Day 2- ADHD: A DesignOps SuperPower

— Hi everyone, and I’m coming from Sydney Australia, where it’s a quarter to five in the morning
  • I won’t fall asleep if you don’t
— I was recently is there something missing from my portfolio that I’d like people to know about
  • I’m ADHD, and many people don’t understand it
  • And it’s common for women to go undiagnosed, as symptoms manifest differently
    • I was smart and did well in school and didn’t get diagnosed
  • In women, ADHD can just be seen as being chatty or forgetful as opposed to restless or disruptive

 

— I’m not an expert, but ADHD stands for something incredibly distracting to read through
  • Associated with hyperactivity and impulsive behavior, but can present in many ways in a person
  • Not easy to spot

 

 

— 7% of adults worldwide have diagnosed ADHD, along with many undiagnosed
  • If you have team of 50 designers, statistically 3 may have ADHD
  • You already likely know or love someone with ADHD

 

— Summarized by following metaphor
  • A race car engine for a brain, with a bicycle brakes
  • With proper therapy we can manage it, and not wipe out going across a corner
  • ADHD can be properly harnessed
    • Liked Steve Jobs or Simone Biles, who all had ADHD

 

— I looked through DesignOps practitioner, and quality for work, and characteristics for DesignOps fit with ADHD
  • Colleagues in design and ops were typically neuro-diverse

 

— The DesignOps handbook calls for people who are calm in ambiguous or changing environments
  • For people with ADHD, it can be hard to focus on one thing at a time, so need dynamic environments to be engaged
  • Lucky to have strategies to cope with uncertainty and no environment that can impair function

 

— You would think ADHD would struggle with project, time management
  • But ADHDers can be over-organized to curb procrastination in work and life
    • From planners, meeting notes
  • Hot tip favorite thing to do worst and hardest task first and then every other task is real easy

 

— In right situations, ADHDers have drive to get it done, as ADHD has lower-levels of dopamine
  • Craving to get things done to get the hit of dopamine
  • And a drive to get things done right away

 

— Important that ADHD has trouble regulating attention, so attention can go from zero to 100, and go to hyperfocus
  • Easy to lose track of time and get into a zone
  • For example I’ve had three hours pass working on a template
  • When harnessed at right times, under-pressure, it works wonders

 

— People seen different have great empathy, a crucial skill for DesignOps

 

— Neurodiversity can be asset to a team as our world is neurodiverse

 

— ADHD brains are powerful, but have kryptonite
  • So, how to help them harness their superpower?

 

— To answer that question I asked lot of colleagues, and found the tools can help everyone
  • Timeframes: When possible give clear timeframes when something can get done
    • Avoid ambiguity in words like ‘urgent’
  • Timeframes help prioritize time

 

 

— Feedback is also important, as ADHDers require extrinsic motivation to keep going, and ADHDers are sensitive to rejection.
  • Negative feedback should have concrete examples to do things differently
  • It shouldn’t be ambiguous as brain will jump to worse possible scenario
    • Best advice to find someone who can provide this feedback

— Find something in project that interests you, from new tools, new frameworks, and meeting people
  • Find ability to relate work to interests and leverage hyper focus

 

 

— Finally, people may have different energy levels on a time of day
  • Need to know when most productive and how long to sustain focus for
  • Need schedules to give full attention as meeting can exhaust anyone
— Look at options to work a-synch, and dedicate focus time for team

 

— These things can help regardless if you have ADHD or not
  • People get distracted, with ADHD symptoms can be chronic and debilitating
— Most important, ask what helps you work better

 

— This was hard for me to answer right off the bat
  • So I built out a team charter to guide teams to ask right questions to understand how we work best together
  • Feel free to copy it and use it with your team

 

— Though this is my first time speaking publicly about ADHD, it won’t be my last

 

— I’ve found my superpower and I hope that you can do so

 

Q&A
  1. Elaborate on how you use the hyper-focus mode to focus under pressure?
— As mentioned for me, when I want to get into hyper focus mode need to know things that will get me into a mode
  • Things that are repetitive like pixel pushing
— Getting into mode is breaking things down into something that means manageable
  • Find something that can force you into hyper focus mode
  • It’s not something you can call upon, but rather a situation
  1. How to balance keep track of work to-dos with personal todos?
— I have used a Panda Planner to everyday set-up for time management and can plan daily and what you are grateful for and excited about
  • Five priorities for the day that you can’t go over and see what’s important for you to do for day and what can flow over
— Go to paper if it works of you
  • The notes on my computer help out
  1. Multi-tasking related to ADHD?
— At times, as you need dynamic environment to be engaged
  • Need to be something else at same time instead of just watching TV
  • Fidget spinners can keep hands occupeid
  1. Resources on supporting people with ADHD?
— Would  recommend Jessica McCabe that has YouTube channels “How to ADHD”, and a corresponding TED talk
  1. Have you through about neurodivergent inclusive design?
— One thing with inclusive design it process not outcome, so bring in neurodivergent people in team to capture things you’ve missed
  • The more you involve neurodiverse people in design process, from idea to test products and services, the better the results
  1. How to make priorities self clear and for coworkers?
— Have gotten better, but think I need to consider priorities at start of the week
  • Worked with manager to see Post-It notes in a Miro board, and it was easy to see what was on our plate
  • Having discussion and co-designing priorities with the rest of the team
  1. Did exercise happen with one-on-ones or in a team setting?
— The exercise was one-on-one, but can be done with a team as well
  • Important to have relationship with manager as well
  1. Does environment impact hyper focus?
— Definitely. If in environment that’s distracting, no way to really get into it

 

— If in comfortable and in state of flow, that’s how you get into it
  1. Does it help to break tasks into chunks?
— Yes, it helps me, and priorities for the week and steps to finish priority
  • The smaller the better
  1. How to explain ADHD, without making it an excuse?
— Find someone you feel comfortable with in the company, and have discussion to give you perspective of how to approach it
  • What helps you with ADHD helps everyone
— If you need something, ask for it i.e. asking for breaks and asking for what you need
  • Don’t invite other peoples’ opinions about your reasoning, just ask for what you need
  1. What do you need to work with best?
— Think reason for team charters is to clarify people’s needs and canvas made is about each person thinking through and providing their needs
  • Good way to get out in how we work together and when
  1. How to handle it when company/team goals not met?
— I separate myself at times as that comes down to a team, as it’s not on the individual
  • If a goal is not met, it’s not down to you
  • Acknowledge that things are sometimes out of control, and there is space between what you do and who you are