As designers, we produce dozens of explorations, and only a fraction make it to the final product. Sometimes the design the client picks wouldn't be our first choice. The rest end up in a drawer, never to see the light of day, or at best buried in a portfolio.

What gets shown at design meetups is the final, polished result. Never the explorations. That's what I wanted Behind the Design to change. To be proud of the work that didn't make the cut. To share it, and let people be inspired by it. To be real about the fact that the process isn't perfect, and the design we love doesn't always win.

The format is simple. It's a meetup where STRV designers, and sometimes guests from other teams, present the work that never shipped, and talk through why. I host and moderate: lining up who presents, drawing out the story behind each piece, and keeping it a place where people feel safe showing work that lost. The polished case study has its own venue. This is the other half of the process, the part nobody usually sees.

Some of my most favorite design ended up in a drawer, but that's part of the process and I know it. It's these explorations that make me a better designer. Each time I get outside my comfort zone there's a chance I find something new: a pattern, a visual treatment, a way to do something, or a way to improve my process.

As designers we constantly juggle the creative and the business side, and good senior designers have to know when to push which. There always needs to be a balance. A product that makes no business sense won't satisfy the client, but bland, generic design won't help it stand out. The goal is finding that balance while keeping the door open to explorations that might land or might not. If one lands, good job. If it doesn't, it's still a good job, because it might shape the way you work, or you might find a use for it later. Or it makes a good story for Behind the Design.

The first session brought in 40 people, and more than half stayed afterward to keep talking with the designers. For a format built on getting people to open up about work that didn't ship, that was the signal I was hoping for.

Not every good design wins. This is the room where the ones that didn't still get their moment.