Leveraging neurodivergent traits for design strategy
A personal experience turned into an industry-wide toolbox for navigating neurodivergence and design expectations
I want to preface this article by acknowledging my personal experience and opinion regarding this topic may not align with your experience and opinions. However, the content shared may be beneficial to all readers regardless of an existing or non-existing neurological condition.
What is Neurodivergence?
Before we get into the details, for those unfamiliar with what neurodiversity describes, Psychology Today defines neurodiversity as:
Neurodiversity refers to the idea that neurological differences, such as those seen in autism or ADHD, reflect normal variations in brain development. Neurodiversity is often contrasted with the “medical model,” which views conditions like autism or ADHD as disorders to prevent, treat, or cure. There has been a push to move away from this idea of pathology and more toward a more nuanced perspective with variations of what is “normal.”
Some companies may include sections within their application asking you to disclose a diagnosis (or disability) including ADHD or autism. If you’re familiar with the online application process, you’ve probably seen the “Voluntary Self-Identification” section. It usually includes a question similar to “I have a disability (please select one)”.
Is Neurodivergence Truly “Normalized”?
Some may argue that in today’s day and age, “neurodivergence” has become normalized. People are more open about it, so much so that they post about it on TikTok, Instagram, or other social media platforms that garner large followings on how to navigate their ADHD, Autism, or other neurodivergent condition. We’ve come a lot further than where we were 30, 20, even 10 years ago regarding the societal outlook on mental health.
But as many articles that are consistently published around neurodivergence in tech as a talking point focused on how it can be a “superpower” or can potentially enable your team in “new innovative ways”, it still doesn’t feel “normalized” within companies/company culture. It can be difficult to tell what is “safe” to share with employers versus “unsafe”, especially if you reside in a state with at-will employment, where employees can feel on-edge disclosing any personal details with their employers.
Clark Employment Law describes “at-will employment” in the state of California as:
A: The at-will employment law of California means that all employees subject to this law have the right to terminate a working relationship at any time with or without notice to their employer. It also means an employer can use any legal reason to terminate an employee at any time.
After receiving my own diagnosis, I was torn on how to navigate that in the workplace. I became acutely aware of my limitations, but in the same vein, I became aware of how to work around and with them. There were things I finally had answers for regarding behaviors or how my brain “works” that would be difficult to hide from employers. I was able to reflect on previous instances where those behaviors or methods put me in a negative light by the misunderstandings or miscommunications I would unintentionally cause.
While I knew it would be helpful to share those sides of myself and provide some background on things I do or behaviors I have to avoid any negative interactions or perceptions, I was also afraid of sharing my diagnosis with employees/companies knowing there could be judgement or misunderstandings rooted in the existing stigma around ADHD and other neurodivergent conditions.
I recognized early on that ADHD could be seen as a risk by employers or product partners that could hurt growth opportunities and increased product ownership later down the line.
Product Design Expectations
When assessing a “strong fit” for product design roles, core skills assessed may be: strong attention to detail, consistency in visual design quality and output, ability to switch context as you work across projects, “pixel perfection”, and more.
The existing stigma (and misunderstanding) around ADHD would have some recruiters or hiring managers view ADHD as a disqualifier.
As design levels move into more senior territory, ownership and expectations grow to include: reducing complex problems into simple solutions, utilizing market and user research to inform solutions and iterations, data analysis, patterns/trend identification, produce write ups of your intended output and outcomes combining all of the above, and more of course. With the added ownership, your strength will come from the ability to tie business outcomes and impact back to design outcomes and contributions. What’s so bad about that?
Well…nothing’s bad about it.
These expectations can feel unattainable or overwhelming the more (ironically) informed we become on our individual limitations and “capabilities” that come with neurodivergence's.
Some may struggle with details or “pixel perfection” due to inattentive ADHD, or some may find it harder to stay focused due to hyperactive ADHD. Others might find it difficult to connect with employees on a day to day basis due to limitations with social interactions. This can feel daunting and exhausting when most orgs require visibility and influence to see upwards movement in a role.
Some people might ask themselves, “if I struggle to remember what items I was supposed to grab from the grocery store, how can I remember complexities listed above?”
The simple answer is: don’t compare apples to oranges.
The not-so-simple answer is: this entire article.
Meeting Expectations… or not
Pre-diagnosis, which some of you may be currently experiencing, feels like wearing a blindfold in the dark at times when you’re gauging your output versus expectations at work.
In the period when I was starting to notice signs and symptoms of something going on cognitively, I had to work twice as hard and twice as long to keep up at work.
The journey to my diagnosis was extremely difficult. The symptoms I presented got bad very quickly, so much so that I thought I had a brain tumor because I could not remember anything I had worked on throughout the day, and I could not communicate back to others what my output was or what any of it meant. I became alarmed and sought out doctors to understand what was happening. I spent meetings crying to my manager about my brain fog and confusion, thinking if I bought a new desk or re-arranged my workspace the fog would clear itself up (spoiler: it didn’t)
Instead, I was fired for my “incompetence”…or to be exact “not being cut out to be a product designer”.
I had been in the role for exactly 1 year. I loved my job and was very active within the product org when it came to planning activities and social events to drive connections, especially since we were at the peak of COVID-19.
Our team had gotten a new design manager who spent the first 2–3 months onboarding and getting familiar with the design org/best practices/etc. After that period, I’d be moved from reporting into my “temporary manager” (Head of Growth) to our new design leader.
I had been communicating my fears and struggles mentally and health-wise to my former boss, and at one point, even cried in our 1:1 with how embarrassed I was that I was experiencing that type of confusion. After the Christmas holiday, I began reporting to my new manager on January 2nd. During our 2nd 1:1, she fired me after one day of officially being my manager.
Yes, she fired me after 1 day of managing me. She said:
“It’s difficult to do this, but we are letting you go. You are not a strong designer, the level of your skills are not cut out for product design. You should consider a different career, I don’t think design is for you.”
I felt an indescribable amount of shame and embarrassment. The ailment I was experiencing affected my performance, and in this moment, it felt like it affected (ended) my entire career after pouring my blood, sweat, and tears into getting here (okay maybe not blood, but I did sweat and cry a lot).
I asked for context on why. Could I have a review process? A PIP? Were there any considerations before deciding to let me go? I hadn’t been warned, and I didn’t have a bad performance review at the end of the year, in fact my review was as expected since I had been communicating so openly with my at-the-time manager.
Unfortunately, in the end, it just wasn’t worth it. She was committed to my incompetence and saw me as a bad investment.
My ADHD diagnosis felt like a sigh of relief
I thought ADHD meant I would never be able to reach the level of success I wanted to. I feared it would render me incapable of doing my job altogether. I thought I had to quit design…forever.
When I was diagnosed (almost a full year and a half after starting that journey), I looked back to those moments of brain fog and thought “is this is just who I am? Am I incapable? If I can’t remember things or obtain key details when writing or reiterating, how will I be the designer I’ve been working towards being the last 4.5 years?”
A “later in life” diagnosis led to a mountain of grief. I grieved my previous self. I grieved what I could have been. I grieved what I could have accomplished, or how much further along I could be without the world convincing me I was “lazy”, “stupid”, or “had a lack of self control”.
On the positive side, getting a diagnosis motivated me to educate myself on it so I could understand more about myself and the difficulties people like me face, but the more I learned, the more fear grew within me on how others might perceive me and how that would affect my career.
My diagnosis made me realize I was not an incompetent designer, destined to do anything else other than design because I was so “bad at it”. It felt like a big sigh of relief to have a reason behind my experiences and symptoms that weren’t just “try harder”, or “exercise more”, or everyones favorite “have you tried drinking more water?”.
Once I began to understand myself and my limitations more, I began to take my power back.
Harnessing The Power Of Neurodiversity
I had previously read an article on Medium by Luc de Boer, and came across a quote that resonated with me.
“The tech industry thrives on innovation, creative problem solving, and unique perspectives. It therefore comes as no surprise that in the last couple of years there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of articles written about how the tech industry can “harness the power of neurodiversity”. Personally, I reject and dismiss these types of articles. Neurodiverse people, myself included, are not waiting to have our “true potential” unlocked by our employers. Instead we’re striving for an equitable work environment.”
This might seem to be in direct conflict with the original intent of turning your neurodivergence into a superpower, but I can explain!
Luc is right, the discourse around neurodivergence has begun to shape itself around welcoming it, thriving on it, and being able to solve problems better by “harnessing the power of neurodivergence”. I agree with the sentiment that businesses may be trying to communicate, but I disagree that it’s the employers position to empower us and “unlock” that creativity.
I think it’s our responsibility to empower ourselves through understanding our own limitations and how we find ways around/through those.
Step 1: Know What You Need to Succeed
Understand how to cope and still be efficient.
Work preferences
Work culture has made some of us believe (or feel) that we can’t have our own preferences when it comes to work style. Here’s an example:
Situation: you work on the West Coast but your East Coast coworker threw a meeting on your calendar for 7:30amPST/10amEST. You know your brain isn’t really “on” until around 10am your time and having a meeting this early wont represent your best state of mind. What do you do?
…Propose a new time, then set future expectations with colleagues for what your intended work hours are. It’s a small example, but the point is when you understand how you work and what environments you will and wont succeed in, you can communicate that back to your colleagues to set the right expectations.
Each struggle around neurodivergence looks differently, but in order to move past them in our work place we need to understand them and communicate them back to our product partners. In an example taken from Additude Magazine:
“If you’re prone to hyperfocus — to work on something so intently that you lose track of time — it may be helpful to “cue” yourself. Try Post-it notes, a watch alarm, a box that pops up on your computer screen — anything that makes you aware of the time and of what you should be doing.
If your symptoms include hyperactivity, take every opportunity to move around at work. Pace while talking on the phone. If you need to talk to a colleague, walk over instead of calling. Take a break every hour or so for some calisthenics or a stroll through the halls.”
If you need to take breaks during the day to re-focus your energy and attention to be more successful, most work places are flexible with blocking time off during the day as long as you’re meeting your goals and communicating time away from the keyboard (AFK!) to your coworkers.
Examples:
- I prefer to take meetings after 9:30am PST.
- I like to take walks, so there will be blocks of time in 15–20 minute intervals throughout the day.
- Please do not book over my lunch or focus time hours unless absolutely necessary.
“Absolute requirements”: What do you need to do great work?
What are the things you absolutely need to be successful at work? These are the things that would hinder you or get in the way of doing your best work, whether it’s tech stack, tools, or morale based.
Understand the things that might de-motivate you. If you do have ADHD, de-motivators will be the quickest path to dopamine-death, making it even more difficult for you to focus or complete tasks. Once we become distracted by environmental or cultural roadblocks within the workplace, it can continue buzzing in our minds until it’s resolved, taking up a lot of the space we need to be efficient and focused.
It’s okay to tell employers that you won’t do well in certain situations, especially if they can be avoided all together. Identifying the factors that create the most success and the least amount of distractions will help not only improve personal output but additionally improve the team output as you work harmoniously together towards similar goals.
Examples:
- I need trust from my teammates and leaders/manager. Micromanaging kills my morale.
- My colleagues need to understand design to some degree. I’m not a UI generator. I need time to talk to customers, internal teams, research, etc. It’s a process!
- Honest feedback if something I’m doing isn’t working well. How can I succeed if I “don’t know what I don’t know”?
- Growth and equitable compensation. (because whats wrong with wanting to be paid fairly?)
Anything that might become a mental distraction to you at work is something worth noting here.
Communication
In my opinion, this is the biggest piece to success in a role! 🚨
People with ADHD or autism are at a higher risk for miscommunication in the workplace than neurotypical individuals. A quote from LA Concierge Psychologist states:
“When autistic and neurotypical people interact, they often have trouble understanding, empathizing with, and being understood by each other. Neurodiversity-affirmative psychotherapists call this the double empathy problem. According to the double empathy framework, the autistic-neurotypical communication gap is a mutual problem which both groups share responsibility for solving.”
Factors of communication that can differ or cause friction include:
- Directness. We may be more direct to avoid implications, hints, and assumptions because they can be challenging to interpret.
- Honesty. For many autistic people, the highest priority in a conversation is the communication of facts, which at times can off-put others.
- Conversation efficiency. Small talk is a preference, a lot of people engage in small talk in meetings to avoid awkward silences or express friendliness, however neurodivergent individuals may prefer to skip past that.
- And more
Communicating differently does not make anyone wrong, it just means there’s a little bit of extra work to understand individual communication styles, our colleague’s communication styles, and how to align the two successfully.
Ask yourself what type of communication works versus doesn’t work for you. Be aware of where your communication shortcomings are as well. Things to consider in this area are:
- What type of information should be communicated to you on Slack versus Zoom?
- Do you have a preference on communication tools or delivery?
- Do you tend to be very direct?
- What type of communication styles or approaches shut you down?
- What type of communication styles or approaches help you understand or feel comfortable?
Strengths: Where do you add value?
Where are the areas you feel most confident in? Where do you feel you add the most value? Identify your superpower and share that with others.
I think designers in general tend to think we have to be good at everything, and the majority of us have imposter syndrome.
Mental illness + imposter syndrome = 😵
Own your strengths and understand your weaknesses. Here’s an example of mine:
“I add value to teams by…
I’m not afraid to make decisions, or mistakes. I love learning.
Creating novel solutions to challenging problems. I explore all angles and I’m not afraid to approach problems creatively or “outside the box” of what’s “possible”.
Communicating effectively within and across teams. Keep alignment strong with all parties looped in.
Telling stories. I actively tell stories behind what, why, and how we’re tackling problems on our team that help paint a better picture of the value and outcomes we are driving, for people that aren’t directly involved. It gets folks excited and on board!”
Step 2: Tell Others What You Need to Succeed
“Manual of Me”
I felt misunderstood at the majority of my jobs. I wasn’t under-performing (except the period mentioned of my diagnosis journey), and I wasn’t doing anything “wrong”, but I was getting consistent feedback on my communication style (which at the time I thought was “good”).
I realized that the way I communicated came off as “aggressive” due to the directness of it in Slack. It was harder for others to read my tone when I would communicate very straight forward in Slack messages.
I started creating a “Manual of Me” at work to share with my colleagues.
My “Manual of Me” included details about myself, my needs, communication styles, how to motivate me, give me feedback, and my value add. It helped bridge any existing gaps and avoid future gaps within communication styles or understandings.
Tailor your needs to your work style to create the best chance of success within your team and your role by taking control over your narrative and perception through visibility and communication. Get ahead of any potential misunderstandings so as/if things occur in the future, your colleagues understand your behavior and intention.
Some examples from my “Manual of Me”
- “You’ll convince me to get on board by…”
- “The environment in which I thrive is..”
- “Things that de-motivate me are..”
- “My absolute requirements to do great work are..”
- “Things to know about me”
I found the more transparent I was, the more empowered I felt within my role. I started to see more success with my approaches and methods.
Examples of things I think people need to know about me:
- If I’m asking a lot of questions about a decision you made or something you built, that usually means I am not fully understanding. It’s to understand process and perspective so I understand in the way that works for my brain. It is not to challenge anyone.
- If you’re giving me any topic of feedback I can mistakenly enter solution mode of trying to explain or clarify my thought process. It is not because I am pushing back!
- If you find me over-explaining something, it’s because I have fallen into a cycle of thinking I’m not being clear or articulate enough. Feel free to interrupt that loop lol.
Step 3: Leverage and Refine Your Superpowers
The power of “race car” thinking
As designers, we have the power to see things visually. Part of our role is helping others understand ideas and concepts through visual presentation.
Some designers have shared that they can hear ideas or problems shared with them from product managers or other stakeholders, and in those moments they can visualize a solution in their mind.
So what’s race car thinking? It’s a concept that describes the speed of ones ability to think and process information. Lou Brown wrote a short (yet relatable) piece on “race-car brain” in ADHD folks that describes the potential upsides.
“- Is as quick as lightening.
- Is creative, adventurous, interesting and engaging.
- Accelerates at processing information and understanding concepts.
- Is great at problem solving and enjoys thinking outside the box.
- Will hyperfocus and break records when it’s fuel supply is in abundance.”
Of course with all things good come some “bad”, but the power of speed translated to design can be incredible when workshopping ideas and outcomes, generating solutions, suggesting features or product ideas, hypothesizing outcomes, and more.
Thinking “outside the box”
Some people describe neurodivergent individuals as being able to “think outside of the norm”. The way I see this concept as a “superpower” in business (and design in particular) is through the ability to provide a range of perspectives on how the problem can be solved when you approach your solutions through different lenses.
This is important because your organization can get stuck in patterns that have worked in the past, but might not work with current problems teams are aiming solve.
People with ADHD perceive and understand connections or “flows” that are not appreciated by others. We often take a “bird’s eye view” of things, analyzing “what-if” and hypothetical scenarios, creating tangents that we iterate through mentally in a flash. — Leveraging ADHD in Tech by Armando Pantoja
Product orgs (or businesses in general) seem to get stuck in the same line of thinking, often becoming inflexible over time if they’ve seen success even just once from that approach. I think of the lack of flexibility as ghosts. Product teams may start framing project outcomes around north star metrics that are the ghosts of previous success, set to haunt the future of your potential success.
Over the last 7 years of my career, I’ve seen that product stakeholders are less likely to take risks when they don’t understand the full spectrum of what you (or other designers) are proposing. Use your ability to see multiple paths forward to sketch out wireframes and flows that guide your team towards a shared understanding of the pros, cons, and potentials.
Hyperfocus
This is one of the “superpowers” I find myself using the most. Because of my natural love for design, my dopamine is already pumping when I’m working my 9–5, making it very easy for me to hyperfocus on my tasks and produce high quality work in a short amount of time.
For some, there is a range of “focus” when trying to get work done. It can jump between “splintered”, where you find you may be distracted and fighting yourself on the work needed to be done, or hyperfocused, where you’re able to to zero in intensely on an interesting project or activity for hours at a time
Researchers currently believe that hyperfocus results from abnormally low levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is particularly active in the brain’s frontal lobes. This dopamine deficiency can make it difficult to shift gears to take on and complete the boring-but-necessary tasks in most jobs. — The Edge Foundation on “The Attention Spectrum”
While hyper-focusing may be a double edged sword, the upside is that you can inform yourself on your attention span in order to manage and strategically leverage it.
Some benefits in your design workflows may be:
- Increased productivity: We can spend hours and hours in Figma or Adobe when it’s time to create UI / design assets, requiring close attention to detail, pixel by pixel, inch by inch, REM by REM, and so on and so forth. When engaged, the ADHD brain ignores surrounding distractions and maintains a prolonged and intense focus on a task.
- Higher motivation and engagement: Motivation to complete tasks regardless of size skyrockets when we become stimulated by our work. Increasing engagement through heightened motivation enables us to work on our tasks actively until it’s completed.
- Enhanced learning and memory retention: When stimulated and engaged, you’re more likely to remember new learnings or insights. For example, if part of your role involves interviewing users, you know there can be days spent digging through interview scripts and recordings to analyze and parse valuable insights for research takeaways/learnings. When you retain key pieces of information from your sessions, it reduces hours of time you may need to spend combing through recordings.
- Overcome challenges faster: Being hyperfocused encourages you to persevere in solving problems. This persistence allows you to go further with ideas you generate, risks you gauge, screens you produce, and the number of paths you provide for problems and solutions.
Above all, the number one qualifier here is: do what you love. If you don’t love what you do, this superpower becomes more of a liability.
One article I read recently on Medium titled “The ADHD Superpower: Channeling Hyperfocus in the Tech World” by @Morten Petterøe spoke to this directly.
“What I’ve learned is that understanding oneself early on can save a lot of stress and heartache. And in the tech industry, ADHD can indeed be a superpower. The field’s nature — with its mix of deep, focused work and periods of lighter, creative brainstorming — aligns well with the ADHD brain.”
Be sure to balance along the way
Keep in mind, pitching the idea of 10 different paths to solve a problem won’t give you credibility. The secret to harnessing that “superpower” is being able to boil the problem down to it’s core goal and desired outcome, so you can make a direct connection to your “out of the box” proposals and how you see that impacting the overall business outcome.
Translating That To Growth
Over time you’ll naturally refine any edges you may have within your processes or communication skills. The feedback you receive will start to shape itself into valuable qualities based on the output you produce.
Those could look like:
- Generates ideas quickly ➡️ Has a strong product sense.
- Able to think quickly through a range of problems ➡️ Critical thinker.
- Provides multiple perspectives ➡️ Strong inclination towards product-led growth.
- Not afraid to tack on big problem spaces ➡️ Ability to tackle complex systems design concepts with ease
Knowing more about yourself allows you to create and cultivate the work environment you need to be successful and additionally enables your team and manager(s) to understand your behaviors, needs, and intentions more clearly.
As stated above, it’s not up to our employers to unlock our true potential, it is ours. It is also our responsibility to communicate with our team members and product partners to build trust and rapport over time.
Understanding ourselves unlocks the ability to identify our strengths (and shortcomings), which enable us to strategize our approach within workflows. Over time those “superpowers” continue to reshape and refine themselves with practice, allowing you to take back the power that we lose when we see our neurodivergence's as negatives, career-enders, or deterrents.
When we leverage the parts of ourselves that others may have convinced us were weaknesses, we are able to write, shape, and produce our own narratives that make us stronger designers.
