Embracing the open kitchen
In an era of double diamond-opolis, design thinking-itis and design first ‘thirst’-iness, do we need more designers, or do we need better designers?
Why I’ve been pondering
These are my thoughts as someone relatively junior to the world of online design guff, which on appearance looks like it has a pretty low entry barrier…phew!
Since joining the design team at Lloyds as a service designer, I’ve been involved in the odd side-of-desk discussion in things like: service design vs. business design, systems thinking vs. Lean vs. Design research, and even Agile vs. lean. vs. design thinking.
There always seems to be a ‘vs’, as if one approach is better than the other or competing to be the leader. Which I’ve always found quite funny really, when most of the people involved in those disciplines work under very similar ‘customer need’ driven principles, or something along those lines.
Anyway, as these discussions have rumbled on like a small toy train going round in circles, not really going anywhere, more articles have been published, more books have been written and more conferences presented at.
More people are therefore talking about it, and more people are probably putting design in their job title. Nice! #design4thewin.
Are we getting better?
But are we actually getting any better at design? Or are more people just talking about it and doing it? From what I’ve seen and learnt in a short period, the best designers don’t surround themselves with, and preach to, other designers. They’re out in the wild, rolling with the punches and learning the language of the customer and the business or service they’re trying to design for or re-design. They re-energise when they catch up with their fellow war veterans, then return to the fold.
Design thinking courses are good for helping non-designers learn how to problem solve. They’re also great for designers to share how they problem solve. But theyre not great at actually generating good design, or designers, necessarily. Co-design, not just with customers but with non-design business stakeholders, should be part of the design process to problem solve. Especially if we have any desire to design something at all feasible, or to bring the business on the journey to show why it should be feasible.
However, I still believe in the value of allowing design craft itself, when designers can slip back into their headphone wearing comfort.
The UX collective refer to this more collaborative mindset, in their 2019 trends report, as designers ‘embracing the open kitchen.’
Better designers, not necessarily more
This is why I don’t think we need more designers, just better designers. Designers who can both finesse, and facilitate. Maybe design generalists but definitely less design managers. Unlike in football, design leaders probably should have been designers at some point or another. More Solskjaers, less Mourinhos….
To finish, I think we should be coaching and developing those designers with a natural craft to become great facilitators, coaches and storytellers. I certainly want to be coached in all of these skills.
And this is how I believe design really makes an impact, by designing with non-designers.
Those people that make up the rest of the business, design and engineering triumvirate. The colleagues who know what is feasible, know how to build it, and those who know the business well enough to help articulate how we can meet business as well as customer needs.
Otherwise we’ll end up just designing in a vacuum, rather than embracing the open kitchen.
