Page 137 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

3. (Re)Negotiating Service Design 125
Cleo: because it is not good for the team to have him there. It makes the team feel uncomfortable. Because if he sits there, we feel watched. It is un- comfortable. I would have had a conversation with him. Like you can be in the same room, that is not a problem, but you cannot be in the same table. Just do not involve. Because one thing is co-creation, and another thing is surveillance... You [client] did not buy learning a master degree in service design, you did not buy that we train you, involve you.
Moreover, the craft designers expressed their frustration about the deci- sion of the project lead to let the clients sit on “the same table”. Similarly, Nadia also expressed her discontent in a conversation with the fieldworker:
Nadia: I think sometimes there is some arrogance, like ‘a client will never understand’. He does not understand. ‘He needs to adapt, he has to ...’. It is an arrogant attitude. Instead of saying I need to work with my client, [and putting efforts in] understanding where he comes from. [I believe] You don’t have to change everything but there are things you need to com- promise. I think the reactions from the team were similar to that. Like ‘he cannot be here, he has to move out’. How do we do it so he does not feel that we do not throw him out from his own space?
Fieldworker: was this when Richard was sitting with us? I noticed the team was feeling uncomfortable.
Nadia: yeah, but you cannot just say, ‘go’. You need to find a way so he un- derstands our methodology. Arrogance is ‘get out’ we do not work like that, empathy is ‘how can we work together’. I am surprised, from the observa- tion that is difficult for us to work so close to our client.
These observations make clear that while ‘co-creation’ and ‘empathy’ are considered important values by all designers, what this means in terms of sharing space or involving clients is left to debate among the craft and business designers. Even though it appeared that ‘frontstage’ a collec- tive agreement was reached, namely the compromise that the client only joined the workspace in selected moments, both communities of designers engaged in backstage behaviors such as gossiping because they were not satisfied with the outcome.
Moreover, our observations show that while space brings designers together, it is also what pushes them apart. We found that designers expe- rience ambiguity with respect to how to cope with clients’ presence in their workspace, and a consensus about spatial interactions was not always reached. The craft designers sensed the presence of clients in workspace as a risk with respect to their independence and creative freedom, while the busi-