Hey, I totally get the hostility vibe from business while at work. What I was missing from the conversation was the hostility towards design from design thinkers and writers. Our team demands to be at the table early and when decisions are being made. We do not ask to come... we have even invited ourselves when we think we can help. We are very proactive (some might even say aggressive). And frankly, we have made some enemies in the product and business areas doing so. They absolutely do not expect us to come at this with any real ownership or insight. They don't get it when we are upset about being left and they don't recognize opportunities to solve problems with design. They often see us as the design (tactical) order desk. A lot of this is years of low expectations. It is a huge shift for them. That said, we also have a lot of fans who are not quite sure how to help. It's not their mission... and they put themselves at some risk by aligning with design.
We have to be very careful and mindful. It is so easy for us to have the attitude of, 'of course design can help... where have you been?" Nobody like to be told they don't understand. Nobody like to feel stupid. We have taken on the approach Bill Buxton speaks to in Sketching... I now spend more time crafting presentation and marketing design than I actually do designing. Its just part of the package in a company with lots of 'opportunity' for designers. Mark On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 4:43 PM, Christopher Fahey < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I wrote: > > > ...the cynical and ironically > > > designer-hostile Nussbaum/d.School camp in which "design is too > > > important to be left to designers". > > > > > > mark schraad wrote: > > > Where does that come from? I have never heard Nussbaum or any one else > > of credible substance state this. This sounds like a large heaping of angst > > talking to me. > > > > > I don't want to be too angsty about it, since I think the design vs. > business thing is already breaking apart... But to me it's hard to miss the > hosstility towards design, albeit couched in backhanded praise, in most of > the canonical design thinking texts. It's a pervasive attitude that > designers are interesting but intellectually incomplete people, whose skills > may be useful to a business but who are also an obstacle to business success > if allowed to run wild. We have great ideas, but we are too focused on our > egos and our stylistic predilections. We are unable to see or understand big > picture business strategies. > > Business strategists, on the other hand, can *use* our abductive thinking, > our trial and error process, etc, but only so far. They can learn to manage > us, and they can learn to think like us for difficult innovation and > management problems, but I don't actually see (in the d.school milieu) any > call for companies to draw their strategic leadership talent from the world > of practicing designers. This omission is an insult. > > There is basically little to no invitation for actual designers to become > business players. Designers -- we, the people who practice design and > actually design things -- are simply not an integral part of the design > thinking school of thought. > > Sometimes it's more than omission. Sometimes they are even actively > hostile, painting us as obstacles. Nussbaum even says so, directly (if a > little facetiously). And the designers who read it lap it up: > "Are Designers the Enemy of Design?" > http://tinyurl.com/29q667 > > > -Cf > > Christopher Fahey > ____________________________ > Behavior > biz: http://www.behaviordesign.com > me: http://www.graphpaper.com > > > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
