Strategic Design : Not a Fad
So Listen Up Hiring Department
Disclaimer: the people and events in this article are fictional, although the arguments and statistics are real, and this article is meant to function as a whole as a kind of fictional cover letter.
Design. Such a buzzword. I’m sure you’re sick of hearing it. In many ways the traditional connotations of the word have already been lost. The titans of Design: Eames, Rams, Ives, Norman no longer encapsulate the more general meaning of the word. I believe Design has begun to define an approach more than a collective set of actions. Design thinking is an approach to thinking (about anything really). Urban Design is an approach to urban planning. Game Design is an approach to creating games. Perhaps you’ve seen this video, and think of Design as an approach that begins and ends at post-it notes. That would be incorrect…(although we do love 3M).
Who provides strategy for your organization? Perhaps it’s the executive team, or perhaps a board of directors. In either case those who hold the vision for the organization’s future are those who have the most experience and domain knowledge of their small corner of the world. This was especially useful and practical before three major changes; the invention of the internet, dispersed knowledge and understanding of our environmental challenges, and the gradual dissolution of trade barriers.
Open, uninterrupted, and unfiltered communications has made defining trends easier with expansive data, but also makes those trends more temporal as opinions appear to shift with each wave of tweets. Once upon a time businesses could return to their key focus, revenue building and cost saving strategies, but now their effects on the environment today, tomorrow, and ten years from now are incredibly important. Ford’s strategy in 1919 didn’t even have to consider global competition, nor the need to think globally from a revenue perspective. Today the case could be made every company is a global company, and therefore requires a strategy that recognizes and takes advantage of that fact. Odds are your managers, executives, and directors can’t keep up.
Designers have always been tasked with managing chaos. That’s what life and business feels like today. Chaos. This is almost certainly why time has called on Design to play such a large role in the future of business, tech, and society. The uniqueness of today’s challenges requires equally unique solutions. Creativity. Designers know and practice systematic creativity unlike almost any other profession. A graphic designer designs graphics, a product designer designs product, and a strategic designer designs strategy.
I design strategies. The world will only become more complex, uncertain, and competitive. You’ll want myself or someone who identifies as a strategic designer along for the tumultuous times ahead. We bring three key assets to the table you won’t find from a traditional strategist nor a traditional designer. We are holistic in our approach to understanding the problem. We offer a number of ways to visualize data, systems, problems, and proposed solutions because of our artifact focused outcomes. We steward our concepts beyond the initial proposal of an idea. These are essential elements of who we are as strategic designers, and elements of success for the future of your organization. Lets work together.
