The Role of the Designer in an Engineering Organization
What can HGTV teach engineers about engineering teams?
Awhile back, I had an interesting conversation with a product designer. She was, at the time, relatively new to our company and wanted get my opinion on a few things. We met for coffee, and talked a bit about our thoughts on the company in general. Then she posed a question to me: “What do you think the role of a designer is in an engineering organization like this?”
I paused for a moment, trying to come up with a useful answer. I’ve partnered with a number of designers throughout my career. And while there have certainly been similarities between these working relationships, each one has been fairly distinct. Apparently I was taking awhile to mull over the question, so she prompted me again:
“I talked to another engineer, who used the metaphor of building a house. He described engineers as being the architects who design the house, and the construction team that builds the house. So then, design’s role is to paint the house afterwards.”
“No,” I immediately told her, “that’s not right at all.”
The look of relief on her face told me that I’d given her the response she was looking for. Still, I wanted to answer her original question. And, not being one to mix…
