Design (+) Strategy
The Designer
Concept, Idea, Sketches, Problem, Innovation, Envisioning, Prototyping and Testing are words that designers use very often.
But what is a designer doing and what is his role?
“A designer is a person whose job is to design things by making drawings of them.”
Design is the procedure which generates, communicates and evaluates ideas. It is also a problem-solving tool which provides the world with new solutions. If you look around you, nearly everything in the space you’re reading this in, is designed by someone, somewhere, to solve some problem.
As we all provide solutions at some point in our everyday life, we are all considered designers. When you rearrange your room to better access your clothes, you’re doing interior design. When you create an infographic to remind your group mates about their weekly tasks, you’re doing information design. When you make a poster, you’re doing graphic design. It’s the moment where you get out of your habituation mode and you are noticing the problem. This is where design starts!
“It’s seeing the invisible problem, not just the obvious problem, that’s important,” Tony Fadell says, “not just for product design, but for everything we do.”
Design is making the world nicer, more ergonomic and it is doing this because it improves what does not function. Design is powered by problem solving needs.
What really adds value in the design outcome is the strategy during the process. But how strategy blends with design and how do both terms work together?
The Strategist
“Strategy is a pattern that is consistency in behaviour over time” Mintzberg provides five definitions of strategy: Strategy is a plan — a guideline to deal with the situation, a ploy — a specific manoeuvre intended to outwit an opponent or competitor, a pattern — a pattern in a stream of actions, a position — locating an organisation in an “environment” and a perspective — its content consisting not just of a chosen position, but of an ingrained way of perceiving the world.”
Strategists, are also known as the designers with a business mindset, the designers who seek answers, explore and research the different perspectives with a fresh eye and a great empathy to the user. The foundations lie in the analysis of external/internal trends and data, which enables design decisions to be made on the basis of facts rather than aesthetics or intuition.
Design strategists operate as test designers, empathetic researchers, sense making data visualisers, informed ideators and as workshop wizards.
They seek multiple perspectives on a problem using divergent and convergent thinking. They are also exploiting failure and they are externalising ideas as sketches and prototypes, seeking critique, justifying decisions and maintaining emotional distance from ideas.
The coin has two sides
Strategy and Design, at their best, are both about making choices. Both Designers and Strategists, have the ability to conceptualise visually which also helps to conceptualise verbally and vice versa. They operate together as a coin with two sides, fulfilling one another through the different stages of a project.
On the one side, designers are creative, intuitive creatures who pay great attention to detail. They are communicating concepts and ideas through models, sketches and stories, being confident enough with logical thinking. They are thinking laterally, borrowing from parallel categories, and cross-referencing from a variety of places when approaching a problem.
On the other side, strategists perform as creativity catalysts, making models and forms to create an order in the chaos. They use empathy, integrative thinking, optimism, experimentalism, and collaboration. They see the world in terms of problems and products and they prototype visions, not just products.
Tools and outcomes are obviously different for Designers and Strategists, but their path and attitude have lots of similarities. The challenge — whether it’s designing a beautiful and detailed object, or a complex research report — requires determination, critical thinking and a problem-solving attitude.
“Both, strategists and designers are obviously function together to achieve the best possible solutions for clients, produce amazing design work, and create unique and compelling brand positioning and identities. I think the main difference between Designers and Strategists is how loud you need the music in the background when you’re working!” Marie-Clotilde Gandy
