So what, who cares?
I’m working through the “So what, who cares” part of this thesis outline, and I’m finding it the hardest to articulate crisply and with some sort of confidence. I actually know why the work matters, and to whom. But I’m stuck in this worry about so what and who cares, and the “amount” of translation I can and should do to make the content practical and actionable.
In strategy consulting, my role is to impact strategy. Clients can think about strategy on their own, so I need to offer something valuable that they can’t do, or feel they need help with. That’s more than my brain. It’s also my ability to make things, and my ability to translate ambiguity into an action that can be taken.
But this isn’t strategy consulting. It’s a scholarly investigation, and the output has different goals and serves different purposes. In this case, it contributes to a larger understanding of the way design education impacts the nature of a creative identity—the broad purpose is to contribute knowledge to a larger conversation. The data, my interpretation of the data, and my argument of and around the data is the value of the work.
So, where does actionability live?
There are a few ways I can think about this:
I’ve offered you the potential to think about something in a new way.
Design scholars and design educators have an existing way of contemplating design education, and this work will say “here’s a different lens through which to consider your understanding of this unique educational experience: design students are emerging with a conflicted sense of identity.” It’s likely that, as a result of looking at something in a new way, someone may change their mind or actions; but it’s not my responsibility to get them there.
But is simply pointing it out “enough” actionability? I’m getting conflicting input on that from people I respect; I’m conflicted about it, too. Consultant-me says “that’s nice, but I’m not paying you for that.” But again, this isn’t a game of consulting. I’m literally paying money to do this work, not doing work for hire (that’s not entirely true: my Ph.D. is funded. But nevertheless….)
I’ve offered you the potential to think about something in a new way, and this, specifically, is the new way.
That’s probably a framework. Scholars love frameworks. Maybe everyone loves frameworks. Literally, this is probably a chart or graph or novel visualization that takes the content of the work and drills into the essence of the identity contradiction I’m making. Students are emerging with a specific style of conflicted identity, and this is what it looks like in a diagrammatic form. I’ve made the new way of looking at something explicit.
I’ve made obvious the implication of the work.
If we don’t do something about the conflicted identity, or if we do, or if we do it a little or in different ways, this is what will happen. The world will end, or it won’t end, or it will end a little. I see value in leaving the contradiction at play in studio while making it overt to students. I also see value in questioning the insider and exclusive nature of “real designers.” And I see value in encouraging the entrepreneurial self in all of its anxiety-inducing provocations and richness, because it leads to change and a sense of creative confidence. I could offer these, and other outcomes.
Here is how to make those implications actionable.
I can show actionability by saying I’ve made obvious the implications of the work, and here are a set of actual, practical things an educator can do in the classroom, or a student can do, or a hiring manager can do, or anyone can do, to pursue any one of these ideas. This is much closer to what I’m comfortable with. This gets to methods, techniques, steps, and so-on. In the example dissertations I’ve read, this is Not What Happens.
Here are the implications of the work, and this is what I think we should do about it and here is specifically and literally how I think we should do it.
This means picking a side, picking a team. This is a part in the work where I get to have a strong opinion and assert it, probably with less supporting evidence, as the whole point of the thesis was to have already made the argument and output somewhat inevitable. Again, this is not how the various samples I’ve read conclude. They really, really hedge.
Some exercises...
Carl offered several practical suggestions, two more helpful than the third, all three appreciated tremendously.
This first is to use the model presented in The Craft of Research (over 700,000 copies sold!), specifically section 3.4, which perhaps ironically is a set of literal steps on how to do this. It is a so-what exercise; mine looks like this:
I am trying to learn the type of creative identity that is formed in design education
I am examining the type of creative identity that is formed in design education because I want to find out what challenges students face while working towards gaining a sense of creative confidence
I am examining the type of creative identity that is formed in design education because I want to find out what challenges students face while working towards gaining a sense of creative confidence, in order to help my reader understand the internal (non-skill-based) challenges that students face while learning to be designers
I don’t think this was helpful, because I’ve been doing this over the last year, albeit in a much less structured way: this has been the Space of Inquiry that I’ve been shaping.
Much more helpful, however, has been the suggestion to make a chart of the juxtaposition of the conflict as a tool for seeing what, exactly, might be actionable.
This is pretty much a framework without cute arrows and overlapping venn circles:
| Questions that emerge during design education | As an Entrepreneurial Subject | As a Design Insider | Ideas that are unresolved |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is a designer’s relationship with the artificial world around them? | The world is full of problems waiting to be solved | Things and situations in the world can be critically examined and understood | How do I exist in a state of examination, when there are problems that need to be solved right now (and it takes me so long to solve those problems)? |
| What is a designer’s creative value? | Creative value is in making innovations that no one has seen before | Creative value is in a process of exploration | How can I spend time exploring lots of choices, when I’m expected to hand in a project to be graded on its uniqueness? |
| How is a designer’s creative value delivered? | Design requires risk-taking | Design requires engaging with patterns and systems | Should I try to do something no one has seen before, or should I follow conventions and patterns and templates? |
| Who benefits from the success of a designer? | A designer owns the risks and reaps the rewards | Designers share in the benefits of creative exploration | How much should I share my ideas with other people? |
| How does a designer view the design studio educational environment? | Studio is a space where students do their work | Studio is a place where groups socialize, commiserate, and share ideas | What does it mean to be creatively productive? |
| Who can a designer trust and rely on? | Designers trust themselves and their abilities | Designers rely on one-another through earned trust, constant feedback, and shared creative languages | Should I seek out critique? How should I react to a negative or harsh critique? |
| How does a designer do their best work? | Good design comes through long hours of hard work | Good design emerges through dialogue and conversation | How do I know if I was productive? |
| How can a designer improve their work? | Improvement comes from practice and hard work, leading to skill development | Improvement comes through a cycle of practice, sharing and criticism | How will I become good enough to make money? |
| What are ways to understand oneself in relationship to design? | Design is a vocation | Design is a way of being | What is the purpose of my education? |
The last column becomes implicitly actionable. It says I’ve made obvious the implication of the work. The implication is that there are a set of unresolved identity questions, and these are them. But... still not explicitly actionable, though.
I’m going to take Carl’s last piece of advice: just write it the way it feels right, and treat it like a prototype. So, I’m going to write the So What, Who Cares as a set of practical things an educator can go do to address these identity questions literally as set of steps, methods, and techniques. Maybe this is too much of a consulting hat, but if it’s a prototype, I don’t care.
So there we are.