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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

IDEATE

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?

Fellows record a video to share their work at the UIF Silicon Valley Meetup, credit Patrick Beaudouin

Would someone on a similar journey appreciate learning from what you faced on yours?

Your ideas should fill the gap between what your audience needs, where they spend time, and how you can help.

If you feel stuck, assess your strengths and interests. Are you good at communicating through writing? Design? Speaking? Dance videos? You don’t have to work alone. You can crowdsource support and enjoy the diversity of ideas, skills, and experiences that others bring to the table.

IMPLEMENT & REPEAT

You should continue this cycle as often as you need to. Keep providing value and building connections with others through the stories you tell. Feeling stuck? Go back to empathy and ideation.

Whatever you do, know that you’re benefiting people who truly want to hear what you have to say. Increase your impact by sharing your work. You already have all you need to start.

PROTOTYPE & TEST

Once you’ve ideated, it’s time to take your ideas and try them out.

Form low-res prototypes of your ideas at first. For example, instead of producing an hour-long, professional podcast, try recording 10 minutes on your phone in an app like Anchor.

If you’re sharing your work through the internet, you can think of everything as feedback. Comments, site traffic, and social media interactions can all hint at whether your test is resonating with people, or if it’s being ignored.

Take that feedback, and iterate. If one method goes well, why? Did it teach or entertain? And if a test doesn’t land well, pivot to something else. You won’t know until you try it!