Totally agree — too much focus on what is or isn't right, not enough on encouraging designers to build their own 'judgement muscle', and to apply that in each situation.

I actually wrote a post on this last year: Building the Judgement Muscle (Medium)

A relevant snippet:

From sketching to Sketch-ing, mocking-up to coding-up, the community has been flooded with opinions and best practices about which tool or technique to use, how, and when. If you’re just getting into the industry, it’s got to be a little daunting. From speaking to new designers, it seems the current zeitgeist has created the impression that there’s a right way to approach a problem (and with that comes the implication that there’s a wrong way). Attempts to avoid the wrong approach are leading us to focus on how to design, instead of what (or even why, but more on that another time).

We used wake for a design team of 4 and really enjoyed it. We used it almost exclusively with Slack, and found that the ease of use meant we shared MUCH more openly & regularly. We also had a few developers sign up to 'lurk' and keep up with what we were working on — I loved that.

However, the trial period ended and I just couldn't justify the expense. It feels 50% too much right now

It's a great question, and one that I don't yet (and probably never will) have a perfect answer for. Here's how what I responded in the comments:

I’ve struggled in the past with people who just might not be a great fit — it’s hard. What I’m learning is that most people (especially if they’re pros) really do appreciate honesty. So, for example, if someone doesn’t bring the right amount of enthusiasm, I would let them know.

I’ve also learned that ‘culture fit’ is as much to do with their satisfaction as ours. If someone just doesn’t click, I think it’s fair to talk to them about how they might find it hard or unsatisfying working with us — it has to run both ways.

It's not that we only talk to those who can make time, it's that the ones who go to the most effort to ensure they have time are often the best candidates.

Hey thanks Benjamin. We've worked hard to build a culture and company that not only respects design, but is driven by it. I guess the trick for designers is to try and spot the warning signs for those businesses that don't care as much.

Hey, thanks for your thoughts.

We're pretty conscious that people with full-time jobs/live far away might find interviewing pretty hard work. We've tried to address this by doing all of the onsite interviews back-to-back in one afternoon/morning.

However we've historically found that the best candidates have no problems making the time — an afternoon out to try and land that job you're after shouldn't be beyond reach.

Provocative comment about subject matter

https://dribbble.com/anothertompetty

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