‘Design’ Motivation 3.0

The upgrade designers now need.

“Jeff Hammerbacher, an early Facebook engineer, told me… ‘The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads’… That sucks.” —Elon Musk

A few months ago I picked up Ashlee Vance’s book, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. As much as I am left awe-inspired about Musk’s genuine quest to advance mankind, create a better world (or rather leave it), and hoping I could one day witness a future grandchild of my own set foot on Mars; the quote above left quite an impression on me.

As a designer, you may potentially take a step back, and evaluate your own career path after reading that. You may be left asking as I was, “could this be true—could this be me?”… I believe the short-answer for any of us, is yes. Taking this into context; I know I’ve personally designed my fair share of different ways to entice a click, or more literally ‘designed’ annoying flash banner ads back in the day. Heck, I used to work at a company where all we did was create digital spam—full-time.

But here’s why the long-answer, is no:

Ever get that gut feeling as a designer or creative type when you truly feel passionate about a new concept or invention? Or get introduced to a brand new problem that your product has—where your resilience and determination are met with some intelligent solution that you can’t stop thinking about? I know I have. I believe these feelings mean something greater and where something deeper rests within most of us as designers today. But these occurrences usually vary, naturally. Sometimes only happening maybe a few times a year.

So how do we harness these moments to start creating more meaningful experiences—how do we better understand what our motivation is during times like these? Throughout four decades of scientific research author Daniel Pink generally breaks down motivation in three simple phases in his book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us:

Motivation 1.0

Presumed that humans were biological creatures, struggling to obtain our basic needs for food, security and sex.

Motivation 2.0

Presumed that humans also responded to rewards and punishments.

“This is where most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money — the carrot-and-stick approach,” Pink notes.

Motivation 3.0

Presumes that humans also have a drive to learn, to create, and to better the world.

Dialing back to where I mentioned the spam-churning ad company I once worked for very early on in my career. I left because my instincts told me my talent and my imagination were meant for far greater things. I wanted to better myself, and in turn, hope my work may better the world one day. It’s truthfully why I’ve always moved on to greener pastures.

But I too have the first-hand experience where I was enticed with the carrot-and-stick approach. Although I admit, as you may also be able to relate, I have always been left feeling hungry for something greater. If you find yourself faced in a moment like this; as mentioned in my design memoir, ask yourself questions like; what will make you happy, and what will make you fulfilled? What is the future that you want to design for yourself, and for others? This is where I believe ‘Design’ Motivation 3.0 kicks in and the questions as designers we should start to consider now more than ever.

“People use rewards expecting to gain the benefit of increasing another person’s motivation and behavior, but in so doing, they often incur the unintentional and hidden cost of undermining that person’s intrinsic motivation toward the activity.” —Daniel Pink

Intrinsic motivation is more productive for designers; while suppressive extrinsic motivation is simply detrimental to the way we operate. Think about this whole-heartedly, especially if you’re a leader of a design organization. We should be creating conditions for designers to do their best work. Think about the exciting opportunities ahead and the role we play as we’re on the cusp of some incredible life-changing technology. AI, voice-recognition software, augmented and virtual reality just to name a few; and I’m not saying let’s go out and create the next Oasis like James Halliday did. Rather think about what this is going to mean for our world and then some—what it’s going to mean for our jobs specifically as designers.

We have the opportunity now, more than ever to give each other a greater sense of empowerment and purpose. We already have the need as designers to direct our own path, to learn and create new things. We already have the natural capacity to realize, and envision an upgrade to what’s next. Let’s remind each other of that, and encourage it.

I don’t believe what Musk & Hammerbacher, quoted above, was totally off base. I’m running with it more as redirection. And I relate to it more simply as someone who works in a field with others who has an opportunity to influence the way the world uses that next amazing product or invention. Someone who is capable of advancing mankind in both form and function. I believe we all have this shared potential and can figure out together what we want to make people click, next.

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