I posted a similar comment on Instagram the second time Pentgram posted an image of Natasha delivering her presentation (of course with the title of the talk clearly visible on stage). The posts had more comments and than anything else they had posted recently. It certainly seemed click-bait-esque, as no one from Pentagram (or Natasha) linked to the talk nor engaged with the comments. I am happy to finally see there is a recording of this available.
I agree with your article as well, that critique is not missing from the process—it is baked in. I don’t think this process is the solution for every problem, but it certainly has merit from the perspective of being one way (with successful results) to create alignment between designers and stakeholders by making the process more participatory. In graphic design, I’ve worked with many designers who want to independently make design decisions for their client based on what they feel is best, only to engage in unproductive back and forth where the client is unsatisfied with the output. Not to say that the designer is wrong or the client is right, but sometimes the client has a perspective, due to their expertise in a different area, that is worth considering, or they have been tasked with something specific from an often hard-to-dispute personality (like an ELT member). I think any process that can help both of those minds reach a favourable outcome (in whatever way you define success for your type of project) and allows each side to educate each other about possible pros and cons from their respective areas of expertise is a good thing. I think the Design Thinking process, for many, helps bridge that gap.
The term “designer” also gets used a lot, but I think different types of designers, while they share common challenges from a problem solving perspective, have different challenges from one another. Design Thinking has been very successful in a UX and product design capacity. That doesn’t mean it translates directly to yield the same benefits in a creative/visual identity/branding project that an agency like Pentagram would engage in. As someone who has worked on both types of projects, those types of exercises are often working with challenges that are far more subjective and have less-user data or measurable results (at least in the rapid-prototyping sense). How many graphic designers want to rapid-prototype three identity systems or logos and measure peoples satisfaction…and have that dictate the outcome? It would be pretty dry, and pretty subjective. Take the same approach to designing a tool that a user is going to use to perform a difficult task, and present a solution which measurably saves time and effort, and that is probably very valuable. Her example to use the IBM portal is weak IMO, since she appears to be looking at it through her lens as designer working in contemporary graphic design, corporate identity/brand redesigns. That portal may serve a very functional purpose as an internal tool; which is probably not going to be a great platform to be a beacon for boundary-pushing graphic design…
I feel like the profile and value of “design” (using that term broadly) in many organizations has been raised… Organizations like IBM have transformed their designer to developer ratio from something like 1:70+, to 1:12 over the last 5–6 years. From what I gather, these numbers are inclusive of many types of designers on the product side of things (visual designers, ux designers, ux researchers, interaction designers etc). Building on methods that allow people to work together in a more productive capacity has most definitely contributed to this success. I’m not convinced traditional graphic design, in the areas that Natasha works in, have necessarily have reached the same level of success in organizations? Further complicating this, is the term designers being used a catch-all term. Often different types of designers are situated in completely different areas of a company. When we say “designers”: Are these product design teams?—design teams unified within the same verticals which include marketing/brand and product/ux under the same umbrella?—are they creative marketing teams only? It helps to distinguish before we shit on the process (which might not be applicable to you).
