The Designer's Survival Guide

Navigating a design project gone wrong is like surviving a wilderness disaster: it takes strength, courage and cunning to make it out unscathed. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to increase your chances of survival. I'll discuss a few tips and tricks that will help steer you to safety.

Awareness is Critical

To survive a design disaster, it's critical to be aware of your terrain, in control of your emotions, and prepared for potential obstacles.

Know Your Terrain

Knowing your terrain means having a solid understanding of your client and project environment. What type of client are you working with? What are his/her goals and pet peeves? What is he/she expecting from you? Are you on track to meet your deadline? Understanding your terrain will help you make better choices through the process and keep you from making the same mistake twice.

Stay Calm

Emotions play a pivotal role in great design, but they should be kept to a minimum when things go south. Blaming your client for "just not getting it"–or yourself for not being good enough–will only cause your temperature to rise. When you find yourself getting emotional, take a deep breath and a step back so you see things clearly.

Plan for Falling Rocks

You don't want to be caught off-guard in the wild, or during a design project. One way to avoid surprises is to simply plan for obstacles: a client changing strategy or pushing out the schedule, for example. Building ample time into your schedule or explaining up front that returning to strategy late in the project will increase the budget are two ways you can gracefully manage falling rocks.

Progress is Everything

You now have a good understanding of your environment, control of your emotions, and a clear plan. You're out of the red zone. The next step is to get yourself out of this predicament entirely.

Take Decisive Action

Every time you face a new challenge, prepare to make a decision and quickly act on it. Same goes for when you've made a mistake–instead of hiding your weakness, take responsibility and let your client know right away. Then, take steps to fix the problem. These decisive, small course corrections will make you stronger and keep you moving forward.

Celebrate Your Successes

In a survival situation, hope is crucial. Unfortunately, losing hope is easy when angry clients or deadlines loom. Reminding yourself and your team of even minor successes will keep you uplifted through long stretches of suffering. Be sure to celebrate with clients, too–even a simple "thank you" at the conclusion of a difficult project phase can work wonders.

Read Signals and Signs

Every time you get stuck, open yourself up to subtle signs and signals that might usher in previously unseen opportunity. Have you glossed over an idea your client really loves? Have you taken full advantage of all the tools at your disposal? Keep an eye out for those unexpected gems.

Play

Allowing yourself to play games and experiment with new patterns, rhythms, and ways of doing things often leads to new techniques for survival. For example: If you're used to computer wireframes, try whiteboarding. If you're used to your office, try a co-working space. Experimenting helps you generate new ways of doing things, and have more fun.

Find Beauty

Even disaster can have its bright spots. Have you learned something about yourself? Have you found a fixable hole in your process? Finding beauty amid chaos keeps you in a positive frame of mind and reduces the chances you'll fall into despair.

Reality Check

The human brain is shockingly good at manufacturing stories that support unfounded guesses and assumptions. To keep your imagination from hijacking reality and sabotaging your chances of walking away from your design disaster, you must keep a firm grasp on reality.

Embrace Rock Bottom

You'll probably hit a wall once or twice along the way. Fortunately, these low points have a silver lining: rock bottom is where you see things for what they really are. Your design just isn't working, for instance? Scrap it. When you get to this point, take responsibility for the failed design and start over. These moments show your sincerity and intentions and can inspire more constructive feedback.

Let Go of Your Fear of Failure

People don't like to think about failure (or getting fired or losing a client). The result is often denial and ignorance–the very culprits that ultimately cause what you hope to prevent. Confronting the possibility of failure will force you to deal with the reality of your situation.

Don't Be a Victim

If you rely on someone else (your project manager, another designer) to come along and save you, then you're not just in trouble–you're really lost. You're sure to fail with a victim mentality, so remember: only you can save yourself.

The Final Steps

You've got a solid plan, the right attitude, and you understand the full weight of your situation. It's time to dig deep and drag yourself home.

Sprint to Safety

The journey's never done when you think it's done–there are usually a few more obstacles just before you touch home. You also tend to lower your defenses when you see the finish line. So be prepared to work even harder and sprint through those last few steps.

End On a Positive Note

Once disaster has been averted and you're past the finish line, don't forget to check in with your client to see if they need help with the transition. Leave them with a good impression–your last meeting will be the one they remember most.