Page 127 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

3. (Re)Negotiating Service Design 115
were key principles driving their work. In addition to this, Fjord designers also reckoned that having an impact is key to their work. Designers empha- sized the importance of co-creation or, as they explained in interviews, “we do not design for, but with clients. Our clients have to become owners [of the design processes] as well”. The importance of co-creation became clear in our observations of designers’ work activities. It was common for the designers to organize co-creation workshops for clients. Further, the designers all considered empathy, or the importance of aligning with the needs of others, especially customers, key to their work. The designers said things like: “we are experts in customer related stuff”. Understanding the customers is important because: “what we do, creativity, is based on real insights from people, and real insights from customers and end-users”, further reflected in their practice of doing ‘user interviews’. Designers also practiced the principle of holism in their work. In projects, designers did not only put efforts in including the direct client team, but also related stakeholders such as partners, investors and customers. In an interview, a designer explained:
“You need to obtain different perspectives during the whole project. And if you ... don’t make these conversations between different people and keep them aligned during the whole project, you will never make this project a reality. If you don’t start to engage with IT guys in the right moment or you lose the marketing department, or you lose HR, at any point, you put the project at higher risk. To make projects reality, it is super important that all the people are being informed, engaged, and feel they are relevant and their opinion and vision is heard.”
Next to this, designers reckoned that having impact was a key value to their work. The following quote of a designer illustrates this:
“If you are a marketing guy, you want to celebrate sales features. ‘What is the chunk of the market I won?’ But I don’t think this is what design celebrates. Design celebrates design itself. It is this very self-consuming ac- tivity. Also, it celebrates changes in the world. Like ‘wow... have you seen this huge improvement, how can we do things for that?’ Design celebrates Ikea for instance. Because it is a huge change in the way we think and can decide about our homes.”
The importance designers attached to having an impact on other people’s behaviors also became clear in their daily practices. They cele- brated when their design solutions were launched in the market, and kept