Design Indaba: Roger Martin
Posted on 22. Feb, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry in Uncategorized
First up this morning, Roger Martin – Dean of the Rotman School of Management in Canada.
Speaking about the ‘The design of business’ – his presentation mainly dealt with the problem many design people have in selling their ideas to conservative, bottom-line focused business people.
Business think about a product / venture’s Reliability; while designers / ad agencies / consultants have their eye set on the Validity of their ideas.
The two speak different languages and there is constant tension and trade-off between Reliability vs. Validity.
Here are Roger Martin’s tips for designers to help them sell their ideas to business more effectively:
1. Take ‘Design Unfriendliness as a design challenge – know that when you walk into a corporate boardroom every suit there thinks you’re a freak. Work around that and solve that problem first.
2. Empathise with the ‘design unfriendliness of business – don’t say nasty things about your creatively challenged client. Help them see what you see.
3. Speak the language of Reliability – talk about how your ideas relate to improving the business bottom line. Your creativity should primarily result in more profit.
4. Use stories – prove that your ideas result in more profit. Tell stories about how similar things resulted in positive results elsewhere. Back us your theory.
5. Bite off as little a piece as possible to generate proof - maybe the client won’t go with the full big picture you propose, but negotiate to start off with something small to prove you’re not a crack-head.
Good points we felt, that relate to all creative consultants who’s job it is to sell their innovative thinking.
