October 20, 2024

"Design" is too damn big, and my most-cited

From the sofa of Peter Merholz—

“Design” is too damn big

Many, perhaps most, designers and design leaders are experiencing some kind of struggle, and as I listen to them share their challenges, I can’t help but return to a sense that, well, “Design” is too damn big.

As an organization designer, I think of Design as a function of the firm, akin to Sales, Marketing, Product Management, Engineering. But, unlike those other functions, there’s no easy definition of Design’s value. Sales acquires customers. Marketing acquires leads. Product Management defines and oversees the offerings of a firm. Engineering builds and delivers these offerings.

You could say that Design “determines the form of the offerings of the firm,” but that relegates Design’s value to after the strategic decisions are made. You could also say that Design “enhances the problem-solving capabilities of the firm,” but that feels hand-wavey.

Not only is the value unclear, Design participates across an enormous range, from the placement of pixels on a screen to informing the overarching omnichannel strategy of the business. Oh, and Design may include distinct functions such as UX Research, Content Strategy and Design, Accessibility, Motion Graphics, Videography, Illustration, Industrial Design, etc. etc.

As an advocate of a unified Design (marketing + product + strategy + ‘design thinking’)* organization, I know that I’m part of the problem here. And that this scope and uncertainty is why UX/Design leadership is distinctly challenging.

If you’ve got ideas for how to address this, I’d love to hear them.

*(I’m increasingly of the opinion that UX Research belongs in a separate Insights organization, as I discussed here.)

Questions from an in-house UX/Design summit

Last Tuesday, I spoke at Cisco’s dZone, a company-wide celebration of UX Design and Research, and fielded a number of questions afterward. A couple seemed worth sharing here:

Design, let alone design leadership, is hard. Talk about the role of resilience in design leadership.

Resilience is essential! Design and design leadership is hard because at the heart of design is to propose changes to improve something. And change is something people will, at least in default, resist. And to overcome that resistance requires your resilience, because you will be told 'no,' or 'not yet,' or 'not like that.' Resilience is crucial if you seek to make design a career.

What is your approach to providing creative oxygen for busy folks to innovate?

My answer may be counterintuitive, in that it has evidently little to do with creativity or innovation.

And it is: planning.

Like, program management-style planning.

Something I see designers and design leaders struggle with is planning beyond the next sprint/cycle. Which puts folks in a reactive mode.

Successful designers and design leaders look out over 3, 6, 12 months, and think about how they can structure work to realize their agenda. So, in this case, your agenda is "enable innovation through creative oxygen."

My interpretation of 'creative oxygen' is simply: space. Design, creativity, innovation, requires space. So, plan for that space. Carve out time, whether hours a week, or days a month, for people to have the space to create. By being proactive about it, you can make the space that enables creativity.

Milo turned 16

On October 18, Milo turned 16. He’s not the Energizer Bunny that he once was, he can barely hear, and he’s missing many teeth, but he’s still got it together, can hop up on the sofa without help, and craves occasional snuggles to connect with the others in the pack.

Thanks for reading, and don’t hesitate to reach out with your thoughts!

—peter