Usually when I talk about design and strategy, I’m talking to business people who know something about strategy and very little about design. But if designers want a seat at the table, we need to educate ourselves about business strategy. In this talk I gave at a NELAUX event, I share the basics of competitive strategy with a room full of designers.
2. What is the role of design
in your organization?
TWEET @SKOTCARRUTHDESIGN AS STRATEGY
3. What MBAs think designers do:
TWEET @SKOTCARRUTH
Organize requirements into screens
Make stuff look good
Requirements gathering
Field research
Face to face interviewing
Creation and administering of tests
Gathering, organizing, and presenting statistics
Documentation of personas and findings
Brainstorm coordination
Information Architecture
Taxonomy creation
UI Copywriting
Interaction design
Spec writing
Prototyping
Interface layout
Interface design
Visual design
Graphic design
Usability
Presentation and speaking
Working tightly with programmers
Company culture evangelism
Communication to stakeholders
DESIGN AS STRATEGY
4. What designers think designers do:
TWEET @SKOTCARRUTH
Organize requirements into screens
Make stuff look good
Requirements gathering
Field research
Face to face interviewing
Creation and administering of tests
Gathering, organizing, and presenting statistics
Documentation of personas and findings
Brainstorm coordination
Information Architecture
Taxonomy creation
UI Copywriting
Interaction design
Spec writing
Prototyping
Interface layout
Interface design
Visual design
Graphic design
Usability
Presentation and speaking
Working tightly with programmers
Company culture evangelism
Communication to stakeholders
DESIGN AS STRATEGY
5. What is the role of strategy
in your organization?
TWEET @SKOTCARRUTHDESIGN AS STRATEGY
POLL:
6. Wait, what is strategy?
TWEET @SKOTCARRUTHDESIGN AS STRATEGY
10. TWEET @SKOTCARRUTHDESIGN AS STRATEGY
Threat of new entrants
Threat of substitute products or services
Bargaining power
of suppliers
Bargaining power
of buyers
Competitor
rivalry
28. TWEET @SKOTCARRUTHDESIGN AS STRATEGY
Chaotic
Complex
Obvious
Complicated
Emergent Practice
Probe - Sense - Respond
Novel Practice
Act - Sense - Respond
Good Practice
Sense - Analyze - Respond
Best Practice
Sense - Categorize - Respond
29. Design does two things better
than strategy:
TWEET @SKOTCARRUTHDESIGN AS STRATEGY
1. Discover
2. Handle ambiguity
30. How do we elevate design?
TWEET @SKOTCARRUTHDESIGN AS STRATEGY
37. TWEET @SKOTCARRUTHDESIGN AS STRATEGY
Plan Design
Develop
TestRelease
Feedback
Agile
Design
Thinking
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Test
38. Design can be applied to anything…
PUTTING DESIGN TO WORK TWEET @SKOTCARRUTH
• Marketing Communications
• Products and Services
• Business Process / Platforms
• Organizational Structures
39. …at any level of fidelity…
PUTTING DESIGN TO WORK TWEET @SKOTCARRUTH
• Conceptual
• Prototype
• MVP
• Single Feature
• Microinteraction
40. …at any time scale.
PUTTING DESIGN TO WORK TWEET @SKOTCARRUTH
• The current operation
• The next thing we’re building
• Things on the long-term strategic roadmap
• Things we haven’t even thought about yet