Design better: the five-second rule
About two years ago, I was in a meeting going over a new feature brief when someone said something I didn’t understand. I wanted to ask for clarification, but I also didn’t want to come off stupid. Diffusion of responsibility took over so I prayed that someone else would do it. Later, when problems arose from unclear information, I gave myself a mental pat on the back for catching it. That’s great — except it’s not. I didn’t speak up. I didn’t contribute anything that could have pivot it in a better direction. Does this sound familiar?
I used to let others lead product discussions and have them ask questions. As a result, the things I designed reflected this mentality. Often, they would address the problem without a strong sense of direction because I relied a lot on assumptions and others’ perspectives on the problem.
Product design is about understanding the users’ needs, their pain points, and their motivations behind using something. It is the process of solving real people’s problems. The moment you deviate from a problem because you don’t understand the users is when detachment emerges. Detachment from your users leads to designs that ultimately fail to help them.
Last year, I came across Mel Robbins’ TED Talk, “How to stop screwing yourself over”. In it, she talks about the binary functions of the brain that tends to go “autopilot” or pull the “emergency brake”. Anytime you do anything that might be uncomfortable, your brain pulls the emergency brake. As a result, you never change because you tend to stay within your comfort zone.
She asserts that if you want to change, you should practice the five-second rule. And no, it’s not the one that dictates whether you can eat food off the floor or not. The five-second rule is an idea that anytime you have an impulse to do something uncomfortable, you have five seconds to act on it. This is the threshold before your brain takes over and rationalizes you out of doing it.
Your mind can process a facial expression in 33 milliseconds. It can move pretty damn quick. The other thing that it does very quickly is if you have one of those little impulses that are pulling you, if you don’t marry it with an action within five seconds, you pull the emergency brake and kill the idea. Kill it! If you have the impulse to get up and come dance while the band is playing, if you don’t stand up in five seconds, you’re going to pull the emergency brake. […] Your problem isn’t ideas. Your problem is you don’t act on them.
Things clicked after I saw the talk. I was so busy doing things in my head that I forgot one of the most fundamental basics of my job, to understand the users and implement solutions for them in real life. I decided that I was going to change and apply the five-second rule to every aspect of my job.
I’m here to report that it has made a tremendous impact on how I approach design problems. I was able to ask more questions and learn a lot from them. I was able to share more ideas with my team when we were in the ideation phase because I was no longer afraid to embarrass myself. Not only that, I was able to actively listen to others around me because my mind was no longer clouded with impulses.
Product design is a collaborative sport. The moment you act like a team player and do your part, the product becomes better. There are fewer assumptions about your problem, which leads to better solutions. Stupid questions and stupid ideas exist, but you won’t know for sure until you share them. Maybe you already utilize the five-second rule, and it comes naturally to you, and if so, that’s great. But for me, it took a lot of effort to try to use it in my design process. The five-second rule might make you uncomfortable when you first try it but you will appreciate its effect in the long run.
Some other awesome ides that I think will help improve your design process:
