Agreed there are many ways to achieve anything. Carpe Diem Designum! > Do we really want our oldest and most experienced designers > taking off their design/architecture hats and joining the > ranks of management?
Here's my take - If you talk to a *good* general manager, someone who is the unifying point for all disciplines for a single product, much of their language is design language: defining problems, exploring alternative solutions, running experiments, making tradeoff decisions, etc. They are doing organizational design, which in many ways is more challenging than interaction design (pixels rarely come to your office and yell at you, threaten to quit, or try to steal your authority behind your back). If you believe design is at its core a problem solving activity, there are many connections for design talent to surface in management and leadership activity. Designing a team, constructing a vision, crafting a strategy, are all problem solving activities at worst loosely akin to design. > Do we really want our oldest and most experienced designers taking off > their design/architecture hats and joining the ranks of management? I don't care much for management - I care about power. The only reason a designer can effect change on the world is through power. Whether it's granted, stolen, borrowed, or earned. If you work in a 50 or 500 person organization, there is a distribution of power that has little to do with you and your design talent: it has to do with how the organization has been designed. Consultants and specialists rarely have power by design. They are outnumbered, have less skin in the game, and it's politically acceptable to ignore and veto them. The top problem I see, and would love to help solve (e.g. the thread is 'the biggest problems'), is designers and their common lack of power. That said, I would like to see our oldest and most experienced designers accumulating as much power as they can within their organizations. Most power in most corporations does not reside in design. To get that power requires either getting it granted piecemeal from up above, or going up there yourself and handing it down to those you've hired and deem worthy of that power. We need powerful design enablers more than designers. We now have thousands of interaction designers. We still have only a handful of people willing to fight for the political power they need to thrive. > Or might we *also* envision an alternative path - > one that sees the co-equal role of design, > architecture, and integration as a key need of > all product and service-based companies, and one > that cannot simply be *managed* from a management > class that exists above a worker/designer level > somewhere further down. I have never seen a role like this have any substantive power over engineering or business, not even veto power. As soon as a schedule slips, or budget is cut, roles like these get a minority vote, if any, in how it's resolved. I can imagine it - but it's a stretch for one reason: I'm convinced the design of most corporations is set against specialized roles holding much power. I admit I may be wrong - in fact I'd like to be wrong - help convince me :) -Scott Scott Berkun www.scottberkun.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jim Leftwich Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 2:16 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] The biggest problems I think it's a mistake, and a large one, to make the assumption/assertion that the only way to move up or occupy a leadership role in a corporation or organization is to leave the designer track for a management track. This may well be the case with how some (to date) have made the upward transition, but this is also a bit like looking in the rearview mirror in order to drive. I believe in beginning with an idea of where we as individuals (and in turn others) in the field *would like to be positioned* and work/struggle/persevere toward that in order to make things different than they might seem today. The idea of designers stopping being designers/the design leaders as they advance has always struck me as alarming, as the complexity of skills and judgement necessary to design interactive systems and shape whole product and service experiences is something that greatly benefits from the judgment of people with many years experience. These people need to both have a large say in the design of experience and interaction as well as the power to direct and influence how this balanced within their organization. During my two decades as a consultant, I found that aligning my contracts at the executive level (and coordinating my design efforts at the project level) enabled a great deal of influence and direction that was necessary in order for the product and user experience to emerge as designed and the resulting goals realized. Now at a relatively small search engine startup, I'm dividing my time between executive strategy, directing (limited) inside and outside resources. I have great control, but limited time and a nearly unlimited number of challenges on all sides. It's a very different set of challenges. But I still design, and would continue to do so and be involved in other design iniatives at their core no matter how large and resourced our organization may become. In other words, I could not possibly conceive of taking off my design hat. At least in those areas where my core expertise lies. I would even argue that it's much easier to find help in basic management tasks, than it is to find the most skilled and broadly experienced designers, and so I delegate some business work while concentrating on what I find are much more valuable integration tasks - integrating design values into the company's core. I would not suggest that Christina and Scott are wrong, but more that they are missing the "what could be"-ness in this crucial issue facing our field. Do we really want our oldest and most experienced designers taking off their design/architecture hats and joining the ranks of management? Or might we *also* envision an alternative path - one that sees the co-equal role of design, architecture, and integration as a key need of all product and service-based companies, and one that cannot simply be *managed* from a management class that exists above a worker/designer level somewhere further down. I don't see this as an argument. I see this as a challenge for perception and vision. I believe there are no *inherent* limitations to designers and that we will see much evolution in this, one career at a time, as we move forward. - Jim James Leftwich, IDSA Chief Experience Officer SeeqPod, Inc. Emeryville, CA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=33964 ________________________________________________________________ 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 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... 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