It can be useful to think about a career in design as not just a craft, but a method of problem solving. These two threads have featured together throughout the 25-year career of Sam Daley, Liquid’s Head of Product.

Wrapping your head around the current state of super-intelligent AI requires you to consider two parallel realities – the first involves ethical and philosophical questions, and the second is focussed on technical capability.

Last month, I attended the first event of Liquid’s Future Led series on the future of the world and how it impacts us as an organisation. An hour of deep conversation was not enough for our first topic – capitalism crisis. The initiative itself is significant, however, because it underlies one of our attempts to prepare and stay ready for what lies ahead.

A good form is like a good recipe. Too little information, and the results are going to be half baked. Too much, and the cook’s going to be overwhelmed with all the steps, get frustrated, and put the turkey in the toaster. The trick is asking for just the right amount of information while presenting it as simply as possible.

In our recent work on the Australian Government’s My Aged Care website, a lot of thought went into how we could find this balance with the Apply online feature. Fourteen weeks, 12 prototypes, multiple hospital and call centre visits, and countless user testing sessions later, we found the winning recipe.

Without the right underlying values, you can’t collaborate

Whenever we talk about collaboration we tend to talk about quite specific actions:

• Let’s put all these people in one room!
• Let’s hold regular knowledge sharing!  
• Let’s put this information online so everyone can use it!
• Let’s create team incentives!