The eight annual Beyond Tellerrand conference just took place in Düsseldorf. It was my first, and it was worthwhile. Thanks to @futureshape for suggesting I go. And thanks to Florian Ziegler for making his beautiful black & white images available through Creative Commons.

Now, one fellow attendee commented on Twitter afterwards:

“what #btconf is […] missing is a manual on how to transition back to reality after it is over’.

Good point – and one that is true for most conferences.

Once the confetti cannon has been fired at the end, it can feel a bit like the insights are scattered all over the place. And there is value in that as it allows you to tinker and take it apart yourself – as dina Amin made the case for.

And, as Jared Tarbell showed, ‘generative spaces’ can be a real source of both immediate inspiration – and long-term learning.

The key to making the most of it is to revisit, reflect, remix – and share (and with that, this article is shared through Creative Commons.

Back to reality – an attempt at creating the missing manual

To that end, I’ve tinkered a bit, pulled apart and re-assembled. I’ll leave the organisers to do an official version (or not as the case may be – Marc Thiele is already onto the next iteration, coming up in Berlin).

Meanwhile here’s a quick practical attempt to help those who attended in-person or from-afar: actionable insights and resources for further exploration.

All aligned with the intent of the conference:

“The name beyond tellerrand expresses the aim, that everybody involved wants look a bit further, look beyond the edge. It also reflects the global perspective of the event. The expression is a mix of the English word “beyond” and the German phrase “Über den Tellerrand schauen,” which means “Think outside the box”. The exact translation for the sentence is “Take a look beyond the edge of the plate” … Marc Thiele

Looking beyond the edge of the plate

The role of ethics in design and development

Mike Monteiro‘s compelling, colourful (and barnstorming) talk made people sit up. He made the case for ethics in both design and development. And in life in general. A veritable memento mori.

Actionable insights

Monteiro mantras for your wall:

• “Criticism is a gift”

• “You’re not hired for your hands, you’re hired for your spine.”

• “Saying no is a design skill. Asking why is a design skill. Rolling your eyes is not a design skill.”

How to put these into action? Ask more questions. Act on what you hear. For some ideas on how you can structure this, see the Question Set at the end of this post.

Resources for further exploration

• Follow @monteiro – and watch the full talk here.
• Follow Monteiro on Medium – which includes articles like ‘A designer is first and foremost a human’.
• Follow Monteiro on Goodreads – where you can find his book Design Ethics and more.
• Talking of criticism – explore if you have an Open Just culture or a Blame Culture.
• Get your head around ethics more generally – and take part in #GlobalEthicsDay2018 – aka Global Ethics Day, organised by the good people at the Carnegie Council.

What history’s female Internet pioneers can teach us about tomorrow

Claire L Evans‘ talk was both informative and edifying – with timeless lessons.

Actionable insights

Claire L. Evans mantras for your wall:

• “Diversity of mind is an asset”

• “Nothing happens in a vacuum”

• “Equality takes effort”

How to put these into action? Inform yourself about the organisation you work for: does it believe in equal pay (and does it practice what it preaches?). Does is believe in diversity? Does it hire and promote accordingly? If not, refer to Monteiro above – and the broader Question Set below as you reflect deeper.

Resources for further exploration

• Follow @theuniverse – and watch the full talk here.
• Follow Evans on Goodreads – and find her book there too.
• Explore the history of women in computing more generally.

Hidden in plain view: Bleeding edge accessibility so good you never noticed

Actionable insights

Karl Groves’ talk used humour to make some very serious points. As he says: “if we’re lucky enough, we’ll all live to be disabled”. So go ahead and design with your future self in mind. And help others whilst you’re at it.

Karl Groves mantra for your wall:

• “What is this thing and what does it do?”

Answering that question consistently will help you design better for all users. That said, we can all do with a wake-up call. Look at your work as others with different needs do. For example, try a screen reader and see how you get on. Or simply plug your URL into tenon.io – and get an actionable report instantly. I immediately found a couple of things myself that are easy to fix. Thanks!

Resources for further exploration

• Follow @karlgroves – and watch the full talk here.
• Find his many articles on accessibility on karlgroves.com/
• Get involved in Global Accessibility Awareness Day

The Importance of Failing Successfully

Actionable insights

Wesley Grubb’s talk drew on practical, real-life examples of things gone awry – and the lessons learnt from them. He invites us to do the same…

Wesley Grubb mantra for your wall:

• “[reflecting on]…how we handle difficult times and situations makes us stronger”

A complementary mantra for your wall:

• Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. – Søren Kierkegaard

How to put this into action? Take time out to do regular retrospectives: what was good, what was difficult, what might you want to do differently.

Resources for further exploration

• Follow @wesleygrubbs
• Go out and share your own #FAIL – participate in (or organise) a FuckUpNight (they’re fun!).
• Read more philosophy – Nigel Warburton’s A Little History of Philosophy is not a bad place to start if you are new to this. You may also want to subscribe to Philosophy Bites – and subscribe to (and follow) @TheNewPhil
• Explore some of the other ’24 Work Hacks … we wish we had discovered earlier’ which Corinna Baldauf covered in a separate but worthwhile talk – one of the 24 is on retrospectives.
• As many are around how we work together as humans, you may want to proactively dig deeper with a book like Collaborative Leadership: Building Relationships, Handling Conflict and Sharing Control.

A resource for ongoing reflection

Find (and share) the SlideShare version here – or download the full version of Strategic Horizons – a Question Set to help you Align Your Org.  It should print nicely A3-size for your wall.

Or if you want to share it on Twitter, then here’s a ready-made version for you:

After the first day, if you want to “look a bit further, look beyond the edge” – as #btconf is for, here’s a reflective questions set I developed earlier for you.

Even better explored in the sun -with a beverage in hand and a new friend from today. Enjoy. https://t.co/8ySs96yvTx

— Michael Ambjorn (@michaelambjorn) May 7, 2018

Thanks to @marcthiele for putting on a great conference.

And do share your remix.