A GUIDE TO SHARING YOUR WORK How to use design thinking to market your projects and increase their impact By Jeni Weber University of Alabama at Birmingham University Innovation Fellow
There’s a key element we often forget after we finish our projects: sharing them. We think, “If we build it, they will come.” But what do we do if we build something and no one comes? How do we know that it’s getting out there to the people it’s supposed to benefit? Sharing your work: • Extends its life • Increases its impact • Creates relationships that wouldn’t exist otherwise
Keep in mind that your new audience may not be the same people you designed the project for. They could be stakeholders, industry leaders, or people like you who want to learn how to do what you did. Ask yourself the following:
Who am I trying to reach? What are their pain points and problems? How and where do they spend their time?
What you identify as your “work” is up to you. It could be a campus project or initiative, a startup, or something less concrete, like your ideas about the world. Whatever your work is, you can start sharing it with others through marketing.
This process helps you understand the people you’re trying to reach, and the mediums with which to reach them. The internet is a treasure trove of this information. The trick is to join these communities yourself, and listen.
But hang on. Does “marketing” bring to mind a pushy salesperson, annoying ads, or inauthenticity? Let’s redefine that word and reframe how we view it. Marketing is building connections and helping people find what they need.
IDEATE
Here’s a secret: You’re already an expert at the marketing process. Let’s hack marketing with something you may already know about, design thinking.
EMPATHIZE & DEFINE THE PROBLEM The first step in sharing your work is to empathize with who you’re trying to reach and the problems they face. Sound familiar? You might have done this as the first step in your project already. But now, you’re looking at your audience through a new lens.
Grab your Post-It notes; it’s time to ideate! Before you come up with ideas, know that sharing and marketing your work is not self-promotion. You won’t be sharing your work in a single-sided, “look at me!” way. You’re a connector, a node connecting people and ideas. Sharing your work is an opportunity to connect with real humans and provide them with value. And the stories you tell about your work affect how people feel about your work and resonate with it. How can you connect with the people you’d like to reach? Do they need some information that you can help them with? Are they looking for entertainment? 83
