Design has emerged as one of the most distinguishing factors in determining a company’s success. Products and services are a reflection of the internal state of the organization that designs them, and strategy, values, and principles are manifested through design just as clearly as power struggles and dysfunction. Truly great design doesn’t only communicate the world we live in; it also communicates a vision for the world we wish existed. Can’t the same be said for great brand communications? If design = communications, aren’t all organizations “design-centric” and all communications executives designers? More importantly, can we leverage design thinking to help us be more creative brand communicators?

1. The Case for
DESIGN
THINKINGIN
COMMUNICATIONSPresented by Jason Schlossberg
22 July 2015
@Jschlossberg@KCOPR

2. Chief Creative Officer and agency co-founder, Kwittken
2014 In2 Innovator 25 Honoree
Design Dilettante
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JASON
SCHLOSSBERG
@Jschlossberg

3. FLACK
YOU

4. “Eventually everything
connects—people, ideas,
objects. The quality of the
connections is the key to
quality per se.”
— Charles Eames

5. DESIGN IS:
1. A method of action, a plan to accomplish a purpose
2. The realistic embrace of constraints
3. Connected

6. DESIGN =
CREATIVE
CHOICES

10. 18
PAGES
14
PAGES
20
PAGES

11. DESIGN =
LANGUAGE

12. DESIGN =
COMMUNICATION

15. “Just as a person’s posture can reflect
his or her
inner state, so does your product’s
design reflect
the state of your company. This is why
every
CEO is a designer, whether they
recognize it or not.”
—IRENE AU, Kholsa Ventures

16. “In essence, we were
not building the phone
for the customer—we
were building it for Jeff,”
says one source.
—Austin Carr, “The Real Story Behind
Jeff Bezo’s Fire Phone Debacle
and What It Means for Amazon’s Future,”
Fast Company, Feb 2015

17. * Source: The Design Management Institute and Motiv Strategies
IN THE PAST
10 YEARS,
DESIGN-DRIVEN
COMPANIES
OUTPERFORMED
THE S&P 500 BY
228%*

18. WHAT MAKES
GOOD DESIGN?

19. DIETER RAMS’ 10
PRINCIPLES
OF “GOOD DESIGN”
GOOD DESIGN Is Innovative
GOOD DESIGN Makes a Product Useful
GOOD DESIGN Is Aesthetic
GOOD DESIGN Makes A Product Understandable
GOOD DESIGN Is Unobtrusive
GOOD DESIGN Is Honest
GOOD DESIGN Is Long-lasting
GOOD DESIGN Is Thorough Down to the Last Detail
GOOD DESIGN Is Environmentally Friendly
GOOD DESIGN Is as Little Design as Possible

20. “Indifference towards people
and
the reality in which they live is
actually the one and only
cardinal sin in design”
— Dieter
Rams, AS LITTLE DESIGN AS POSSIBLE

21. Give
Lovin
Get Lovin

23. EVERY
MARKETER IS A
DESIGNER,
WHETHER THEY
RECOGNIZE IT
OR NOT

24. “DESIGN THINKING”
ENCOURAGES
NON-DESIGNERS TO
‘THINK’ LIKE
INDUSTRIAL
DESIGNERS TO
IMPROVE PROBLEM
SOLVING PRACTICES
AND BE MORE
INNOVATIVE

25. DESIGN-
THINKING:
Empathize
Observe
Brainstorm
Prototype
Test
1 2
3
4
5

26. “Attention is
the new
currency.”—
Modern PR Maverick
“We
measure
success by
the pound.”—OLD PR DOG

27. OUR
CHALLENGE:
TO COMMUNICATE
OUR BEST ‘SELVES’.

28. HOW DO YOU BUILD A
DESIGN THINKING
COMMUNICATIONS
FUNCTION?

29. STEP 1:
THINK IN PROJECT TEAMS
Multi-disciplinary and inter-
disciplinary teams
increase creativity
For Agencies:
Imposes discipline
& clear goals from
startFor Brands:
Creates a sense
of purpose and fosters a team
dynamic
Modern marketing ideas come from many
places, working in silos breeds
incremental thinking

30. ALL PROJECT TEAMS
MUST HAVE A
SENIOR DESIGNER +
SENIOR ENGINEER
Icons made by Freepik from Flaticon are licensed under Creative Commons BY 3.0

31. STEP 2:
GROUND ALL THINKING IN
INSIGHTS
AND OBSERVABLE FACTS
“In my experience,
about half of
professional
decisions in large
companies are gut
decisions.”
—Gerd Gigerenzer,
director of the
Max Planck Institute
for Human
Development

32. “How do we generate awareness for our
new 4K technology
among our target consumers?”
“How might we leverage our new 4K
technology to
make TV relevant again among our target
consumers?”
STEP 3:
WHAT IS THE DESIGN
PROBLEM?

33. STEP 4:
FROM QUANTITY COMES
QUALITY
Divergent thinking is the deliberate attempt to expand the range of options rather than narrow them
Design thinkers embrace a mindset where the default answer is yes (at first)
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34. STEP 5:
CREATE A CULTURE OF “RAPID
PROTOTYPING”

35. THE MINIMUM
VIABLE PITCH

36. Image: Libby Levi for Opensource.com
STEP 6:
HONING YOUR SKILLS

37. INTUITION
PATTERN
RECOGNITION
CONSTRUCTING
EMOTIONAL
AND FUNCTIONAL
IDEAS
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38. THANKS