引子：

近来在与几个同事和合作伙伴之间的交流中，我陷入了一种疑惑状态：当其他人提出一个创意或方案的时候，我第一时间考虑的是不利因素（或者说是负面因素）——方案的可行性和可操作性；我们是否具备足够的资源；方案的出发点是否有足够说服力的技术支撑；时间和财力成本的投入是否可以满足交付物的需求，项目操作模式的合法性和可靠性……等等诸如此类。 每每及此，交谈陷入争论和胶着。谈话的对方或者其他参与人，或微言于我的多虑，或信誓旦旦，“没问题的，可以的。”

在项目和计划中我们每个人有不同的分工，我为实物化过程和最终的交付物负责，对方案和计划的诸多顾虑转化为我实际操作中的重重困难。

我在想这就是创业维艰吗？这就是难中之难的事情吗？我面对这种处境和状况的态度是否过于消极？

直到读了下面这篇文章，我内心长久以来的困惑得以释然。

下文英语部分原作者为 KYLE HARRIS，感谢KH， 在一定程度上表达了我的心声。最后的中文部分是我根据自己的理解做的翻译。与具有类似心理困境的人们共飨。

To be a Pessimistic Designer

Whether it’smarketing, advertising, web design, or software, designers as a whole have gotten a reputation for being a bit too optimistic. We are supposed to be the ones who always have our heads in the clouds—the ones who think about the details later. We are supposed to generate thousands of ideas, and throw a fit if any of the ideas are expensive, impossible, or just terrible.

Sure! We Can Do That…

Luckily, very early on in my career, I had to adapt to be much more pessimistic in my approach, especially in meetings. I worked for a marketing agency that also tried to dabble in product design and software. Client meetings were often unstructured, with a lot of “blue sky thinking” about the possibilities. Stakeholders would get easily excited about early ideas, and other members on my team would often feed this terrible fire.

There was a lot of energy, along with a lot of promises and a lot of optimism. And then a lot of looking at me, asking, “Any questions before we begin?”

There were a lot of questions, but I was young, I was naive, and I hadn’t yet found my voice. I felt like I was forced to agree to bad ideas. But going along with bad ideas soon caught up to me. When it was time to deliver on “promises” that were made by other people, I couldn’t.

I knew in the meeting that what they wanted to do wasn’t possible. I knew it wasn’t a good idea. I also knew that I had to figure it out anyway, and when I couldn’t, it was my problem.

As the one responsible for delivering, I had to adapt. I had to play a much more active role in the ideation phase, making sure that whatever we were planning to make was actually possible.

Over the years,I’ve learned a number of lessons (the hard way). This is my guide to being a pessimistic designer.

How to Be a Pessimistic Designer

1. Don’t be a jerk.

Okay, this is just a good rule for being a decent human, but it’s especially important if you’re going to be a pessimist. You’ll be nay-saying a lot. You’ll have to tellpeople their ideas aren’t good, aren’t affordable, or aren’t feasible. These conversations need to be professional, non-confrontational, and come from a place of mutual understanding.

A tAtomic Object, it is mandatory that everyone reads Crucial Conversations, which explains how to handle these conversations tactfully. I recommend it to all pessimistic designers.

2. Draw from your experience.

Telling someone their idea isn’t worth executing, or even exploring further, is hard when you are just speaking from gut instinct. Early on, I would get the comment, “Well,you haven’t even tried.”

Even though an idea “smells,” without concrete proof, it can be hard to convince someone, or a group of people, that it’s not a good approach. Instead, I suggest using phrases like this:

“On [project name] we ran into a similar issue. It didn’t work because…”

“I think the idea is cool, but executing will cost 2X because…”

“This idea sounds exactly like what [competitor company]…”

3. Be harder on your own ideas.

Being a pessimist is often construed as being an elitist know-it-all. I would often get a lot of criticism for thinking that I was the only one with the “correct” answer.

I took this criticism personally. It was never my intention. But after some introspection,I realized I was presenting my own suggestions as concrete ideas, not early concepts.

To combat this,I’ve done a few things differently:

Invite criticism.–Make a point of calling out specific people who would have better context on the feasibility or viability of the idea. Ask the developer to look hard at the development cost, or similar, cheaper ways we could produce a comparable result.

Start low-fi. –

As a designer, it’s much easier to develop hi-fi design mockups for low-level concepts. But as Ryan Russell said,“Don’t push the fidelity of your design work further than the maturity of your thinking.” This is not a novel idea, but remember that in terms of presenting concepts, people react to higher-fidelity designs as actionable solutions,rather than an invitation for conversation.

Don’t “withhold” your own

 Conversations are not about winning. Play all of your cards. If you have an idea, but there are aspects you are concerned about,call them out. This approach is especially helpful when you’re inviting criticism.

4. Listen and think more than you speak.

People are weird. During conversations, we absolutely hate silence. But as the saying goes, “Silence is golden.” During meetings, I’ll try to spend most of the time not speaking. This is great for a number of reasons:

As a pessimist, it prevents me from looking too negative all of the time.

It allows me to recall,and remember correctly, real experiences that I can draw from to frame my rebuttals.

People will just keep talking to avoid silence. It is during this time that people can even talk themselves out of bad ideas. The more they think through ideas and find that they can’t explain them clearly, the more likely they are to break them down.

5. No one wins when everyone loses.

Winning a conversation is like winning a battle. But if a project isn’t successful, that’s like losing the war. As a group, document what “success” looks like. Write it down, and refer to it often. If an idea does not promote success, that should be reason enough—no matter whose idea it was—to reject it.

Go be a pessimist!

With these simple rules, you can now effectively be a pessimist. But remember, every project needs a balance of optimism and pessimism. It’s within this tango that projects can achieve realism. So have humility, don’t be a jerk, and, especially, remain aware of how you are being perceived.

做一个悲观的设计者

 

不管是做市场、广告、网站设计或者是软件设计，总体上说设计者都被广泛地认为过于乐观。我们应该是那种思想天马行空的人，那种事后才考虑细节的人。我们应该生成成千上万的想法，然后如果任何的想法耗资巨大，不可实现或者很糟糕，我们就大为光火。

当然！我们可以做…

幸运的是，在我职业生涯的很早阶段，我必须适应在我的思路中更加悲观。尤其是在会议过程中。我曾为一个营销代理工作，他们也试图涉猎产品设计和软件。客户会议通常是没有条理的，有很多“不着边际”的想法。利益相关人可能很容易对初期的想法感到兴奋，而我的团队中的其他人员通常也是不断地拱火。

他们很有激情，伴随着大量的承诺和乐观。而后全部都看着我，问“在我们开始之前有什么问题吗？”

应该有很多的问题，但是我那时年轻，天真，并且我还没有发现支持我的声音。我感觉我被迫同意糟糕的想法。但是采用糟糕的想法很快让我陷入困境。当要交付之前其他人做出的“承诺”时，我无法提供。

在会议上，我知道他们想做的是不可能的，我知道那不是一个好主意。我也知道我无论如何都要把它搞出来，但我做不到的时候，就是我的问题。

作为一个对交付物负责的人，我必须适应。我必须在构思形成阶段扮演更加主动的角色，确保不管我们做什么，它实际上是可行的。多年之后，我学到了很多（过程很艰难）。这是我的关于做一个悲观的设计者的指导。

怎样成为一个悲观的设计者？

 1 不要做一个傻子。

呵呵，这只是作为一个有尊严的人的好的角色，但是在你要成为一个悲观主义者时尤其重要。你会很多次说不，你会不得不告诉其他人他们的想法是不好的，是无法负担的，或者是不可行的。这样的谈话需要是专业的，非对抗性的，并且基于互相的理解。

在原子对象公司，每个人都要强制阅读《关键性对话》这个文件，它解释了如何有技巧地处理这类对话。我向所有的悲观主义的设计者推荐它。

2 从你的经验中提取。

告诉一些人他们的主意不值得执行或者不值得进一步探究，这是很难的，如果你只是从自己的直觉出发来说出来的话。别人会说，“好啊，你甚至都没有试一试”。即使一个想法“感觉糟糕”，如果没有具体的证据，那说服别人或一个团队是很难的，这不是一个好的路径。相反，我建议用这样的词汇：

“在[项目名称]上， 我们曾遭遇到类似的问题，这样行不通因为…”

“我觉得这个想法很酷，但是实施起来的成本会翻倍，因为…”

“这个想法听起来很像是那个[竞争对手]”

3 对自己的想法要更加苛刻

成为一个悲观主义者通常被认为是成为一个万事通的精英，我曾经因为认为只有自己有“正确的答案”而经常广受批评。

 我因为这些批评针对自己而不悦。这绝不是我的意图，但经过一些反省之后，我意识到我把自己的建议当作具体的想法来呈现，而不是早期的概念。

为了防止这一情况，我做了一些不同的事情

欢迎批评。——提出一个观点，召集那些对这个想法的可行性有更好的理解的人。让开发者仔细考虑开发成本，或者一个类似的更廉价的方法产出可接受的结果。

从低保真度开始——作为一个设计者，很容易为低水平的概念开发出高保真度的设计实体模型。但就像Ryan Russell所说，“在你的思维成熟之前不要进一步地致力于设计工作的仿真度”。这不是小说的创意，但是记住，根据呈现的概念，人们会趋向于把更高仿真度的设计，而不是交流的对象作为可行的方案。

不要“抑制”你的担忧——交谈无关乎胜负。打出你所有的牌。如果你有一个想法，但是你对它还有一些顾虑，把它说出来。当你欢迎批评时这一方法尤其有用。

4.多听多想而不是多说。

人是很奇怪的。在交谈过程中，我们绝对讨厌沉默。但如一句名言所说。“沉默是金”。在会议中，我会尝试着不更多地说话，因为诸多原因，这是个非常好的做法：

作为一个悲观主义者，这样可以防止我在所有的时候看起来太消极。

有助于我回想和正确的记忆起能被提取的真实的经验，来构建我的辩证。

人们会保持持续的谈话来避免沉默，正是这段时间里人们能够说服自己不接受糟糕的想法。他们对想法考虑的越多，越不能清楚地解释这些想法，他们就越可能放弃自己之前的想法。

5 当每个人都失败时，没有人会赢。

赢得一场谈话就好像赢得一场战争。

但是如果一个项目不成功，就像是输掉了战争。作为一个团队，定义什么是“成功”，把它写下来，然后时常引用。如果一个想法不能促进成功，那应该有足够的理由——不管是谁的主意——都要否决它。

去做一个悲观主义者！

用这些简单的法则，你现在可以有效地成为一个悲观主义者。但是记住，任何的项目都需要悲观和乐观之间的平衡。只有在这样的平衡中项目才能成为现实，始终记着你怎样被感知到。