Your name and team you belong to.

Dafna Sharabi, Playground Academy.

Tell us about your work. What is your current position?

I am an academic consultant and content curator at the Playground Academy. In practice, this means most of my time is divided between planning the Playground Academies, or running them. The planning phase includes building the curriculum, looking for interesting speakers and activities, and going over student portfolios and interviewing them as potential participants. When we run an academy, it is all about making sure everything we planned goes smoothly.

What are the top traits that make you good at what you do?

I think I know what makes a good experience :), and will do my best to create one for our design students and in our events and our programs. I believe every small detail counts.

I’ve also worked at Wix for 13 years now and have run 8 cohorts of the Playground Academy, so perhaps learning from experience also mattress.

What is the biggest challenge in your role?

Always being in the know, on top of new technologies, interesting upcoming designers, and keeping up with trends.

What do you do when feeling stuck or frustrated in your creative process?

I’ll just leave it… and go and do something else. If we’re collectively stuck on a project as a team, I’ll try and see if it’s possible to pause for a bit, and only continue once we have the right answers. This might sound a bit privileged - to not put a deadline on a project - but if you have that flexibility and can afford that headspace, it’s really recommended. We’re sometimes too hard on ourselves with time, and actually have more of it than we’d like to think.

If none of that works - I will probably just find a good old simple solution that might not be as innovative, but that has proven itself in the past :)

What’s the best way to handle receiving negative feedback?

Not to take it personally, simple as that. Negative feedback means nothing about your own being and should not take you out of balance. It is just one moment in life.

Share something that inspires you that has nothing to do with design?

As banal as it sounds - the sea and nature. I enjoy being in it and feeling connected to it. Observing it, acknowledging its cycles, and trying to find my own cycles within it.

Which design trend / theme / persona are you obsessed with recently? Which are you sick of?

I can’t stand the discourse around AI, hear about it, or see all the images that relate to it :))). In a way, I wish we could fast-forward to five years from now, when this technology is already embedded into our lives and settled, just as any other new technology. This in-between phase is exhausting.

I prefer getting my inspiration from human beings that are part of this world, trying to take responsibility by doing something good.

Who or what has been the biggest influence on the way you think about design?

It’s usually the little things: everyday people, everyday conversations. Not one big thing, just noticing ordinary daily life.

What's the best advice you've received and from whom - design related or not?

My best friend Shelly and I were having a conversation about a sense of belonging, and she said that there’s no action you need to take in order to make yourself belong. You're inherently part of many things in the world, just by being in it.

What would you do if you weren’t a designer?

A monk.

Thank you Dafna!