Collaboration

In countries like those where I come from, citizens hesitate to reach out to the Police and many other governmental support because more often than not, it means putting your finger into an ant hill.

• Many of us do not trust them
• We do not trust the system to be supportive
• We know it is a lot of hassle - time consuming/ laborious paper work  etc etc

I draw parallels of this scenario with that of 'collaboration' in large corporations. There is a lot of buzz around working in 'start up mode' inside a large corporation because people are beginning to realize that the sheer size/logistics slows us down and we cannot afford to.

Breaking silos is not an easy task. Some wish to not open the can of worms and accept redundancy to be more peaceful .
Some others, do take the on the huge task of breaking silos - to collaborate - to reach out and avoid redundancy. This is not for the faint hearted. Some give up, a few continue on.

Such a task has nothing to do with the ultimate success/failure of a project/product. However, more often than not, it is the success/failure of the project/product that gets recognized or rewarded. Reducing the challenge some people take to break silos and reduce redundancy to nothing.

Irrespective of project/product outcomes - why is 'collaboration' not recognized/rewarded enough even though everyone recognizes this as such an important part of working efficiently?

How do you define 'good design?'

I have been asked this question during many interviews throughout my career.
Each time I feel, my answer to this question will make/break my chances of getting that job.

I never had a straight forward answer because I believe there is none. There is no all encompassing definition of good design. It has so many different perspectives to it.

Inherently, I knew the principles, but I could never do an elevator pitch on this.
Thanks to a colleague, I came across this documentation of 'Good Design' principles by Dieter Rams.

• Good design is innovative
• Good design makes a product useful
• Good design is aesthetic
• Good design makes a product understandable
• Good design is unobtrusive
• Good design is honest
• Good design is long lasting
• Good design is thorough, down to the last detail
• Good design is environment friendly
• Good design is as little design as possible

I whole-heartedly agree to these principles. My favourite two are:

• Good design is as little design as possible
• Good design is Honest

I now have an excellent reference point to answer this very cliche' question in future interviews :)