Page 142 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

130 Design Meets Business
Upon request of Nadia, Jane - the newly hired service designer- agreed to work on making a competitor analysis. Yet, in the next meeting, Jane explained that she did not understand what is expected of her: “I never did this before. First, I need to search on Wikipedia what competitor analysis means”. Upon hearing this, all of the designers chuckled and collectively decided to hive off this task to the involved Accenture consultant. Inter- estingly, here we see that the designers collectively agreed that making a competitor analysis does not belong to their jurisdiction. In collaboration, they developed a new solution: outsourcing the task to someone else.
These observations show designers have discussions around how to organize time. While the craft designers prefer to maintain a more fluid approach towards time, the business designers are open to make a compro- mise and plan their time ahead, especially if this pleases the client. Further, it is demonstrated that organizing time is not an individual endeavor, in design projects time is something that is collectively owned. This means that a designer cannot just do as he or she pleases, and reaching a common agreement - whether through practices as compromising or collaborating- is desired.
3.4.4. Involving clients
Clients play a key role in the work of designers. All designers believed, according to the principle of co-creation, that together with clients they were responsible for the development and implementation of design solu- tions. Yet, among designers, there was ambiguity with respect to how and when to involve their clients. Especially, the craft designers approached their work as a creative process over which they have the primary responsi- bility. Hence, the latter preferred to keep client feedback and involvement at a minimum. The business designers, however, were more concerned with the business value of design solutions and involved the clients more often in projects. The following fragment of fieldnotes is illustrative with respect to such discussions:
Nadia says to the rest of the team: ‘Richard [client] asked us to send the presentation before, do we do this?’ Carrie responded: ‘no, you need to stop doing this’. Joe agreed with Carrie: ‘No, it is better not to do it. Show it when we have a checkpoint’. Nadia then said ‘ok, so I will only send the agenda. Joe then commented: ‘it is better to keep the surprise. It is like a movie, you also do not show it before you watch it’.
This example shows how craft designers, here represented by Joe and Carrie, warned the business designer Nadia not to share the interme-