See Problems As Opportunities | Mona Patel | TEDxNewBedford

Summary

In this inspiring talk, the speaker recounts her grandfather's journey from poverty in India to his children's success in America, highlighting the transformative power of education. She shares a personal story of teaching her illiterate grandfather to write his initials, symbolizing the shift from 'can't' to 'can.' The speaker, a designer, emphasizes the importance of reframing problems as opportunities and encourages the audience to embrace creativity through 'what if' questions. She illustrates her points with examples from her work, including redesigning a digital camera and a vitals monitor for hospitals, and challenges the audience to apply this mindset to their own lives, to innovate and make a difference.

Takeaways

• 🏡 The speaker's grandfather, despite being poor and illiterate, believed in the power of education and managed to send his sons to school, which led to their successful careers.
• 🌟 The grandfather's success in lifting his family out of poverty highlights the transformative power of education and the importance of perseverance.
• 📚 An early, poignant memory of teaching her grandfather to write his initials symbolizes the potential for learning and overcoming barriers at any age.
• 🚫 The narrative emphasizes the common human tendency to use 'can't' as an excuse, which can be a barrier to personal and professional growth.
• 💡 The speaker shares her journey of overcoming cultural expectations and personal doubts to pursue higher education, illustrating the importance of following one's aspirations.
• 🛠️ The study of Engineering Psychology provided the speaker with a unique skill set that combines understanding human behavior with product design.
• 🤝 Collaboration in college projects, such as redesigning a camera and improving hospital monitors, taught the speaker about the value of user-centered design and innovation.
• 🔑 The concept of 'can't' as a mindset is introduced as something that can be overcome through creative problem-solving and a shift in perspective.
• 🤔 The speaker encourages reframing problems as opportunities, simplifying complex issues, and focusing on achievable steps towards a solution.
• 💼 The speaker's professional experience in user-experience design underscores the need to bridge the gap between perceived limitations and potential solutions.
• 🌟 The talk concludes with a call to action, challenging the audience to identify problems in their own lives, think creatively, and execute on ideas to make a difference.

Q & A

What was the speaker's grandfather's background?

The speaker's grandfather grew up in a small village in Gujarat, India, in a house made of dirt with a single bedroom for his family of ten. He was dirt poor and believed in the power of education to escape poverty.

How did the speaker's grandfather contribute to his children's education?

Despite being poor, the grandfather managed to send his sons to a nearby city for school, leading them to become professors, engineers, and doctors.

Why did the speaker's grandfather come to the United States?

The speaker's father, who became a doctor, moved to the United States in 1975, and the speaker was born a few years later.

What was a significant memory the speaker had with her grandfather?

The speaker remembers teaching her grandfather to write his initials, 'J, P.', despite his inability to read or write, which led to a moment of joy and accomplishment for him.

How did the speaker's cultural background influence her decision to attend college?

The speaker, being part of a traditional Indian culture, initially faced 'can'ts' and doubts about her ability to attend Tufts University due to cultural expectations and financial concerns, but her father encouraged her to pursue her education.

What was the speaker's major in college and how did it influence her career?

The speaker majored in Engineering Psychology, which combined her interest in psychology with the practical aspects of engineering. This background helped her understand both human capabilities and the challenges of product design.

What was one of the projects the speaker worked on during her college education?

One of the projects was redesigning a camera, specifically the first consumer-facing digital camera, which allowed for easier and more immediate access to captured images.

How did the speaker approach the challenge of redesigning a vitals monitor for hospitals?

The speaker and her team recommended redesigning the vitals monitor with a big bold new font, allowing nurses to read the patient's vitals from outside the room, thus minimizing disturbance to the patients.

What technique does the speaker suggest for generating creative ideas?

The speaker suggests using the 'what if?' technique, which involves asking a series of 'what if?' questions to stimulate creativity and generate innovative ideas.

What is the 'funnel vision' technique mentioned by the speaker?

The 'funnel vision' technique is a method of narrowing down a large number of ideas to a few feasible ones by asking questions such as 'Do you love the idea?', 'Will you pay for it?', and 'Does it have a wow factor?'.

What is the main message the speaker wants the audience to take away from her talk?

The main message is to shift one's mindset from 'can't' to 'can', to see problems as opportunities, and to use creativity and innovative thinking to design solutions and make a difference in the world.

Outlines

00:00

🌟 Overcoming 'Can't' Through Education

The speaker recounts her grandfather's journey from poverty in Gujarat, India, to educating his children in a nearby city, leading to successful careers. Despite his own illiteracy, he instilled the value of education in his family. The speaker's personal experience teaching her grandfather to write his initials at the age of six illustrates the transformative power of shifting from a 'can't' to a 'can' mindset. This story sets the stage for the theme of overcoming barriers through education and personal initiative.

05:01

🎓 Bridging 'Can' and 'Can't' in Design and Life

The speaker discusses her academic and professional journey, focusing on the interdisciplinary field of Engineering Psychology. She shares experiences from college projects, such as redesigning a camera and improving hospital vitals monitors, which taught her to see problems as opportunities. She emphasizes the importance of simplifying complex issues and focusing on the essentials, drawing parallels between her grandfather's learning experience and her approach to design, which is centered on overcoming 'can't' mindsets.

10:04

💡 Cultivating Creativity to Transform 'Can'ts'

The speaker challenges the audience to rethink 'can't' by using creativity as a tool. She shares her professional experiences, including redesigning VCR instructions and creating an internal knowledge-sharing platform for a company. She introduces a technique to foster creativity: asking 'what if?' questions to generate ideas and then filtering them based on love, utility, and wow factor. The speaker encourages the audience to apply this technique to identify and solve meaningful problems in their lives, shifting from a culture of limitations to one of possibilities.

15:05

👏 Embracing the Power of 'What If'

In conclusion, the speaker receives applause for her talk, which encapsulates the message of embracing 'what if' thinking to move from 'can't' to 'can.' She inspires the audience to take on challenges, find opportunities within problems, and execute on their ideas to make a difference. The speech ends on a motivational note, urging everyone to look inward for solutions and to act on them with the confidence that 'what if we don't' try.

Keywords

💡Poverty

Poverty is a state of deprivation where an individual or community lacks the financial resources and essentials for a minimum standard of living. In the video, the grandfather's background of growing up in a dirt-made house with limited resources exemplifies extreme poverty. His belief in education as a means to escape this condition is a central theme, showing how overcoming poverty can lead to significant generational change.

💡Education

Education refers to the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, values, and habits. It is portrayed as a transformative force in the video, where the grandfather's investment in his sons' education leads to their becoming professionals and his granddaughter's reflections on her own educational journey. Education is a recurring motif, symbolizing empowerment and social mobility.

💡Opportunity

Opportunity denotes a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something or a favorable juncture for action. The video speaker sees opportunities in the challenges faced by her grandfather and others, advocating for a shift in mindset from 'can't' to 'can'. The concept is exemplified when she teaches her grandfather to write, showing that opportunities for learning and growth are always present.

💡Cultural Constraints

Cultural constraints are the limitations imposed by societal norms, traditions, or expectations. The video discusses how traditional Indian culture, with its gender roles and expectations, can act as constraints on individual aspirations. The speaker's struggle with choosing her college and major is influenced by these cultural constraints, which she eventually overcomes to pursue her own path.

💡Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. It is evident in the video when the speaker recognizes her grandfather's shame and desire to learn despite his illiteracy. By empathizing with his situation, she helps him take the first steps towards literacy, demonstrating the power of empathy in overcoming personal and societal barriers.

💡Innovation

Innovation refers to the introduction of new ideas, devices, or methods. The video speaker discusses her work in user experience design, where she focuses on innovating around the 'can'ts' of users. Examples include redesigning a camera and a vitals monitor in a hospital, showcasing how innovation can solve problems and improve user experiences.

💡User-Experience Design

User-experience design is the process of enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the user and a product. The video speaker's education in engineering psychology and her career focus on understanding users' capabilities and limitations to design products that are both functional and enjoyable to use.

💡Mindset

Mindset refers to a set of attitudes and beliefs that shape how an individual views the world and themselves. The video emphasizes the importance of shifting one's mindset from seeing problems as insurmountable 'can'ts' to viewing them as opportunities for 'can'. This mindset shift is crucial for personal growth, innovation, and overcoming cultural or self-imposed constraints.

💡Ideation

Ideation is the process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas. The video speaker encourages the audience to move from a problem-centric view to an opportunity-centric one, where ideation can flourish. She uses the technique of asking 'what if?' to stimulate creative thinking and generate innovative solutions to problems.

💡Excuses

Excuses are justifications or reasons given to explain or defend a fault or offense. In the video, the speaker challenges the audience to recognize when they are making excuses ('can'ts') and to move beyond them. Excuses are depicted as barriers to action and change, and overcoming them is key to personal and professional growth.

💡Execution

Execution refers to the successful implementation of a plan or strategy. While the video speaker does not focus on execution, she acknowledges its importance in realizing ideas. The video implies that having a great idea is just the first step; effective execution is what brings that idea to fruition and creates tangible change.

Highlights

The speaker's grandfather, despite being dirt poor, believed in education as a means to escape poverty.

The grandfather's investment in his children's education led to their becoming professionals like professors and engineers.

The speaker's father became a doctor and immigrated to the United States in 1975.

The speaker's close relationship with her grandparents, who helped raise her, influenced her life significantly.

A poignant memory of teaching her grandfather to write his initials despite his illiteracy.

The grandfather's transition from 'can't' to 'can' after learning to write his initials.

The speaker's challenge to the audience to confront their own 'can'ts' and see them as excuses.

The importance of shifting mindset from 'can't' to 'can' to overcome personal and societal barriers.

The speaker's struggle with cultural expectations as an Indian woman in America and her decision to attend Tufts University.

The speaker's journey to study Engineering Psychology, combining her interests in psychology and engineering.

Innovative projects during college, such as redesigning a camera and improving hospital vitals monitoring, taught the speaker valuable lessons about design and user experience.

The speaker's philosophy that 'can't' is a mindset that can be designed around by shifting perspectives and simplifying problems.

The technique of asking 'what if?' to stimulate creativity and innovation.

The process of idea generation through 'what if?' questions, followed by a methodical evaluation to select viable ideas.

The speaker's challenge to the audience to apply the 'what if?' technique to their own lives and problems.

The importance of turning inward to find solutions and opportunities within one's own life and community.

The speaker's closing challenge to the audience to move from 'can't' to 'can' and to take action on making a difference.

Transcripts

Transcriber: Denise RQ Reviewer: Mary Kay

My grandfather grew up in a small village in Gujarat, India.

He was dirt poor. Literally.

His house was made of dirt,

and the one bedroom was all he could provide his family of ten.

He believed education was the way out of poverty,

so he somehow managed to send his sons to a nearby city for school.

His sons became professors and engineers.

And one, his baby, my dad, became a doctor.

He came to the United States in 1975, and I was born a few years later.

He brought over his parents, my grandparents, to help raise us

as they went back to work.

I was very close to my grandparents as a result.

I remember one vivid day:

I was sitting next to my grandfather, we were sitting next to the window,

and the worm, yellow Sun was beaming in on us.

He was praying, and I was six years old,

so I was writing some story on this yellow legal pad.

When I was done, I gave it to him. I said, "Dada, read this!"

(groans)

"Dada read it! I wrote it for you!"

(grunts)

"Fine, well, then you write one!"

(Hindi) "I don't know how."

(English) which means, "I don't know how."

Actually, it means, "How would I know how?"

Here was this man, who pulled his entire family out of poverty,

ashamed because he didn't know how to read or write.

I'm sure he wished his six-year-old granddaughter,

the youngest of almost 50 grandkids, would just let this go.

But of course, I didn't!

"You don't know how to read or write?"

(scoffs)

"Don't you want to know how?"

He shrugged. I saw an opportunity.

So I took my pad, and I gave it to him.

I wrote the letters, "J, P."

I said, "Trace it," and he did.

I said, "Do it again!" And he did.

And then I flipped the page,

and I said, "Do it once more, all by yourself," and he did.

I took the pad back and went back to doing my own thing,

but out of the corner of my eye, I saw that he was smiling.

He had this sweet, half-smirk.

It's the same sweet, half-smirk that my little two-year-old has

when he accomplishes something.

He shifted from "can't" to "can."

We all have places in our lives where we say, "I can't."

Think of yours.

Seeing a "can't" doesn't make you wrong, it makes you human; these are excuses.

These very human excuses hold us back.

They are pervasive, powerful, and cleverly disguised.

They tap into our deepest fears and insecurities.

People say ideas are cheap. I hate that.

That can sound so obnoxious to someone who feels stuck and like they can't.

I have tons of places where I say, "I can't;"

a few of them arrived right before I got up on this stage.

(Laughter)

One of them I remember so clearly.

I was sitting in my kitchen, across the table from my dad.

We were talking about college.

On a whim, I had applied to Tufts University, right here in Boston,

and I got in.

I came, and I visited, and I fell in love with the place.

I knew that's where I wanted to go, but I was struggling with the decision.

Even though I grew up in America,

I was surrounded by a traditional Indian culture,

which for centuries has put women beneath men.

"Look down. Bow down. Stand in line. Don't cross the line."

There were so many rules around what we had to do,

that the culture constrained me like a corset,

and some of the excuses crept in,

so as I sat there that day, I started listing them.

"I think they let me in by accident. I'm not smart enough to go there.

It would be so much cheaper to just stay here in Maryland --"

and my dad cut me off.

He said, "What do you want to do?"

I said, "I want to go to school in Boston."

He said, "Do what you want to do!

Education got me this far. It can take you anywhere."

And so I did.

As an Indian kid, I got the memo that I was supposed to be a doctor.

(Laughter)

I got it.

I took a Bio class, and I was totally grossed out

by everything that had to do with the inside of a human body,

except for the mind.

I'd always been fascinated with psychology but too chicken to tell my parents

that I wanted to be a psychologist.

So as I'm sitting there in my freshman year dorm,

thumbing through the course catalog, I come upon something called,

Engineering Psychology.

"Engineering? That's great!

My parents are going to totally be fine with that!"

Signed up for the major, didn't even know what it was.

I did learn something, though.

What I learned, is that the psychology taught me how to understand people,

both the capabilities and the limitations.

The engineering taught me how to build products,

and how hard it is to build products.

During my college education,

I had two opportunities that were amazing.

One was redesigning a camera.

Do you remember when you had a camera, and it had film in it?

You had to decide how many pictures you were going to take, take the pictures,

take the film to a drugstore, drop it off, wait a couple days,

and then get the pictures back.

I got to work on the first consumer-facing digital camera,

and now we can capture all the smiles and half-smirks that we want.

I remember going on a field trip in school,

and we were in a hospital.

We observed that when nurses went into the room,

they would turn on the light,

make all this noise going to the vitals monitor.

They would take their clipboard, write down the stats,

and then leave the room, really disturbing the patient.

So, we recommended they redesign the vitals monitor:

a big bold new font allowed nurses to see the numbers

from outside of the room and not disturb the patients.

What I learned in college is the same thing I learned with my grandfather:

that everybody has a "can't," companies and people,

and our job as user-experience people is to design around that.

"Can't" is a mindset that can be designed around.

How?

You have to shift the way you think.

First, see problems as opportunities.

When you see a problem as a problem, it's a "can't."

No innovation can happen, no ideation can happen.

When you see a problem as an opportunity,

it's this amazing juicy space where anything can happen.

Second, simplify.

With my grandfather, I wasn't talking about literacy, or reading;

it was about two letters.

Use a technique. Watch me. Trace it. Do it yourself.

And filter out the unnecessary. No excuses. No "can'ts."

Focus on what you need to do;

one idea, one word, and one letter at a time in my grandfather's case.

This is what I've been doing for the past 17 years.

It inspired me to start a company

that I didn't even want to start six years ago,

because the trick is to bridge what clients see,

which is a "can't", a problem,

to what designers see, which is an opportunity, or a "can."

You just need an idea. That's the bridge.

People think of ideas as these grandiose things,

but a lot of times,

ideas can be in the ordinary moments of everyday life

that help people live that life.

For example, letting a patient sleep just a little bit longer

or giving you access to every picture you've ever taken - like that.

Some of you may remember VCRs.

For those of you who don't, ask your parents.

These things were awful!

People didn't know how to change the time, let alone actually record a show.

So we were working with a manufacturer, probably the one you had in your home,

because they knew people didn't know how to use this product,

and so they asked us to redesign the instructions.

You know, the things that you read?

This company's "can't" was believing that they only had one option:

redesigning the instructions.

I understand that the VCRs were already manufactured.

What if you put the instructions on the box?

Another big company, global, was trying to help their employees

by taking all of the information that was in their employee's heads,

and putting it into a website.

So for example, "How do you shut down

a manufacturing plant during an earthquake?"

Really important stuff that they figured

it would be better to learn from each other.

So, we talked to some employees, and the employees said, "Pfft. No way.

The only way to keep a job at this company

is to make sure nobody else can do your job."

(Laughter)

We went back and told the client, "There's this little thing."

They said, "You know what? Build it anyway. We'll force them to do it."

Their "can't" was believing that it was OK to take from their employees

to create a design

where they weren't giving as much as they were getting.

A smart pill; you would be amazed at how many things are happening

in healthcare.

We're working on a pill that has a sensor in it.

So when you swallow the pill, through science, and to me a little magic,

it transmits to an app and to your doctor.

There's so much potential for what this technology can do,

and this company is faced with the same "can't"

most of our large clients are, "We're not allowed to innovate.

The industry, the bureaucracy, the red tape, my boss,

all these things hold us back."

I know it sounds like I'm being judgmental, I don't mean to be.

I'm just pointing out that everyone has these "can'ts,"

and to design your way around the "can't,"

you have to understand what your "can't" is.

What does this have to do with my grandfather?

In business and in life, it's easy to say, "I can't,"

to call a problem a problem

and never design your way out of anything.

That day with my grandfather, my job was to get him, my client,

from zero to one.

The rest was up to him.

My job was and is to motivate. The rest is up to you.

What if I asked you to redesign an umbrella,

the thing that tends to break in the rain?

What are some of the ideas that you could come up with

to redesign an umbrella?

An umbrella that breaks in the rain is a problem,

or a challenge, or an opportunity to come up with something new.

So how do you come up with these ideas?

Actually, there's a technique. Think of creativity as a muscle.

You just need a well-designed workout.

It begins by asking, "What if?"

"What if?" is one of the creative openers

that can get you to pick up your pen and start designing.

Think about it.

We all used to ask "what if?" questions as a child.

My five-year-old asks so many "what if?" questions,

I don't even know what to do with it!

But somewhere along the way, parents, bosses, teachers,

maybe the Indian culture,

tell you to stop asking and start accepting.

"Don't ask questions that can't and shouldn't be answered."

But acceptance breeds stagnation,

and when people are stuck, ideas get stuck.

"What if?" is a way out.

What if the top of the umbrella was invisible?

It was made of air, and it protected your head.

What if the top of the umbrella was actually customizable?

So it's a shield that automatically adjusted

to the wind and rain velocity.

What if the stem of the umbrella captured the water and filtered it,

so you always had clean drinking water?

What if the umbrella wasn't even an umbrella

but a drone that floated over your head?

These don't come that easy. They're actually a workout.

You have to do some push ups so I'll walk you through what that is.

The first is to sit down and ask as many "what if?" questions as you can,

three minutes, three rounds, sharing with a team in between.

That's it.

You'll end up with a ton of ideas.

You'll also end up with a collaborative energy,

and a collective shift from "can't" to "can."

But what are you going to do with all these ideas?

Sometimes having too many ideas is as binding as having none.

So, you'll ask more questions, "Do you love the idea?"

because if you don't love it, you'll probably not do anything with it.

"Will you pay for it? Will people use it? Is it easy?"

These three are ones we often use in product design

to decide whether a solution is a go or no-go.

And the last is, "Does it have a wow factor?

Will it improve the world? Will it change the way people interact?"

That's it.

You'll go from a lot of ideas to a few ideas.

We call this "funnel vision",

and it gets you to that set that you can start working from.

I understand that execution is a whole other conversation,

and equally important.

A lot of great ideas don't make it anywhere,

many of mine, because of poor execution.

But that's why I'm not standing here talking about execution.

I'm talking about getting from "can't" to "can",

to come up with the ideas in the first place

so you don't feel stuck.

Some of you get it.

Some of you understand the technique, I can ask "what if?", and you'll do it.

You'll do it on something in an area of your life

where you want something more;

Maybe getting a higher SAT score,

maybe launching that umbrella company that you always wanted.

But some of you are hesitant. You don't believe me.

You heard the umbrella ideas and said, "What is she talking about?

People would never use that.

That would cost too much money. How would you even build that?"

Let me give you a piece of advice, you are full of shift.

(Laughter)

Those are excuses, move past them

from "can't" to "can,"

from a disabling culture to an enabling one.

A lot of times, we look outward to see problems.

I want you to turn your lens inward to see solutions;

see problems as opportunities.

Find opportunities that are meaningful for you to solve in your world.

I challenge you to do my job in your world.

What if we could help kids feel less isolated

so they didn't turn to gun violence?

What if we could find a solution

between funding and defunding an organization that helps women's health?

What if we could bring education to every child, especially those on farms,

because that could have been me?

Take on something that makes a difference.

Making a difference is subjective.

For my grandfather, he never wanted to know how to read or write,

but being able to sign his very long Indian name

made all the difference.

Pick your problem. Ask "what if?"

Come up with ideas. Bring them down.

Then execute on them.

Maybe you're thinking, "What if we can't?"

I say to you, "What if we don't?"

Thank you.

(Applause)