A couple of weeks ago I posted a link on my Twitter account that lead to a write up by Bruce Nussbaum on The Latest Trends in Design and Innovation–And Why The Debate Over Design Thinking is Moot. I did think this was one of his better posts, though his so called “trends” are not entirely new. However before we go deeper into this discussion, let us briefly recap these trends:
Trend 1: Design as a strategic competitive advantage
The strongest market demand for Design today from private companies and public organizations is for strategy. CEOs and other leaders are turning to innovation/design consultancies for help in shaping brand strategies and even broader organizational strategies.
Trend 2: Not just thinking, but also doing
Demand for products, services and experiences from the same design/innovation consultancies is growing as well. The “doing” part of design is very strong. In fact, as the economy pulls out of the Great Recession, there are signs that the corporate demand for things to sell is about to take off. All four consultancies, ZIBA, Smart, Continuum and IDEO are designing stuff as well as designing strategies.
Trend 3: Relationships allow you the trust to do great work
Design practice is increasingly about relationships, not projects. [snip] Deep relationships with clients over time are critical. [snip] Deep relationships among the staff are crucial. Interdisciplinary workteams are the norm. In fact, Sohrab talks about “tribes” not teams. “We must integrate, integrate, integrate all our people,” he said.
Trend 4: Design entrepreneurship
A new VCD (Venture Capital Design) model is emerging. Yves Behar’s fuseprojects and others are funding new brands either directly or with partners. Designers are using their talent for spotting new trends and their ability to translate insights into new products and services to directly create new brands, instead of doing it for large companies.
However, after a Twitter conversation with a few other designers, I started to question if there was a Divide in Design?
I believe this whole buzz about design thinking might be leaving the wrong impression on designers. The supporters of design thinking seem to think that it is the future of the design profession and the only way to go. Certainly, the tone of Bruce’s article and many others he wrote in the past seems to imply: adapt or die. While this may be the case, it is not entirely true. His Trend no. 2 is the key here.
I don’t have any hard data, but in design, there is a strong correlation of a design’s success when both thinking and doing at an equal level of competence. There are many wonderful examples of products, that had a great strategic design/brand/marketing concept, but failed because it could not be realized. In fact a senior Industrial Design leader at Dell had mentioned to me that there were a number of consultancies or designers that made a great living fixing the mistakes of these so called “branded” consultancies.
Design educators have it tough. They have to struggle to ensure their curriculum balances the design student’s thinking and doing. Where in many cases the doing tends to bubble up as priority as it is one of the first things that gets design graduates hired. What Bruce fails to realize, and I don’t blame him as he has not gone through a design education, is that the learning to do in design can be a very long and difficult process. Learning to do design is not easy, but demeaning its importance in favor of thinking is a recipe for disaster. “Mental masturbation” rears it ugly head again.
Kevin Garcia asked me on Twitter what it takes for a designer to get into the strategic part, the so called design thinking part. He also asked why does it seem that only the big boys can do it? I replied that credibility and trust is the key factor here. This closely follows with a designer having the right skills in strategic design. Not every designer is in a position to do this and hence a “Divide”.
But you can’t cross the “Divide” if you don’t know where you are coming from. Don’t forget, the big boys like IDEO, Ziba, Frog etc. all started out doing a really, really consistently good job.
Image source www.flickr.com/photos/paulworthington/82648554/in/photostream/
Original Post: http://www.designsojourn.com/category/design-leadership/
