W/L/B December 2023

Happy December everybody!

Though it is cliche at this point, we cannot help but share the oft-said sentiment of, “Where did this year go?!” It has been an absolute flurry of activity this year as we “officially” launched our practice with both of us shifting to noodle full-time this past April. As we are certain many of you can attest, starting your own practice is an enormous leap of faith as you eschew the comforts of a known reality and seek to carve out your own space in the world. This month, rather than provide an update on our personal and professional lives, and the activities that are a hybrid of the two, we wanted to share reflections on the year-that-was and some of the insights that we gleaned from our 2023 at noodle.

Our biggest regrets involve the things we did not do.

Oftentimes it is easy to sit back and cringe at memories of embarrassing things that were said, failed attempts at taking on this challenge or that, or experiences where we just absolutely misread a situation. After all, these are tangible memories of events that actually happened rather than reflections on abstractions. However, and this is something that we constantly strive to remind ourselves of, having had these experiences we also were blessed with the opportunity to learn something, to discover something new. We had both wondered for years what it would be like to have our own organization, but the fear of the unknown conspired to keep us from taking the necessary steps to see if we could pull it off. Though this year was full of challenges as we navigated life as a stand-alone studio, the one constant thought we have had is, “I wish we had done this sooner!”?

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.

This is an African proverb that adorns the walls of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, so this isn’t an original observation of ours, but rather a nod to the brilliance of the sentiment. There have been times in projects where either of us were better suited to take on a particular role or responsibility and there have been instances where it would be easier to do things just as noodle rather than include outside collaborators, but the cost of “just getting it done” is steep: it robs you from the serendipity that arises when you collaborate with people and benefit from the lived experiences that have shaped their lives. Being able to slow down, be more mindful, and engage with other practitioners while also embracing the role of student/teacher in our own practice has translated to incredible personal and professional growth.

Surrendering to curiosity will always lead to interesting experiences.

We were inordinately fortunate to work with a diversity of clients on projects spanning myriad challenges this year, and we both took on new challenges in our personal lives in an effort to foster continual growth. Both of these experiences were brought about by our willingness to ditch the proverbial “comfort zones” that we all find reassuring, and embracing the unknown. Doing so has allowed us to develop new skills and learn a great deal about ourselves and what we want to do with our practice and our lives, making it an investment worth its weight in gold!

We could all use a little more empathy in the world.

Any user of a social media platform can attest to this, but it just feels like the world is getting more divided by the day. Whether it’s political discourse, debate about social issues, conversations about culture, or environmental concerns, the interactions we have with those who hold differing opinions than our own seem to grow colder by the day. As design researchers, empathy is something we rely upon in order to be better representatives of the stakeholders we engage with and stewards of their experiences. It’s something we talk a lot about, but usually only with respect to our practice. Extending this empathic understanding and approach to our everyday lives and the people around us has been a valuable work-in-progress for us, and something we hope to continue developing and applying in the weeks, months and years to come. Deleting our Twitter also helped ??

Thank you for joining us on our journey with noodle thus far. It has been an incredible year for us in every respect, and we cannot thank our clients, partners, collaborators, family, and friends enough for their trust and continued support. We look forward to sharing more of our adventures with you in the new year and encourage you to reach out to us to start a conversation about how we can collaborate in 2024. The future is so very bright for all of us, and we wish you all the very best as we close out 2023 and ring in 2024!