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The year is 1935. The U.S. Army Air Corps is holding a competition for airplane manufacturers vying to secure a contract to build the military’s next long-range bomber.
Officials gather for the unveiling of Boeing’s state-of-the-art airplane B-299, later known as the B-17 Flying Fortress. The design is cutting-edge, anticipation is high. The test pilots are experienced and well-trained. They power up, takeoff, become airborne... and then they crash.
The crash wasn’t caused by a design flaw, but rather a pilot error. While the new bomber could fly faster and further than any other, it was also very complex to operate. The pilot had to keep track of four different engines, the wing flaps, the landing gear, and much more. Preoccupied, he simply forgot to disengage a new locking mechanism on the elevator and rudder controls.
See, the culture of test pilots during this era was defined by how dangerous the job was. These men needed to have focus, bravery, gumption, and an ability to improvise —a set of heroic characteristics that came to be known as the ‘Right Stuff’. The problem was, that as airplane technology became more and more complex it became apparent that no one person, no matter how much of the right stuff they had, could possibly hold in their mind all the complexity of operating these sophisticated pieces of technology.
Left with a revolutionary airplane that had its wings clipped by a disastrous first demo flight, the team at Boeing, realising where the problem lay, devised a solution. It wasn’t to overhaul the design or to make pilots undergo further training. It was to create a 1 page document.
A 1-page checklist that outlined the steps a pilot needed to remember at each stage of the flight. Ridiculously simple, it removed the onus on the pilot to remember every granular detail, and allowed him to focus on flying. Armed with the checklist, pilots went on to fly the B-17 1.8 million miles without a single accident. The Army ended up ordering over 13,000 units.Just as the sea can be calm and inviting, it can also turn tempestuous. We faced our fair share of challenges - tight deadlines, demanding clients, and constantly evolving design trends. These were the storms that tested our resolve, helping us grow stronger with each tempest we weathered.
“Why do I love checklists? Because rather than letting my imagination run amok to my detriment, effective use of checklists allows me to direct my imagination to more productive purposes.”
— David Oberhettinger, the Chief Knowledge Officer of the Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA
Checklists went on to become central to aviation and eventually other industries too. Atul Gawande, a chief surgeon and educator is famous for popularising the use of checklists in the field of medicine. In his book, The Checklist Manifesto, Gawande makes a strong case for the use of checklists in complex industries, to reduce errors and increase efficiency. Gawande draws on examples from a range of industries and provides a framework for creating effective checklists.
What’s the relevance to design?
Our minds are for creating ideas, not storing them.
The checklist idea is a compelling case for design systems and the application of systems thinking to design in general. By cataloging ideas, process and tools within a central system, we’re able to liberate creative minds from the burden of granular detail. By eliminating the need to remember detailed information, we are free to put all our capacity into creating the best creative work possible.
When approaching a new creative project, there is a temptation to think that in order to come up with something new, we have to avoid at all costs the things that worked for us last time, lest we be seen as a creative broken record, simply churning out the same old stuff, just because it worked once. So in the pursuit of originality we force ourselves to start with a blank canvas, putting out of our mind, ideas from previous projects to make sure what we seek to create is new and fresh.
When we know that nothing is new under the sun we should cut ourselves some slack and embrace the value of consistency where it can help improve the quality of our work. I think of cheffing as a great example of this dichotomy. A good chef needs to be incredibly creative, she has to continually innovate and experiment, should she wish to stay relevant. However, the key to ensuring that guests have a great experience, is not creativity, it’s consistency. A menu might be pushing the boundaries of culinary arts but if it is reproduced inconsistently, the restaurant will be unlikely to succeed. Therefore a balance needs to be struck between generating new ideas and then translating those ideas into a repeatable offering that is economically viable and ensures the highest quality experience for every guest that walks through the door.
Discerning when creativity is required and when consistency is required is the key to delivering a quality service and design is no different. If an idea becomes valuable for a project, write it down, file it, bake it into your processes and systems so it becomes part of how you work, without even thinking about it. If a particular process helps your team generate great original ideas for a project, document it and share it with the wider team, because chances are it’ll do it again.
Writing checklists doesn’t make you less creative, it liberates your mind from the granular so you can focus on generating ideas. The recipe for good design has 2 ingredients: creativity and consistency, just ensure you get the mix right.