We’ve recently said goodbye to intern-extraordinaire Purvi Desai. Before she finished up her three month internship, she penned this reflection on her time with us. Thank you Purvi for this reflection and for being such an asset to our office and our work.
Purvi conducting a research interview
Thank you for providing me with an incredible internship journey. I am so grateful for having the opportunity to work at Meld Studios and have access to all the amazing people who work here and seeing how you strive everyday to create value and design to make a difference.
While my learnings on this journey are too many to list, here are some:
Be true to the intent
I loved that at Meld there didn’t seem to be a prescribed approach to a design project. Rather, every method/approach/tool used was consciously selected to get the insights or outcomes required to fulfil the intent of the project. I really appreciated the sincerity with which all the team members brought to their work to help the client find solutions, unravel complexity, and achieve their business outcomes.
Explore & Pivot
Each time our project hit unexpected barriers, I loved how the team just explored why the barrier might exist and then pivoted to achieve the project intention. Barriers were never the end point—or a point that everyone threw up their arms in frustration—but rather, a time to reflect on what we had achieved and what we still needed to do. It was a moment to find a method that would help us navigate to our goal. I really loved being part of such a positive, purpose focused environment
Intuition first but follow with rigour
Every time we came together for sensemaking, I loved how we trusted our intuition to identify key moments in the journey, insights into customer motivations and decision criteria but then we followed up with rigorous examination of what we had heard to make sure that we didn’t miss anything. I loved this because it helped me get my initial thoughts out of my brain and onto a visible surface and allowed me to re-examine the customer/stakeholder data with fresh eyes.
Collaborate
Collaborating at every stage was a new way for me to work and I really enjoyed learning from the team and understanding what they took away from our investigations. I loved how we could build on each other’s ideas, validate our thinking, and make sure that we all remain connected with each other and focused on the end outcome for the client. This was also an opportunity for me to ask questions, explore the reasons why we are choosing one approach over the other, and better understand how to analyse data within the service design framework.
Be yourself
Having worked at many companies I am really amazed by how Meld has created a space that encourages their employees to be themselves, to explore and be curious and fail safely (or iterate :-)). I loved that nothing was set in stone, that new ideas were always welcomed, and that everything could always be iterated upon, and should be iterated upon. This filters in the language that Meld uses—where it’s always about how you can proactively make it better rather than focus on the current shortcomings—a refreshing attitude that I believe helps people perform at their best. Thank you Meld for showing that this environment is possible.
Be humble
So much of research and design process is stepping back and letting the people we talk to show and share their thoughts, ideas and frustrations. At Meld, I saw how teams were focused on getting the most insights out of every situation rather than defending their ideas and concepts.
I have LOVED my time here and talking to all of you and learning from you and being part on a company that lives its values. I have also enjoyed applying so many of the learnings to my personal life, from helping my kids organise their toy cupboards based on what’s important to them and how they use the toy, designing the holiday experience I wanted when I visited India, and doing weekly check-ins and check-outs with my kids on the drive to school. Thank you for helping me realise that this is the type of work I want to do and learn what I want from a work environment.
If you are looking to hire an emerging design powerhouse, you can find Purvi on LinkedIn here. If you’d like to apply for our internships, the link is here.