In this third conversation, I spoke with Sarah Grizzle, managing editor of Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Club Experience Club Experience Blog, and London Reeves, who’s exploring and producing innovations in program and content delivery for Boys & Girls Clubs’ staff and youth.
Our wide-ranging conversation poked and prodded at all sorts of things that product developers ought to understand. Really fundamentally, we explored how one might genuinely learn about, and engage, other people.
“Asking questions, and trying to make them as thoughtful as possible… when you ask thoughtful questions, people open up a bit more… teenagers can read through that real quickly. They know when you have a hidden agenda.”
— London Reeves
“It’s about having an open-handed curiosity about other people. When we’re talking about teens, they can see right through [you]. Especially about products… we’re going into this with a hidden agenda. It can limit that conversation. Coming in curious and asking the big questions will give you a full picture of who people are and what they need.”
— Sarah Grizzle
Also, check out London’s story about giving and seeking input. Does that sound like something familiar to you? How does it relate to the work we do now? We really do need to get time to develop trusted, honest relationships – and it doesn’t happen through a single conversation.
Learn to Lean into awkward
There’s so much to the conversation that you really must listen. But here’s something that I’ve been trying, and you might to. Sarah calls it “leaning into the awkward” – that is, stepping out to name the psychological beasts in the room to break down barriers. So often, the undescribed beasts get in the way of constructive dialogue, and I love the idea of naming and engaging those before taking a conversational deep-dive.
Anyway, please don’t take my word for it – here’s the episode!
If you prefer, here’s a full transcript of Episode 3.