Is Business the Future of Design or is Design the Future of Business?
Author of this post: Nathan Shedroff | About Blog Authors »Or, is it both?
In creating a new MBA program in Design Strategy this past year, I have found that one of the most difficult ideas for people to wrap their heads around is that the “business” we refer to isn’t “how to run a design company” but, instead, “how to interface with organizations in order for design to be more influential in business strategy.”
For a the last 10 years or so, business and strategy issues have been creeping into the design experience more and more. While BusinessWeek extols the merits of design to the business world, designers-turned-strategists have been proclaiming the need for designers to better understand how organizations work (at the highest levels) if they hope to have the influence they’ve always desired. Coming from both directions, the meeting in the middle can be powerful.
When designers better understand business processes and issues across the organization, and when they can speak the language of their other business peers, they can better communicate customer needs, strategy, and design-based innovation. Likewise, when business leaders from all parts of an organization better understand meaningful, strategic innovation, they have more comfort dealing with the often ambiguous and fuzzy process it requires. What companies truly need is to strike a balance between the need to achieve operational efficiencies and, at the same time, make a place for free-thinking to drive new, appropriate, and meaningful solutions that have never been seen before. This isn’t easy–especially for someone who may have been brought-up on the idea that design is merely appliqué or decoration you add at the end to “spruce-up” a product or that it’s something trendy and ethereal that can’t really be planned strategically.
This is what is meant by the term Design Strategy: the use of design processes, perspectives, and tools to create truly meaningful, sustainable, and successful innovation across a variety of design disciplines, including industrial, interaction, visual, experience, and fashion design. Organizations who use design strategically create lasting value beyond that of their peers. These organizations often hire high-level managers focused on design and innovation, include significant design input in strategic decisions, dedicate resources toward design-derived product and service development, and empower the design innovation functions with authority over development.
Whether design strategy is the new thing needing to be injected into business culture or whether business values, understanding, and language is the thing needing to be injected into design culture almost isn’t an issue. Ideally, both need to happen in order for organizations of all types (including non-profits and government agencies) to truly innovate and build more appropriate, successful, and sustainable solutions. This also requires those with a design background and those without to work together to bridge these understandings and create better cultures for innovation. It’s also not only the realm of companies but everywhere and anywhere innovation needs to occur. To many non-profits, it seems most of governmental agencies and departments aren’t innovative enough about how to solve problems, and these realms require us to address solutions in new ways just as much as the corporate world.
Certainly, customers aren’t waiting for us to get our acts together. They’ve become ever more demanding of solutions that better meet their needs, and rightly so. Some in business see this as a negative, reflecting how much more difficult it is to satisfy customers. I, however, see it as a positive since a variety of design techniques expressly show us how to engage customers and other users in order to offer them solutions that truly meet their needs. It’s an opportunity to create lasting value in the marketplace that people truly appreciate. Ultimately, it may even help society focus on the things that really matter and fulfill needs and desires in meaningful ways.
That my sound lofty, but I’m not sure there’s any other way to work these days.
What do you think?
January 8th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I’m glad you wrote this, now to get it in front of the masses! I have worked for Fortune 500’s and small shops through the years and have seen somewhat of a shift in the way design is viewed. And you are right, design can’t take a back seat it needs to be a part of the business process in this day and age. Companies need to take innovative and creative approaches when dealing with the markets. Resting on old processes and ideals doesn’t cut it.
Being on both the creative team and a part of management, I see many project struggle to come to life because the business does not involve the design group early enough. Especially when it’s dealing with the web or some other form of media. The business needs to understand that design is not a “snap your fingers and poof!” process. Good design needs good planning just like everything else.
Having a background in Psychology, I know that in order for a project to be successful, you have to understand your target audience. Too often projects are created taking into consideration what management “likes” versus what the target demographic actually wants. And for me, that’s a big miss.
This is why, as you stated, it is very important for designers to be very familiar with the way the business runs. It is this involvement and cross communication that allows the other parts of the business to see where the gaps are and how to close them. It also allows for the business to take the design aspect of the project seriously because now they can see the added value and how it is directly tied to the success of a project.