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  "description": "As designers, we need to define purpose in order to make strong design decisions, but what drives you to be a designer? ",
  "path": "/what-is-your-why/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-13T12:32:28.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.designy.com",
  "tags": [
    "Apple Podcasts",
    "Spotify",
    "YouTube",
    "RSS.com for more...",
    "Become a guest on The Daily Sprint..."
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  "textContent": "<a href=\"https://rss.com/podcasts/the-daily-sprint/2730540/\">What is Your Why? | RSS.com</a>\n\n_Subscribe on your favorite platform_\nApple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | RSS.com for more...\n\nBecome a guest on The Daily Sprint...\n\n* * *\n\n## Transcript\n\nWelcome to The Daily Sprint.\n\nHere's a question.\n\nHave you found the purpose in the work you do, or is it literally a grind?\n\nAs designers, we need to define purpose in order to make strong design decisions, but what drives you to be a designer?\n\nI'm Darrell Estabrook, the founder of designing a platform for all about product designers who want to design with a why?\n\nI coach designers and to leaders through real-time, interactive product specific guidance.\n\nFind out more and get on board with a free newsletter at designy.com.\n\nThat's design “with a y” .com.\n\nSo welcome.\n\nI'm glad you're here.\n\nIt's episode 13.\n\nThat's a prime number.\n\nAnd if you're an agile geek, it's also a Fibonacci Prime.\n\nSo how did you get into design?\n\nWhy do you like it?\n\nWhat drives you?\n\nWell, I got into it kind of by accident, one might say, although I don't believe in accidents.\n\nBack when the internet was new?\n\nA friend called me up while I was a senior in college and said, hey, I'm going to start an internet dialup company.\n\nDo you want to join me?\n\nAnd I said, okay.\n\nAnd there we go.\n\nPhotoshop 4 and starting to create web apps.\n\nNot necessarily my major since there wasn't anything internet about it.\n\nBut why do you love designing?\n\nI can't get enough of it.\n\nIt's because I see design everywhere.\n\nIt's the fabric of what we do.\n\nEveryone is creating something at some time, whether they're thinking about it or not, you're planning something, you're making physical things, and there is a design process, and we just go about making it bumping into it.\n\nMaybe it works out.\n\nSome people are better at it than others, but it's literally the fabric of our existence as people.\n\nSo I love it.\n\nI see it everywhere.\n\nDigital design, technology, it's just cool to make something work.\n\nSo it's kind of an interesting superpower when we're talking about technology design, product design, and things like that.\n\nAnd over those years of designing, it seemed very obvious that one of the cruxes of having a strong design is having a strong purpose for that design.\n\nIf you don't know what you're designing for, like what the outcome is, then how could you ever make a design decision that makes sense?\n\nRight?\n\nIt's going to be random or arbitrary.\n\nOr emotional only, and then it falls apart under scrutiny.\n\nSo that's been a really driving force, and that's part of designing, and you get into it, you'll see, your purpose driving design is everything.\n\nIf you don't have purpose, what, what are you doing?\n\nBut with that, what drives you as a designer?\n\nWhat's your purpose?\n\nBecause that's the same thing.\n\nYou kind of bump this up a level and what design decisions are you making in your life and what's driving those things?\n\nDo you have a purpose for the work you do?\n\nOr is it literally a grind, right?\n\nAre you designing just until the next user story or just until the end of the day?\n\nOr maybe until the end of the week?\n\nI don't know, until retirement?\n\nHow far does it go?\n\nWell, I want to tell you my why.\n\nWhy I'm into design, what it means for my life and potentially for yours too.\n\nSo I published this on the design-y website.\n\nAnd you can actually go there, designy.com, design with a Y.com, and I have it in the main menu, my Y.\n\nAnd It's just the story of what drives everything.\n\nSo I built my whole career around refining a purpose driven approach for design leaders, and that's no accident.\n\nWhat drives me as a designer, it's very simple.\n\nJesus Christ.\n\nWhoa, whoa, whoa, there.\n\nBack up a moment.\n\nHelp me connect the dots.\n\nThis is, after all, a blog about software design.\n\nBingo.\n\nHave you ever taken the time to look back at the waypoints of your life?\n\nWaypoints are moments which were like any other day, and you wouldn't have otherwise made any special mention of them.\n\nThey aren't the planned milestone days like graduation, birthdays, or embarking on new adventures?\n\nThey aren't those major decisions like moving, accepting the job or getting married.\n\nThey aren't even the days of sudden calamity, like the loss of a job, or the death of a family member.\n\nNow, way points are those decisions you made without contemplating their significance.\n\nYet in the end, they amounted to the defining directions that shaped your life.\n\nThere are countless waypoints I could explore, but for this account, I'll highlight too.\n\nThe big ask.\n\nGrowing up in the 1980s seems like ancient history to even mention it.\n\nWell, the technology at the time was a fledgling concept of even owning a personal computer.\n\nThe day-to-day human interactions were the same as they've been for 1000s of years up to this very day.\n\nThat is, I was a pushover in school.\n\nIt was called teasing then, but it doesn't matter the label.\n\nEssentially, it amounted to my dignity being deflated at the mouths of outspoken kids.\n\nI was the kid that just wanted to go through the day, do the assignments, and play with my friends.\n\nThe outspoken kids had more enjoyment at embarrassing me in front of any audience they could muster, even if it was only themselves.\n\nThis was relentless pressure for a 3rd grader.\n\nMy parents had been new Christians since I was 4.\n\nIt was life changing for them and it was all I knew.\n\nWe went to church every week.\n\nWe read the Bible.\n\nWe prayed as a family.\n\nWe loved God.\n\nGod was big.\n\nGod was real, and we lived it out.\n\nThe way point came walking to the bus one morning.\n\nAll the pent up teasing, weighing heavily on my 8 year old mind.\n\nI remember this as clear as day.\n\nI was watching the texture and shape of the concrete sidewalk change with each step, and I prayed, Lord.\n\nI need you.\n\nThat was not some wistful prayer or quick nod to the big guy upstairs, nor was it something wrote, scripted or recited.\n\nIt was an honest, deep hearted, and humble as one can be, even as when talking to a friend.\n\nThen fire came down and consumed all my enemies.\n\nNot hardly.\n\nBut that wasn't the desire.\n\nThat way point of submission was the beginning anchor for everything else in my life.\n\nBy the clear and persistent grace of God.\n\nThe big idea.\n\nAt the turn of the millennium, I was in my 20s and 5 years into web design.\n\nThe world was still opening the gift of the internet.\n\nIt was a new concept of dynamic user interfaces and data on demand.\n\nAgile was not a thing, and neither was UX design.\n\nMost companies were grappling with this near immediate ability to deliver software with their ingrained old way of doing it, one methodical, laborious step at a time.\n\nMy work shifted from designing content websites to working with engineers who worked on productivity software for organizations.\n\nIn doing so, I was introduced to an entire cohort of people who were designing software.\n\nYet, while their desire was to help people do their work better and faster, they lacked the time, ability, interest to create user interfaces that truly connected users with their tasks.\n\nI saw my role as a designer as the literal interface between users, business, and engineers.\n\nEngineers saw their role as the actual driver of what made software effective.\n\nThere was this tension of which comes 1st, design the UX or design the infrastructure.\n\nI had seen firsthand that without an intentional design for the user experience, the results of the engineering would dictate it in the shape of data.\n\nThat never seemed to turn out well for the users.\n\nOne day, I was talking with an engineer on this topic and he said, you know, form follows function.\n\nThis was his way of barbing me that engineering came 1st in the process.\n\nHe pressed that defining the how would therefore define the experience the software took.\n\nAt that moment, it popped into my mind to say, form and function, follow purpose.\n\nWell, I knew design could inform engineering, even design needed something higher.\n\nIf the user experience wasn't aligned to a business strategy, even it would be a means to an end.\n\nHe paused for a moment of deep thought, and then said, That's true.\n\nThat way point redefined everything I ever thought about design's role in software, let alone every creative endeavor a person undertakes.\n\nThere's a reason creativity works this way. And it's even higher than me.\n\nThe big peak.\n\nThese 2 waypoints have matured over the past 40 plus years and converged.\n\nPersonally, I accepted Jesus as my savior and continue to grow and follow him.\n\nI realize naturally, I'd rather follow my own way, and not gods.\n\nThat's sin.\n\nRomans 3:23 says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.\n\nThis happens to be the default state of all of us.\n\nA perfect and holy God requires judgment for that sin.\n\nThat's eternal death.\n\nRomans 6:23 says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.\n\nI cannot do anything to redeem myself from this coming judgment.\n\nGood deeds, I may do towards others cannot be counted as payment for my personal sin against God, ready or not.\n\nJudgment is coming for each of us.\n\nHebrews 927 says, and as it is appointed unto men wants to die, but after this, the judgment.\n\nThe only way for my sins to be forgiven is if God does it.\n\nThe good news is he has already done it.\n\nJohn 3:16 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.\n\nJesus, who is God, came as a man and died for my sins. Through the death of the brutal cross.\n\nHe rose from the dead on the 3rd day as the promise of eternal life for all who believe. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 says, for I delivered unto you 1st of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the 3rd day, according to the scriptures.\n\nConfessing and believing that this gift of salvation comes through Jesus was the only thing that stood in my way for me staying dead in my sins and being forgiven of them.\n\nRomans 10:9 says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.\n\nAnd I did.\n\nI've been living these years day by day, growing in the grace and knowledge of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 2nd Peter 3:17 and 18 says, Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware, lest ye also, being led away from the terror of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to him, be glory both now and for ever.\n\nAmen.\n\nThis same forgiveness is an open invitation for you too.\n\nActs 8:37 says, and Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest, and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.\n\nProfessionally, I concluded, one can only make strong design decisions once the purpose is clear, and people respond to it.\n\nMost designers and people leading software don't know how to apply a purpose to their daily work in the strongest way.\n\nSure, there are goals and objectives, but applying those to a decision they have to make today is not the norm.\n\nI've learned it takes diligence to make design decisions which are strongly aligned on purpose instead of reactionary, convenient, and by accident.\n\nEvery time I've made those decisions on purpose, they're success.\n\nEvery time I've winged it, I've been self-indulgent design wise.\n\nDesigners demonstrate design leadership when they perfect this skill.\n\nThey can also teach it to others.\n\nEven so, I lived for years as though these were separate tracks in life.\n\nI wish I started living it sooner, but one can always start today.\n\nI kept these concepts separate.\n\nGod is just God and design is just design.\n\nTo that end, I limited 2 things, how far I could push applying design to its fullest potential, as well as sharing the unlimited potential God has designed for each of us.\n\nThese aren't separate.\n\nThey're both strictly tied together.\n\nThe big purpose.\n\nEvery design points to a designer.\n\nThis day-to-day existence we live in is a designed system. Systems are not random.\n\nTheir intricate complexities aren't simply patterns, their rules, their interdependent, and they carry information that can only be explained by design.\n\nAt this most basic observation, our existence points to god who designed it.\n\nPsalm 19:1 says, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork.\n\nRomans 1:20 says, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead.\n\nSo that they are without excuse.\n\nEverything designed, is the visible outcome of a purpose.\n\nIf God designed our universe, then God's design is the highest purpose.\n\nFor us to practice design without God, in mind is to hit the glass ceiling of reasoning.\n\nWe fail to understand how the whole system fits together, including our lives.\n\nUX has always existed to improve the user experience of software, but why?\n\nThings in this universe don't always work the way you expect.\n\nThat is, you don't plan for the car to have a flat tire today, or the code you deploy to bring down the server.\n\nYou didn't expect the sandwich you ordered to be so small, or that Joe down the hall would react that way to your comment about his shoes.\n\nWe live in a broken world.\n\nOne in a state of entropy and disappointment, just like our sin, if left alone, there would be total destruction.\n\nUX intends to anticipate and avert that disappointment with thoughtful and purposeful design towards success.\n\nUX done well is uplifting, helpful, loving, kind, and ultimately a means of providing light in a dark world.\n\nPhilippians 48 says finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true.\n\nWhatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report.\n\nIf there be any virtue, and there be any praise, think on these things.\n\nCan you X solve all our human problems?\n\nYes and no.\n\nIt certainly will improve people's lives, and that's a good pursuit.\n\nPhilippians 48 is a wonderful guiding principle.\n\nIt's one of the tenets of designing.\n\nKeep pushing upward.\n\nKeep learning new techniques. And keep improving your skills and those around you.\n\nBut design, no matter how perfect, will never overcome the root cause of sin.\n\nOnly Jesus can do that.\n\nUltimately, that's the only solution that matters.\n\nWhat drives me as a designer.\n\nI know everything I design, no matter how humanly successful, is temporary. Software is fleeting.\n\nI create digital things which are obsolete, sometimes by the end of the meeting, when strategies change through exploration.\n\nThere's likely nothing I've designed that will ever outlive me.\n\nIf that was my sole purpose in life, I would be very distraught.\n\nHowever, I'm not only designing for people, I'm designing with people.\n\nSure, the users and stakeholders always matter.\n\nHowever, I can't let the day-to-day interactions with my colleagues and clients pass by as though they're in my way towards getting the product released.\n\nThese interactions are actually more important to the product work I'm doing.\n\nMy hope is through designing well through human means, they will consider their need to get to know God, their designer.\n\nThe good news is design work should reflect God's work.\n\nYou may be a successful designer, and taste the blessing of God's image through human work, but your ultimate destiny is trusting him through Jesus with your soul.\n\nSo you can fully apply yourself to fulfilling his purpose for your life.\n\nYour talent is on loan from God.\n\nAre you using it the way he intended?\n\nToday is a great day.\n\nTo design.\n\nSo what's your why?\n\nDo you have one?\n\nWe all do.\n\nHave you identified it though?\n\nIf you have, is it something that will stand for eternity or is it just stable enough to get you through today?\n\nYou can make that decision today.\n\nLet me know in the comments or if you want to sign it send it privately to designee.com.\n\nI got an icon in the bottom, right corner of every web page.\n\nYou can pop open a ask question.\n\nSend your comment here.\n\nYou can comment on the podcast platform of your choice if that's an option.\n\nBut thanks for joining today.\n\nWould you take a moment and share this podcast with someone you know.\n\nIt might be a real blessing to them.\n\nAnd if you are a product designer with something to say, I'd love to hear it.\n\nI'd love to have you on the show, the daily sprint.\n\nIf you want to become a guest on the daily sprint, you can apply with a form I have on the webpage, designy.com, if you go to the bottom of any page, you'll see in the menu there become a guest on the daily sprint.\n\nSo go ahead and fill it out and see if we're a fit.\n\nLove to hear what you have to say about design.\n\nAnd while you're there, sign up for the free newsletter at design.com, design “with a y” .com.\n\nThanks for listening to the daily sprint.\n\nRemember, today is a great day to design with a why.\n\nSee you next time.",
  "title": "What is Your Why?",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-13T16:07:14.107Z"
}