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I’m whatever the opposite of a perfectionist is. I’m great at talking myself into “good enough.” Part of that comes from the fact that design – especially these days – is highly collaborative and iterative. It’s hard to push yourself when you know the work is just going back to be revised again. This is compounded even further by the fact that I believe that the absence of critique does not mean the design is good. Asking about taking the work to the next level means pushing it a little further, finding a way to take whatever groundwork has been laid and build even a little more on top of it.
At the heart of this question is an invitation to either see things not otherwise seen or pursue things not otherwise pursued. When I ask myself this question, I’m encouraging myself to look at the work in a new way. I’m pushing myself to look at the work not through the lens of “have we completed the assignment” but instead through the lens of “have we solved the problem”. I’m also giving myself permission to shush that voice in my head that’s saying “good enough.” This small ritual doesn’t turn me into a perfectionist, but it does allow me to avoid settling.
This is a reflexive question, part of the inner dialog to help me overcome my own biases and counterproductive or unhealthy instincts. But it’s just as easy for me to ask someone else this question – usually a colleague or leader. “Next level” is subjective, though, and the person you ask has to understand your intent, perspective, and objective for the work. Asking someone completely removed from the design process might not have the sensitivity to understand that “next level” doesn’t mean “free of constraint”. The implied phrase at the end of this question is “next level for what I’m trying to accomplish.” Asking a design lead or colleague ensures – at least a little – that you won’t get answers that aren’t meaningful or relevant.
There’s almost always something. Sometimes those tweaks are cosmetic, but add polish, making the work look more professional. Sometimes those tweak smooth over the rough parts of the creative process, tightening up the internal consistency of the work.
Asking this question also encourages me to look at the work from a different perspective: the users of the product I’m designing or the stakeholders I’m working with. Leveling up can sometimes mean fleshing out an idea to better engage an audience. Perhaps it’s not the work itself that needs anything changed, but how the work is presented or described.
My aim in asking this question is to get a punch list of things to change or fix, but sometimes what I get is a new perspective, a new way of looking at the work. That doesn’t give me a list of things to do, but it does allow me to step through the work and evaluate it from this new point of view.
This question comes up as a reflexive question as I’m starting to feel “done” with something. Not really done-done, of course, but more when I feel “I’ve done all I can for now.” Because that’s never true. There’s always more you can do. A perfectionist spins their wheels, tweaking everything. But asking this question is intended to focus on meaningful changes. Not just what needs tweaking, but what will actually level-up the work.
This question is part of my repertoire during internal design reviews, usually preceding a review with a more extensive team of stakeholders. That is, during design reviews that are with other immediate members of the design team. In these conversations, it’s important for the team to have a sense of the design problem and the target audience, but also the context in which I’ll be presenting the work.
Ultimately the purpose of this question is to facilitate client management. I take things to the next level for the users of the product, of course. But to get there requires bringing the project’s stakeholders along the process with me. Doing that means ensuring the work is well-prepared, even if it is raw and in-progress. If that angle isn’t addressed when I ask about next-leveling the work, I would ask about it explicitly. My next question would be something along the lines of “How do you think the client will react to this?”
What can you do to take this to the next level?
The original question focuses on work created by me, and my effort to up-level it. But if someone else did the work, and I’m reviewing it, I ask this version of the question. My aim here is to challenge them to think about taking the concepts a little further, to flesh the story out just a bit more. I’m feeding them the question I ask myself, using the same language to imply “This is good, but what does an even better version look like?”
What is one thing I can do to take this to the next level?
Sometimes it’s easier to focus on just one thing. Narrowing the scope allows me to prioritize, forcing me to remind myself what the purpose of the work is, and what I’m doing with it.