10 Questions with a Design Strategist, Coach and Community Curator
Meet our guest, a seasoned design-driven strategist and accomplished coach who is seminal within the design community. Through capitalising Design Thinking and UX approaches, his expertise lies in collaborating with organizations to chart the course for new products and services as well as refining or completely revitalizing existing ones. At the same time, through mentorship he excels at empowering individuals and teams to cultivate forward thinking design culture. Grab a coffee and dive into our intriguing interview with.. Jason Mesut!
So, tell us Jason – how did you get into design?
I was exploring engineering degrees at University and came across more design and engineering courses. I decided to go with Industrial Design Engineering at Brunel University, in their now closed Egham campus. Possibly something to do with the location just outside of London, the mix of design and engineering on the course, and also a video of design stuff from Seymour Powell about designing bras.
Tell us about your why when it comes to design, what is your internal, intrinsic mission?
I really love helping people explore and pursue positive futures. For themselves and their organisations. Navigating the uncertainties of their present. Helping amplify the potential within an individual and between stakeholders. I tend to go deeper into the mess, and get curious about the complexity, in order to balance and critique different perspectives.
What product do you use that really needs good UX but doesn’t?
Ableton Live is amazingly powerful software, but like with many DAWs (digital audio workstation) software it’s so scary at first, and so much of the power is discovered through ongoing interaction, YouTube videos, and personal tips.
What advice would you give to your 10-year-old self?
Don’t let anyone tell you what to do in your life when you grow up. Take on their advice, listen to their wisdom and find your own way.
What things are you irrationally passionate about outside of work?
I could probably rationalise it (and hope to at some point) but I was a DJ in my late teens, buying a lot of early drum and bass. Some of the rough stuff but mostly the atmospheric and more musical Fabio and Bukem stuff. I did a bit of music production back then but then revived it after uni a little by buying more and more kit.
I especially love hardware that helps people with limited or no musical training to create beautiful sounds and arrangements. Since having kids, the kit just took up space, but as the kids are a bit older now, I try to find some time to use it and make music again. I had my first release last year done in conjunction with a legendary drum and bass producer, and some guys that get together once a month. My part was small, but it was a great experience, and I hope to do more in the coming years.
What service would you design to improve the quality of your life?
At uni, when exploring one of my final year projects, a friend of mine, Warren Hutchinson and I came up with the Apple-F where you could find anything in real life.
We’re getting close to that with Find My iPhone, Airtags, Tiles etc. but it would be great if we could catalogue and record everything so we could easily find it. So much of the time I end up buying the same item again or losing it in my hoarder-filled mess. What if I could just shout, “where is the super glue?”
As the Tech industry is gathering pace by the second, what trends can you see and what would you like to see more of?
I’d like to see more critical thinking, and conscious connection between the deepening divides.
The things I see are to do with in the design industry:
- Magpie focus of so many — whether ChatGPT, Midjourney, or NFTs — people often gravitate towards the shiny without seeing the bigger potential behind new tech.
- Deepening divides of social, political and cultural groups and perspectives. It feels like we are being polarised further and further against each other. And much of the design world is pushed towards the political left, despite most of our employers being driven by the capitalist right
- Commoditization of design. This was partly because of design systems and the rise of Product Design and UX, but a lot of the soul and rigour has been fading away.
What happens when the stakeholders fall in love with a solution, but you know it won’t add value?
This happens so much. I have learned to go easier on them and challenge my own assumptions. Maybe they are right. After all, nothing in this work is certain. If I feel strongly, I may share some of the feelings I have, or ask more questions to interrogate in a less antagonistic way than I used to in the past.
If UX didn’t exist, how do you think the world would be?
That is an interesting question. I think that good design will have still had an effect on the world, and there would have been a different name for the collection of things we do that are user or human-centred. I would hope we’d come up with a better framing actually, and a better quality pipeline of talent that could be taken seriously.
Which 5 famous people would you invite to a dinner party and why?
- Esther Perel for some wisdom around relationships, navigating paradoxes, and maybe engineering one of her games. I sense that she might have some good advice for the food.
- LTJ Bukem for understanding how he pushed through the criticism over the years and why he has gone so annoyingly liquid with his sound. I’d probably ask him if he can curate some non drum and bass music for the background.
- Scarlett Johansson but mostly because of understanding how she worked through her role playing an AI assistant in Her, rather than any physical attraction to her. I probably am attracted to her voice in that film over her appearance in any other.
- Eva-Lotta Lamm because she always sees the world in interesting and insightful ways with a dash of humorous play. She also may end up drawing some interesting visualisations around the discussion.
- Penney Peirce as I just started listening to her around intuition and dreams, and I think she’d have some interesting perspectives on the conversation and us as humans.
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