This research, the findings and insights, combined with experience has led to a framework of needs to be addressed, by designers and non-designers. This framework is focused on the underlying biases and assumptions each side has of each other, unspoken but yet prominent and present in such a way that it prevents companies from making […]
Executives
9. Advice – Management consultancies and advisory boards don’t influence CEO’s positively about the value of design.
This insight resulted from a discussion with some design executives on the reasons why in so many cases design is ill positioned to change the fate of the company by design, and the fact that many executives, members of the BoD and management consultancies don’t understand and advise on design adequately. The term widely used […]
5. Access – Designers are not selected for the job, not invited, not mentored and groomed for it.
This insight describes a context in which designers are not selected for the job, not invited, not mentored and groomed for it. While many designers cite this as a true insight impacting the reality described by the question we pose, this is seen by non-designers as a typical complaint of a group of people that […]
How did the executive survey go?
We designed, along with an organization specialized in tracking executives in large corporations a short executive focused survey on Designer leadership in large corporations. The survey had to be short due to the nature of the target respondents, large company executives with very little time to spend on non-essential activities, and the partner we co-designed […]
What was the research methodology?
The research of the doctoral thesis was focused on the development of knowledge of a particular context that impacts design, and the expectation is that the knowledge produced may later transform in different forms of practice. The research started with a given statement describing a situation, and has ended in specification to implement a solution, […]
What were your research objectives and hypothesis?
Objective 1: Discover existing research specifically dedicated to reasons why trained designers do not occupy high level positions in large corporations; Objective 2: Establish via engagement with designers and executives, insights that might be impeding designers from assuming high level positions in large corporations; Objective 3: Generate a number of hypothesis that could be researched […]
Why US F50, and not F500, or Global 500?
The focused sample of this research was the top 50 Fortune 500 US corporations, and apart from a moment where we extrapolated the potential number of designers impacted by F500 corporations, we kept away from extrapolating any of the insights and data from the top 50 to the remaining 450 or even other universe of […]
Why the focus on the c-suite?
The focus of this research is sharply on the C-Suite, and the executives that sit on it who are often called Top Management Teams (TMT). The focus is not on the CEO nor the Board of Directors for a number of reasons. There seems to be quite a lot of research on CEO’s, from many […]