Levels of design craft
Say it with me: tradecraft, stagecraft, statecraft
I’ve been championing this notion of multiple levels of craft for a while now — at least 5+ years, since the early days of the Rosenfeld Enterprise UX Conference 😅 It’s now become a bit of a “stump speech”, folded into my recent talks about sensemaking, systems thinking, and what I’ve termed as “meta-design”. 🤨 Enjoy!
One of the most essential elements of design is craft — shaping materials with masterful skill toward a benchmark of quality, driven by a dedication to refining the details so the result is worthy of personal pride and popular appreciation. Craft is what makes “Design” (writ large) truly a maker’s profession, delivering exemplary artifacts and products, something tangibly defined with careful attention.
Accordingly, when it comes to designing software apps or services (comprised of interaction, interface, information, and so forth) craft is vital to the execution of a well-formed digital experience — complete with colors, fonts, layouts, timing and sequence of behaviors, sensible paths and flows, and tone of messages. A well-crafted software experience conveys quality that can be seen, felt, shared, and paid for with confidence in the perceived benefits. Craft clearly matters!
Going further, I think it’s important to explore the levels of craft a designer (and a design leader) can bring to the field. I suggest there are three levels which interplay in the course of doing the work of a professional designer, while engaging with clients & stakeholders to ultimately ship a product / service / experience to customers. Let’s take a closer look:
🛠️ Tradecraft: This is the craft we typically associate with design, at the tactical, tangible level of executional details, for final production. Every element precisely and carefully shaped with an exacting attention to the abilities of the tools, potentiality of the materials, and needs of the context at hand. It really is the handiwork, and the work of the trade. Tradecraft also connects to the features and functions of a product (or service, app, etc.) in a visceral way — what is seen, felt, and experienced personally.
🎭 Stagecraft: However, finessing the pixel & code-based nuances of a digital artifact is only a part of a designer’s craft. Indeed, such artifacts, as beautifully executed as they may be, are useless unless there is a compelling story that evocatively connects them in a meaningful way — to the stakeholders involved and the ultimate users — so they grasp how it all fits into a theme, a brand philosophy, a set of principles/values around living or working. Stagecraft thus involves presentation skills…and a bit of performance theater, via staging workshops to facilitate complex dialogues that move teams towards new possibilities, alignment of purpose, and shared agreement. Stagecraft is about the performative, collaborative, participatory nature of designing through the power of inspiration & conversation, which connects to an emotional, principled core. It really is the drama of humanism, through the impact of facilitation and presentation.
☕️ Statecraft: And as we know, to get that beautifully defined, well-articulated design built and delivered requires certain nuances of compromise, negotiation, and influence. It’s the political, pragmatic stuff that’s inherent to any product development process because, well…people! 😅 Look, people have varying agendas with some ego and maybe trying to amplify their position, due to certain incentive models or belief structures; so, every designer who wants to be effective must grasp this critical point. Indeed, it requires elements of statecraft, artfullly shaping relationships with people towards shared aims, with thoughtful debates on risks, tradeoffs, resources, timelines. This corresponds to the organizational, political, and administrative aspects of designing, which don’t have to be icky or boring! Done well, statecraft can lead everyone toward a pursuit of purpose and value embodied in a potent design direction, that may emerge — sometimes painfully — via those tough negotiations. Knowing how to navigate the nuances of power and relationships is the vital skill to hone, especially while “leveling up” as a design leader.
Tradecraft, stagecraft, and statecraft may well be the fundamental levels of craft a designer should master as an ongoing career journey. They are not necessarily sequential — just like any creative process, mastering craft can be messy with iterative repeat attempts, with some parallel processing, too: imagine applying statecraft to a business team to protect a new concept’s development, while guiding a team of designers with the storytelling and tactical execution. But at least knowing about these levels can help a designer bring a more informed approach to their own evolving craft of design. ⚡️
⌘ Useful resources —
- Abstracting Craft by Malcolm McCullough
- Designing Together by Dan Brown
- Gamestorming by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo
- Resonate by Nancy Duarte
