospitals have been built within a matter of days, and organisations around the world have adapted to the demands of social distancing while still carrying out business as usual. I have seen organisations that swore remote working wouldn't work for them move to it in days without a hitch. I have also seen businesses that worked entirely offline, transition their products and services to digital delivery in a matter of weeks. The lesson here is that we can achieve more than we think if we are just willing to give it a go. Too often, we are defeated by our own pessimism and belief that something is impossible. Hopefully, we can learn from this experience and turn 2021 into a year of experimentation; that we will trial ideas that previously might not have been considered, even if only on a limited basis. You see, I don't believe that this pandemic can only be seen in negative terms. It has provided opportunities too. Be Ready to Grasp Opportunities Let's face it; digital has become more important than ever before and delivering an outstanding online experience has become crucial to success for many businesses over this time. It is now our job to maintain this profile and keep the momentum going. It falls to us to ensure our colleagues and clients do not fall back into old ways of working, but instead maintain the adaptability and digital focus that have defined 2020. But more than that, we have seen lots of examples of companies turn this pandemic into an opportunity to pivot their business and adapt to the changes. We all need that kind of mindset, looking for opportunities in every circumstance. Because even if this crisis looks like it might be passing, it will not be the last. The next one might not be global. It might be limited to your country, sector or even your business, but it will come. You will have to remain adaptable, willing to challenge how you work, and you will need to be ready to grasp new opportunities. Enter 2021 With Confidence So looking ahead to 2021, I hope that you will be embracing it with a new mindset that has been shaped by this shitty year. That next year you will be better prepared for the unexpected and ready to adapt to change. To support you in that I want to offer you the chance to have a one-to-one session with me for £130+VAT — let's call it a power hour! A one-hour session where we look at your business or role and ask, how can you be better prepared and ready to adapt? How can you get the most from 2021? If that sounds of interest, you can book an appointment here. I will keep the offer open until the end of January. Whether you sign up or not, I want to wish you a stunning break over the holiday period and I will email you again in the new year. Let's hope it is a better year than 2020! ​ ​ ​ If you no longer want to hear from me, I completely understand and you can unsubscribe from all emails here. Alternatively, if you need to update any of the information about yourself you can edit your profile here. ​ ​