After spending 20 out of the last 29 months housing a human inside my body, I guess it is only natural that I relate the design process to the act of creating a new person.
I won’t go into the whole analogy, but right now for project 3 I definitely feel like we are in the first trimester. When you are in the early stages of pregnancy you don’t know quite what to expect. Also, although you don’t have much to do to keep it going, on the inside your body is massively changing, growing new organs, both for yourself and the baby. All this work is exhausting! Every child is different, and how your body reacts to the growing fetus is different too.
So it is that Project 2 is different than Project three. I didn’t get as much morning sickness with the first baby, but the second made me ill all the time. The meeting we had this weekend for Project 3 definitely made me a little queasy. Uncertain of where we are going and whether we will be able to get through everything we need to in time.
Once we get through these initial phases the second trimester of creation and iteration and testing and more iteration will fly by. You’ll barely have enough time to stock up the nursery (or create a presentation and design rationale). And you will wonder how you got it all done.
Eventually we will reach the end of the third trimester – and a bright new design will appear in the world. Of course, that is only when the next phase begins – think of actually producing your design and continuing to iterate and manage the product. It is sort of like staying up at all hours making bottles, changing diapers and soothing the teething child.
The process is amazing and exhausting and completely worth it in the end. You have much to show for it…..
Charlie and Zoe at the Pumpkin Patch
