A core part of my design training was to understand and love problems. Problems demand design. Since there are always problems, there will always be a demand for designers because our purpose is to create solutions to problems, especially solutions that are beautiful and smart.

I keep a notebook of problems. I got this idea from ThinkerToys, one of my favorite books on creative thinking and problem solving. I write down what problems I see, what problems I hear about and then I write out as many ideas as possible to solve the problem. I go for 40 (that’s the length of my notebook page).

Besides forcing me to think more broadly, this exercise gives me a tremendous amount of hope. Problems typically overwhelm and stress us out. They are depressing and spur fear. Getting stuck in a problem is the worst thing that can happen. When we are stuck we can’t move forward. Designers know that when you can’t move forward you can always move sideways. Design thinking is about taking a different direction to solve the problem, forcing yourself not to take the same direction but to move in the least expected one. That’s where the I find the wiggle room. In the wiggle room is where we find the solutions.

I love the focus on design solutions coming out of India. I was very inspired by my trip to India and the amazing design solutions I saw. In a country, much like the US, where the problems seem overwhelming and the imbalances seem extreme, I saw so many situations where design thinking, design craft and creativity provided to opening to change. That’s the beauty of embracing problems. When we embrace them, we think like a designer and we make design valuable.