Reflect to Refine Your Craft
One of the practices that set Steve Martin apart as a young performer was his meticulous reflection routine. In his fantastic memoir, Born Standing Up, he describes the practice: "Following the advice in Showmanship for Magicians, I kept scrupulous records of how each gag played after my local shows for the Cub Scouts or Kiwanis Club. 'Excellent!' or 'Big laugh!' or 'Quiet,' I would write in the margins of my Big Indian tablet; then I would summarize how I could make the show better next time..."
There’s data to be gleaned from every single at-bat, if only an innovator will make the time to reflect. Steve Martin found ways to improve his bits regardless of the prestige of the venue. Keeping notes of how gigs for local Cub Scout Troops went is true commitment to the craft!
It’s no surprise that this very practice unlocked an unexpected insight upon his unique appeal:
"I was still motivated to do a magic show with standard patter, but the nice response to a few gags had planted a nagging thought that contradicted my magic goal: ‘They love it when the tricks don't work...’" and with that realization, he started experimenting with an iteration on the standard magic show. One that took a humorous angle at a magician who couldn’t get his tricks to work. That thread of inspiration was woven throughout the remainder of his stand-up career, long after he stopped identifying himself as a magician.
From the outside, that might seem like a little light bulb moment, but it sent his comedy career in an entirely new direction. I couldn’t help but imagine that perhaps he never would have realized his unique point of view if he hadn’t maintained a discipline of reflection on his shows.
In design how you’re working — speed, reflection, iteration, and all — is every bit as important as the what you’re working on. While the what may change, the how can be mastered and adapted to any number of whats.
To refine your craft, and to discover insights worth operationalizing via new experiments, you’ve got to make time to reflect.
Related: Judge Experiments Before Ideas
Related: Diagram Your Last Breakthrough
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The quality of our thinking is deeply influenced by the diversity of the inputs we collect. Implementing practices like Brian Grazer’s “Curiosity Conversations” ensures innovators are well-equipped with a variety of high-quality raw material for problem-solving.