Sydney Johnson
Founder and Principal Consultant at Three Times True Inc. | 7 Years Experience
Sydney Johnson owns Three Times True, a user research and service design consultancy. Through in-depth user research, user experience strategy, and exceptional service design, Sydney helps businesses to become more human-centred.
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CWID
At what point in your life did you learn about design, and what drew you to it?
S.J.
I consider myself very fortunate to have been exposed to design as early as I was: My mother is a graphic designer who has owned and operated her own communications firm since before I was born. She shared her passion for art with me throughout my childhood by taking me to every gallery she could. More importantly, she showed me that design is not only vital to society, but that it could be profitable as well. I grew up with a lot of people whose families told them they had to choose a profession that was “practical” (engineer, lawyer, doctor, etc.). In my family, a career in design was considered practical.
Early on in art school, I actually tried to move away from graphic design to try to forge my own path. However, design was where both my talents and me interests were, so that’s what I ultimately pursued. Later, I moved on to UX design and finally into service design. Today, I am able to play in design research and strategy spaces while resting on a strong visual foundation whenever I need it (and I often do).
CWID
Describe your design process.
S.J.
As a service designer, my process always starts with research. It’s essential to fully understand what issues people are having before I can start to design a solution for them. I conduct in-depth research with the people that will be ultimately using and interacting with whatever I design. Next, a process of iteration: Designing something and then testing it with real users for multiple loops. Once I became heavily-involved in the customer-facing research part of the design process, I could never go back to creating something without it.
If I’m able (and if I can convince the client to do it), I try to keep the outcome as open as possible. This allows me to go fully into the process and examine all possibilities for the best solution without being pinned to a specific deliverable. If a client comes to me to design an app, maybe that’s what they need, but maybe it’s not! I first need to know how they came to that conclusion first.
CWID
What project are you most proud of?
S.J.
In 2016, I completed a research and design project for my Master’s thesis that involved taking solo trip around the world. I was looking into challenges faced by female founders in design and technology spaces, and I was also interested in how culture would affect these findings, so I travelled to ten countries on four continents to interview women that fit this profile.
One of the most interesting things I found was that there was very little difference in the challenges these women had. I heard almost identical, unprompted anecdotes from women in completely different places. It was very jarring to realize that there was no escape from the misogyny one would experience as a woman in a leadership position in this or any other industry.
A common theme in my interviews was a desire among these women to better connect with others that were experiencing the same things. To address this, I designed and prototyped a service to connect female founders from different parts of the world to one another. Unfortunately, I haven’t taken this project beyond the testing stage (yet!), but I still believe in its value. It was an incredible opportunity to be able to allow these women to connect and to watch those connections blossom.
CWID
What is your personal or professional motto/philosophy?
S.J.
My professional philosophy revolves around the idea that design can truly make life better for people. This is at the heart of my company and was a large part of the reason that my previous role was in the healthcare space. I try to take on projects that will have some kind of positive impact on people’s lives. As a society, the more design becomes intrinsic to the process of creating anything, the better off we’ll all be.
CWID
What’s the boldest thing you’ve ever done in your professional life?
S.J.
Without a doubt, it was leaving my full-time, salaried job to form my own company. I think all those who have done the same thing will answer this question that way. It’s incredibly scary and exhilarating, but I knew that I would forever regret it if I didn’t at least try to make my vision a reality. I’ve wanted to have my own firm as long as I’ve wanted to be a designer, and, while the nature of my design has changed over the years, my entrepreneurial spirit has never faded.
CWID
What does success mean to you?
S.J.
Impact, impact, impact. That is: Did my design make something better for someone?
CWID
What does it mean to you to be a woman in this business?
S.J.
As a woman in this business, I am unapologetically committed to diversity in both the makeup of prominent people in the industry but also when it comes to considering who I’m designing for. This means advocacy not only for women but for people of colour and those from the LGBTQ2S+ community as well. Design research without diversity is going to ensure that your solution won’t work as well as it could. Being a woman gave me experience that allowed me to understand this fully and early on. In order to keep moving the needle, we all need to be committed those these ideals in our lives AND in our design work.
CWID
What was your educational experience like?
S.J.
I loved my educational experience. I was fortunate enough to study in the U.K. for both of my degrees and was subsequently taught design in a society with a different perspective on it. This has made a major impact on my design philosophy and has had a strong impact on my career. It also contributed to the creation of my own company.
I give a lot of credit to the schools I went to for not imposing a particular outcome on most of the projects assigned. Parameters can be helpful and necessary, especially when you’re learning. However, design is about problem-solving, and the outcome may often not be what you expect it to be. I believe this kind of openness will be the next evolution of design education in Canada.
CWID
Name a fear or professional challenge that keeps you up at night.
S.J.
I often struggle with the best way to communicate the value of design to people who know nothing about it. I think that many outside the design industry have caught on to the importance of having a visual identity, but they’re only starting to realize the role design can play in people’s lives as they move through the world and interact with the systems around them.
Everything is designed, whether consciously or not. And when it’s not, it really shows. I want that to be more widely-known and for the value of design to continue to increase in our society.
CWID
What are the best and worst pieces of advice you’ve ever gotten?
S.J.
Best advice: “If you want to go do something, just do it.”
Worst advice: “That’s risky. Don’t do it.”
CWID
What advice would you give to a young female designer?
S.J.
First, listen to your intuition and follow it. Lots of people will tell you you’re doing the wrong thing or that you should do something a different way, but only you know what is right and what is wrong for you.
Second, educate yourself on what it means to be a woman both within design and in within society. It is essential to understand and anticipate the challenges you will face because you are female. Knowledge is power.
CWID
How would you design the ideal creative workspace?
S.J.
For me, my ideal creative workspace has less to do with the space itself and more to do with the people around me. I believe so much in the value of a team being able to share ideas and to push each other forward personally and professionally. A lot of my vision for the future of my company revolves around what I want the team to be.
Physically speaking, this brings to mind some kind of blank room where every surface can be drawn on, and everyone has a differently-coloured marker.
Canadian Women in Design
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