Discovering the everyday:
How routine sparks big ideas
Some of the most meaningful design work doesn’t begin with wireframes or strategy decks; it starts with a simple question:
What does your day look like?
That’s the question we asked during our Day-in-the-Life workshops, and what unfolded was nothing short of insightful. These sessions weren’t just about observing routines; they were about immersing ourselves in them; feeling the frictions, the flows, the little workarounds that users develop to make things work when systems don’t.
The goal was to go beyond feature lists and KPIs, we wanted to uncover real problems, often hiding in plain sight.
We sat down with users, stakeholders, and sometimes just silent observers of workflows. We mapped out their journeys from the moment they logged in (or even before that) all the way to how they wrapped up their day. From the tools they used, to the blockers they faced, every detail mattered.
And that’s where the magic started.
Patterns began to emerge, steps repeated unnecessarily, manual entries crying out for automation, and dependencies that slowed down what should’ve been seamless. There were also clever hacks, beautifully improvised systems, and habits that revealed what really mattered to users.
Once the journey maps and observations were in place, we moved into collaborative discussions, What if this could be automated? What would it look like if we reduced this step? How might we free up more time so users could focus on what matters most?
These weren’t hypothetical explorations. They were grounded in reality, driven by empathy. From streamlining approval processes to reimagining dashboards that surface the right data at the right time; the ideas that came out of the room were rooted in lived experience.
And that’s what made it so powerful.
By the end of the workshop, we weren’t just walking away with “solutions.” We were walking away with stories, clear narratives of who we were designing for, why it mattered, and how to genuinely make their lives easier.
For me, the biggest takeaway was this: true innovation doesn’t always start with a blank canvas. Sometimes, it starts with a closer look at what’s already happening — with a mindset of curiosity, empathy, and the willingness to ask, Could this be better?