Feature Strategic or Design Strategy? Effectively Positioning as By Travis J. Brown It’s hard to argue that designers don’t provide a distinct value as strategists. But the results of this paper speak to the continued relevance of designers doing as well as thinking.

Strategic Design Effectively Strategic Design Positioning Strategic Design Designers as Strategic Design DesignStrategists Strategy? Strategic Design Design Strategy? Strategic Design Design Strategy? Strategic Design Design Strategy? Strategic Design Design Strategy? Design Strategy? Design Strategy?

38 DMI Vol.30, Issue 1 | DMI.ORG Design Strategy? Design Strategy? Design Strategy? Design Strategy? Feature Strategic Design or Design Strategy? Effectively Positioning Designers as Strategists

Notes 1. T. L. Stone, “Understanding Design Strategy,” HOW Magazine, March 2013, p. 2.

or the past four years, I have been working with designers rather than business teaching a course called “Design Strategy” at professionals on a project focused on strategic Effectively FIndiana University’s School of Informatics, considerations for their . Computing, and . I developed that The reflections from the students proved course—which was aimed at graduate design consistent with those of the clients, in that Positioning students—based on the existing literature on the both groups concluded that designers provide a subject of strategic design, and then reflecting distinct value as strategists relative to business on students’ feedback on the course, revising professionals. That value, according to both the Designers as the course based on that feedback, reflecting students and the clients, is that designers invest on students’ reactions to those revisions, and the upfront time to develop an understanding Strategists then bringing real-world clients into the class of those for which they are designing prior to with projects requiring a strategic analysis of endeavoring to design a solution, which I argue Design Strategy? their respective organization. As part of this speaks to the continued relevance of designers reflection, I asked my students to consider the doing as well as thinking. The results also reinforce distinction between strategic design and design the importance of designers emphasizing the Design Strategy? strategy. My objective in doing this, given that I return on investing in user research and developing had not explicitly defined strategic design and user understanding, even when aspiring to attain design strategy through the course, was to see strategic decision-making authority. Design Strategy? how fledgling professional designers would draw a distinction between the two as well as how they Introduction would interpret and make a case for the value of a Teaching a design strategy course proved to be an Design Strategy? professional as a . interesting challenge largely because there really I also challenged the students to develop a plan is no one definition of design strategy, but, as for how they would go about positioning themselves Stone 2013 has said, “The goal is to merge business Design Strategy? as design strategists upon graduation, including and creative objectives in a meaningful way that articulating the unique value that a designer could moves design beyond just an aesthetic exercise.”1 Design Strategy?provide as a strategist, as well as how they would go In order to take a deep dive into the pedagogical about delivering that value. In addition, I solicited considerations inherent in effectively teaching feedback from the clients regarding their experience design strategy to fledgling professional design Design Strategy? DMI Vol.30, Issue 1 | DMI.ORG 39 Design Strategy? Design Strategy? Design Strategy? Feature Strategic Design or Design Strategy? Effectively Positioning Designers as Strategists

Notes 2. P. Reason and H. Bradbury (Eds.), Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice (London: Sage Publications, 2001), p. 1. 3. M. Brydon-Miller, D. Greenwood, and P. Maguire, “Why Action Research?” Action Research, vol. 1, no. 1 (2003), pp. 9-28.

Figure 1 This represents a process of analyzing strategic decisions that results in a “failed” strategic design. Strategic Design Success

Ideal Strategic Design De-balancing

Failure

Strategic Design

students, I chose to use action research, which is considering the marketing of their , my “a participatory, democratic process concerned students had to manipulate the variables of product with developing practical knowing in the pursuit design, price, public relations and distribution, all of worthwhile human purposes, grounded in a of which comprised their final design proposal. participatory worldview […] It seeks to bring Although I have taught to together action and reflection, theory and practice, business students and explored how it can inform in participation with others, in the pursuit of teaching creativity, the fact that design thinking practical solutions to issues of pressing concern has been widely accepted as a process worthy to people, and more generally the flourishing of being learned certainly facilitated students’ of individual persons and their communities.”2 acceptance of the concept. Strategic design, on the In addition, there has been a call for “adopting other hand, has not been widely accepted, and as conscious pedagogies of action research.”3 It is with demonstrated through my interviews of strategic this call in mind that I set out to develop my course. designers, has yet to achieve a generally accepted definition. In response to the field’s general Some reflections ambiguity and my own uncertainty regarding the The risk of merging design with business distinction between design thinking, strategic strategy is that students can equate business design, and design strategy, I decided that I with profit maximization. In order to avoid such would develop a foundational understanding of an association, I focused the course on goal the concepts with my students during my first achievement in the context of the competitive semester of teaching the course by juxtaposing landscape by applying SWOT analysis, strategic two of the seminal works in the practical and analysis using the marketing 4P’s, and success educational spaces shared by design thinking, metrics establishment using the Triple Bottom strategic design, and design strategy. Line, which enabled the students to define success The two books I used were Hartmut Esslinger’s metrics outside of profit-maximization. In A Fine Line: How Design Strategies are Shaping the 40 DMI Vol.30, Issue 1 | DMI.ORG Feature Strategic Design or Design Strategy? Effectively Positioning Designers as Strategists

4. H. Esslinger, H., A Fine Line: How Design Strategies are Shaping the Future of Business (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009), p. 19. 5. Roger Martin, The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage (Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2009), p. 6.

Figure 2 This represents the process of strategic-balancing a design you had deemed ideal as a designer—but which, as a Strategic strategic designer, you realize Design requires strategic balancing to Success improve its chances for success.

Ideal Strategic Design Balancing

Failure

Strategic Design

Future of Business and The Design of Business: Why and strategy”; and I define design Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage strategy as “the process of designing for the purpose by Roger Martin (2009). Hartmut Esslinger is a of strategic analysis and formulation.” world-famous designer who espouses the view Once I had established these definitions with that “[d]esigners become masters of their own fate my students, I determined that I needed to draw when they master the workings of business and a distinction between the design process and the learn to appreciate the rational thinking, vision, strategic design process. Bringing in real-world ethics, and creativity it takes to run a successful clients at the stage I was at in the development of organization,”4 while Roger Martin is a renowned the course would have been premature, so I opted business strategy scholar who suggests that “[t] to instead focus on case studies and created a set he most successful businesses in the years to of figures to visualize the steps in the strategic come will balance analytical mastery and intuitive design process. I developed the figures to convey originality in a dynamic interplay that [he] call[s] the compromises which are typically required from design thinking.”5 Although I had originally the time the design leaves the designer’s hands imagined taking the entire semester to develop and is placed in the hands of the end user. Within a consensus amongst my students regarding the an organization, this process involves a myriad of definitions of and the relationships among design strategic decisions, many of which are based on thinking, strategic design, and design strategy, I was the organization’s identity in the minds of surprised to discover that my students adopted my its constituents, the organization’s competitive presentation of the concepts—which, at the time, landscape, and the organization’s culture, history, treated strategic design and design strategy as being and existing strategy. The “Ideal Design” in figures one and the same. The definition I now use for 1 and 2 represents the design with its full nuance strategic design is “a design process that includes as envisioned by the designer and true to the business considerations such as competitive designer’s intent. “Strategic Balancing” represents positioning, pricing strategy, distribution strategy, the strategic considerations (current strategy and DMI Vol.30, Issue 1 | DMI.ORG 41 Feature Strategic Design or Design Strategy? Effectively Positioning Designers as Strategists

Notes 6. J. Hamblin, J., “A Brewing 8. D. Holston, The Strategic Designer: Problem,” The Atlantic, Tools & Techniques for Managing March 2, 2015. the Design Process (Cincinnati, OH: How Books, 2011), p. 5. 7. D. Smith, “Microsoft Zune Discontinued (2006-2011),” International Business Times, Oct. 4, 2011.

competitive positioning) that need to be taken into poor strategic decisions being made in respect account by a strategic designer when transitioning to how it was promoted as well as the product’s the design to its final “Strategic Design” form. aesthetics, which I believe to be a direct reflection The paths to “Success” or “Failure” are subjective of Microsoft’s attempt to mimic iPod’s design. and determined by the success metrics defined Through this analysis, my objective was never by the strategic designer, which may or may not to convince students that my proposed “successful” include profit maximization. I represented the strategic design would have fared better in the “failed” strategic design with a triangle over the market than the “failed” strategic design; instead, “ideal design” cloud to symbolize a greater loss. In it was to demonstrate to the students that the order to emphasize that more effective “Strategic “goodness” of a design, meaning that it reflects a Balancing” can result in a successful strategic thoughtful design process which is considerate of the design, I symbolized “success” with a circle over problem as well as the users’ needs, does not the Ideal Design cloud, which indicated keeping necessarily translate into the “success” of a design. more of the designer’s intent. Forces external and internal to an organization play As previously mentioned, I empowered my a significant role in determining success, and the students to define success based on the impact “strategic balancing” process involves accounting of the design in respect to a balance between the for those forces when designing—which is, in fact, impact on people, profit, and the planet, which is part of strategic design. Although I only intended to commonly referred to as the Triple Bottom Line. use the figures when teaching, the students reported As an example, the Keurig® Coffee Maker has finding the figures particularly helpful when thinking been quite successful in respect to its positive through the strategic design process, and I witnessed generation of profit; yet, it has been significantly them not only recreating the figures in their less successful considering its negative impact on assignments but also using the framework when the planet due to the of waste produced by its presenting their solutions. disposable K-Cup® Pods.6 Therefore, in my class, The definitions I use for strategic design and I enabled students to declare the Keurig® Coffee for design strategy actually suggest that my course Maker a “failed” strategic design—in spite of its would be more appropriately titled “Strategic commercial success. Design” rather than “Design Strategy.” I do not, In order to illustrate the process that I used in however, present that distinction to the students the class, I also used the example of Microsoft’s until the end of the semester to avoid imposing my Zune digital media line of products. While the sense of the concepts on them and, in turn, biasing failure of the Zune has been attributed to its their opinion. When revamping the course for lackluster design,7 at least relative to the Apple the second year, I decided that it was appropriate, iPod, I suggest that it was a “failed” strategic having determined that I was actually teaching a design, which resulted in its failure in the market. strategic design course, to find a book which would Although the design of the Zune resembled introduce students to more business strategy in the design of the iPod, I asked my students to the context of design. The book that I discovered consider why Microsoft, best known for its office and opted to use for this purpose was The Strategic productivity software, would endeavor to produce Designer: Tools & Techniques for Managing the a digital music player that resembled one being Design Process, by Dave Holston. Holston makes produced by Apple, best known for its aesthetic the case that “[b]usiness tools, like competitive sensibility and appeal to creative professionals. and situational analysis, help designers understand In the case of the Zune, I consider a “successful” the business environment, allowing them to strategic design to be one which is successful in develop design solutions that are strategic,”8 the market and true to Microsoft’s existing brand which is consistent with my understanding identity, and I believe the Zune “failed” due to of strategic design as a marriage of design and 42 DMI Vol.30, Issue 1 | DMI.ORG Feature Strategic Design or Design Strategy? Effectively Positioning Designers as Strategists Although strategic designers could arguably provide as much, if not more, value when practicing strategic design or design thinking for business, without a theoretical approach to being a strategist as a designer, there appears to be increasing pressure on designers to distance themselves from design doing.

business tools, methods, and theories. The specific them attempting to complete a strategic analysis methods I applied in the class were the SWOT through the use of design, as they interpreted analysis, which required students to consider the that process. In order to determine whether I strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats could identify themes which would inform my of the organization in question when strategically understanding of my students’ perspectives balancing their strategic design, and the marketing regarding the relationship between strategic 4P’s, which required students to define the “failed” design and design strategy, as well as the role of strategic design relative to their “successful” the designer as a strategist in general, I completed strategic design in respect to pricing, promotion, a qualitative content analysis on my students’ placement, and product decisions made. reflections. Following are the themes which I While I found this approach to teaching generated through my analysis: strategic design effective, I became increasingly • There is a distinction between strategic design convinced by the end of the semester that strategic and design strategy, in that one is about design as a profession would be untenable for considering business goals when designing, and strategic designers, given that the same methods the other is about applying when were being taught to design thinking business constructing strategy, as well as developing a strategists. Although strategic designers could strategy for a design. arguably provide as much, if not more, value when • The unique value that designers bring to an practicing strategic design or design thinking organization relative to business professionals for business, without a theoretical approach to is that they are broader thinkers, they are more being a strategist as a designer, there appears to empathetic and user-centered, they are inclined be increasing pressure on designers to distance to iterate their solutions, they are trained themselves from design doing (i.e., being concerned problem-framers, and they are able to present with aesthetic considerations, visual articulation, their solutions visually as prototypes. and artifact creation). At the end of the second year • The essence of design is developing insightful teaching my “Design Strategy” course, I challenged questions and visual solutions based on a deep my students to distinguish strategic design and understanding of the problem space achieved design strategy as well as to reflect on what a through user research. designer would offer as a strategist that would be • A design strategy method relative to a business unique relative to what a business strategist would strategy method should visualize data for easier offer. The next section presents my analysis of my digestion and interpretation, be more qualitative, students’ reflections. require iteration, be focused on user experience, and be holistic in the consideration of all constituents. Student reflections Following are the insights I gleaned through The graduate design students in my class were this process: beginning their second and final year of their • Students did come to draw a distinction between studies, generally following an internship during the process of considering business objectives which they were able to apply the design tools, and competitive constraints when designing and methods, and theories they had learned during applying design-related methods for strategic their first year in their graduate Human-Computer analysis and formulation; however, they varied program. I challenged my in how they used the terms strategic design and students to first use Porter Five Forces analysis to design strategy as they relate to those processes. complete a strategic analysis of an industry of their • Some students came to define design strategy choosing. I then asked them to translate at least solely as a strategy for a design, meaning the plan one element of the Porter Five Forces model into a that a designer would follow in order to achieve design strategy method/framework, which entailed her design goals. DMI Vol.30, Issue 1 | DMI.ORG 43 Feature Strategic Design or Design Strategy? Effectively Positioning Designers as Strategists

• Students are able to articulate what what differences they witnessed when working with distinguishes a professional designer from a designers relative to business professionals: business professional, and the distinguishing • From a startup founder reflecting on students’ characteristics of a designer that they cite are proposals for the restructuring of his launch empathy, visual articulation, user-centeredness, strategy: Yeah, I think there is a difference. It’s hard iteration, broad thinking, and problem-framing. to quantify, I suppose, but business students do • According to students, design strategy methods an outstanding job of thinking like a business and should require the visual articulation of considering revenue and target market and market data gathered and insights gleaned, as well strategy and rollout phases and all that. I think your as be qualitative. students in particular did better than most design While the design strategy methods my students I’ve talked to. […] [C]ircling back to my students constructed ranged from placing a greater other point, it’s understanding what we could do. If emphasis on the of the data generated there is a list of ten things we could do to improve through the application of the Porter Five Forces a piece of software or a design of something, what method to more directly engaging members of the takes the least amount of effort and has the biggest industry being analyzed using design thinking, return and how can we prioritize things around none of them proposed that design could generate that, and that’s something your students could do novel concepts, visually articulate them, and really well. even prototype them for the purpose of keeping • From a UX researcher in established company design doing at the core of design strategy. In all reflecting on students’ proposals for a new cases, their projects reflected a strategic designer’s onboarding process: I think there were certainly approach to their strategic analysis of their teams of yours which really did impress me industry as a designer, and the majority of their with the way they thought through the user’s arguments had at their core that the distinct value experience going through something. From what that a designer as a strategist offers relative to that I know working with people that are more on of a business professional is primarily that she the MBA side of things, that user concern might is a designer. However, without design doing, the not be as much in the forefront when developing professional designer has become a design thinker, products and thinking up solutions. I honestly which would not be problematic if not for the fact can’t say for sure though. But working with your that non-designers are being trained as design teams and having them present things, there were thinkers. In my opinion, that is why design doing some teams that talked about push notifications is so important for a designer, particularly when and the way they need to be used. There needs aspiring to take on a more strategic role. to be information, have a call to action, and there was just a lot of thought put into the way that Reflections from project clients users react to different methodologies. It wasn’t I had three project clients join my class—a startup just “Oh, we will send them a push notification founder considering a restructuring of his launch because it’s on their phone.” No, it was, “Here’s strategy, a UX researcher in an established company what you actually need to say and how you planning a new onboarding process, and a university engage to convert a behavior,” so there was some administrator contemplating the allocation of thoughtfulness on that front, I think. resources to various initiatives being considered • From a university administrator reflecting in his department. All of them had worked with on students’ proposals for the allocation of business strategists prior to working with my resources to initiatives in his department: Well, design students on their strategy projects. Following it’s not uniform, but both classes had multiple are their reflections on their relative experiences groups tackling a challenge. I would say the working with each group, specifically in respect to percentage of solutions of ideas that came from 44 DMI Vol.30, Issue 1 | DMI.ORG Feature Strategic Design or Design Strategy? Effectively Positioning Designers as Strategists

Notes Travis J. Brown is the senior 9. Norman, D.A. (2005). Emotional 11. Ibid, p. 102. executive assistant dean at Indiana design: Why we love (or hate) University’s School of Informatics, 12. Ibid, p. 96. everyday things. Basic books., Computing & Engineering. He epilogue. holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship & Corporate as well as 10. Buxton, B. (2007). Sketching a B.S. in Computer Information user experiences: Getting the Systems and a PhD in human- design right and the right design. computer interaction/design, all Morgan Kaufmann, p. 95. from Indiana University.

your class that are actually feasible and make our change at the grocery store makes us all some sense within our context is actually much mathematicians. Of course there is a way that both higher than in the business school. Students are true, but only in the most banal sense. Reducing in business, I came in later in the semester, and things to such a level trivializes the hard-won and they weren’t emailing me and asking questions, highly developed skills of the professional designer and they weren’t emailing our staff and asking (and mathematician).” 10 questions to understand things, whereas some Buxton notes later in the book, “Or, more of your groups really did that and you could see succinctly, “We are NOT all designers.”11 Of course, it reflected in their final projects. this declaration begs the question: What makes a designer a designer? Here to I concur with Buxton. Summary He proposes, citing Henryk Gedenryd’s work in Based on my experiences as an educator asked cognitive science, that, in addition to concept to teach a course titled “Design Strategy” as well generation, “sketching is fundamental to the design as the reflections of my students taking that process.”12 It is this ability to visually articulate course, I have gained an appreciation for the value concepts as well as create artifacts based on those of teaching both strategic design and design concepts while being considerate of aesthetics in strategy, as I have defined them herein. While a manner which effectively serves a defined goal there still is not consensus regarding how to teach that distinguishes designers from non-designers strategic design, or practice it, for that matter, (i.e., design doing). Of course, in order to do that, being able to select methods from business and designers need to be able to empathize in order to design for the purpose of constructing strategic ascertain what they need to visually articulate for design curriculum is relatively simple compared the purpose of addressing their intended audience to doing the same for design strategy. The fact (i.e., design thinking). that my students struggled to draw a distinction As reflected in the responses from the project between strategic design and design strategy is clients with whom I worked through my course, not surprising to me given that I did not arrive at empathy, both with the client as well as with the my current theoretical approach to design strategy intended recipient of the designed solution, is and my definitional distinction between strategic what sets the designer apart from the business design and design strategy until I was teaching the professional as a strategist. While the doing course for the second time. of design is frequently cited as being at risk of What my research has suggested to me is commoditization, design doing grounded in an that there is room for the development of tools, empathic understanding of the intended recipient methods, and theories which would enable of the design continues to be the core value designers to analyze and formulate strategy proposition of the designer, and, as demonstrated, through design doing, which I think is best the design strategist. captured through the visual articulation of concepts, as suggested by Bill Buxton in his Acknowledgement Sketching User Experiences, as well as the creation I would like to acknowledge the assistance of my research assistant Zachary Chambers, without whose support I could not have of artifacts. In response to Don Norman’s 2005 completed this study. declaration that “[w]e’re all designers,”9 Buxton responded with the following: “I have the highest degree of respect for Don, but in my opinion, this is nonsense! Yes, we all choose colours for our walls, or the layout of the furniture in our living rooms. But this no more makes us all designers than our ability to count DMI Vol.30, Issue 1 | DMI.ORG 45