My Inspiration

On this page I have gathered a few things that serve as a constant inspiration to me.  

Nature

Nature is so breathtaking and beautiful and reminds me to stop and appreciate.  Whenever I see a beautiful flower or a beautiful natural pattern I take a picture.  It inspires me to seek the beauty, seek the calm and joy.

Flow

Many years ago I came across the concept of Flow when I saw a Ted Talk from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

When one is in the Flow, one loses oneself in the work, in the activity and loses track of time.  This often happens when one is doing work that motivates and inspires.

For me, this was key to identify which activities inspire me, drive me and that I should be doing more of.

The WHY

Another inspiration that has influenced me greatly is Simon Sinek's book, 'Start with why'.  

Many people will go straight to creating a solution instead of asking 'why'; why do we need this? why are we doing it this way?

By asking and digging into the why often a different problem emerges than what was originally thought, and sometime bringing with it a simpler solution.

I also like Sinek's approach to using the 'why' when developing vision and strategy.  When we connect with a company's why, the vision and strategy make sense to people and help achieve the set goals.

Strengths

A few years ago I sat in on a talk about strengths and it was an eyeopener for me.  I had always been told to focus on my weaknesses and make them stronger.  Here was a someone telling me to almost ignore my weaknesses and focus on my strengths.

The concept is that what one focuses on grows stronger, and ones strengths are unique and will always be stronger than the weaknesses no matter how much one works on it.

So I used the strengths finder and the results have helped me to understand myself better and what my strengths are.  My results were:

• Fairness
• Judgement
  
• Creativity
  
• Curiosity
• Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence

There are many strengths finders out there, I used the VIA strengths finder.

UX London

In 2016 I attended the conference 'UX London'.  At that point in my life I was frustrated with what I was doing and wanted to do more UX.  This was my first and only UX conference and I will never forget it.  I had never been in a place where everyone was talking about UX and UI and I floated on a pink cloud the whole week in bliss.

It cemented in my mind that this is what I want to do and should do. 

Jakob Nielsen

When I was studying Library and Information Science in 1996, I was introduced to Jakob Nielsen and the world of Usability.  I devoured his newsletters, studied his website and thank him for introducing me to UX.  

Ever since I have been preoccupied by this field, by this approach.  I have used it in my work, in my personal life, I talk about it so much that my husband has started to talk about it too.

And it all began with Jakob Nielsen.

Scrum

In 2007 I was introduced to Scrum.  I had never heard of it or Agile before.  I was working as an SAP Consultant and the client decided to train everyone in Scrum.  They brought in trainers to lead us through the first iterations.

I found the whole thing fascinating.  This new approach to get products or functionality out faster and in smaller increments was eyeopening.  It made so much sense to me.  

I also liked the close relationship the team had with the product owner and how involved they were.  There was never a surprise, everything deliberate and on the table for everyone to see.

The team dynamics were also fantastic, everyone working closely together and in the same space.

After this Scrum/Agile has served as a huge influence and inspiration for me, both when working on software projects and business projects.  It changed my way of thinking and my approach.  

Pairing

Recently I got the opportunity to work paired with other designers and it was mindblowing.

I have often heard of paired programming and thought this was only done in programming, so when I was introduced to it in a design setting my mind was blown.  Sitting two and two together, with one computer and one keyboard, working on one assignment together was so powerful.  Having the design conversation, working out solutions with a partner in real time is amazing, instead of sitting alone and second-guessing myself.

After this experience I urge everyone to try it.  It makes a huge difference.

Margret Eva Arnadottir  |  margreteva@gmail.com  | https://www.linkedin.com/in/margreteva | © Margret Eva Arnadottir, 2020