Page 143 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

3. (Re)Negotiating Service Design 131
diate design outcomes with clients. A similar discussion emerged between designers during the project we followed, when the design lead invited the clients to join the designers for user interviews. She said: “how else do you make him feel part of the team when he is not really part of the team, but he is the owner of the project?” In an interview she explained:
“I come from a place where we do that, we take our clients and want our clients to be part of the interviews, then the team said, that we have never done that. So, I pushed for it, because I think it is important but I don’t know if they [other designers at Fjord] usually do it, I think it was impor- tant for us, first of all, for them to understand the process, second, for them to understand how Carrie and Jane worked, and third for bonding purpos- es, they went together and spent small time together”.
Craft designers, however, often interpreted clients’ requests for involve- ment as signals of mistrust. As the business designer was in the lead of the project, the craft designers had to accommodate the request of the busi- ness designers that saw possibilities for more client involvement. As the craft designers did not see another way out, they rebelled by engaging in all sorts of backstage behavior such making sarcastic comments like: “guys, are we ready for the preview of the review of the initial finding?” or “why does he [the client] wants to see what we do? He thinks we are just the crazy guys, walking around with Post-Its”
Discussions about the involvement of clients in projects were often anchored in the larger discussion of ‘who is the key audience’ of designers. For craft designers it was rather clear: they felt that their loyalties were primarily with the end-users, and hence they were propo- nents of “saying no” to the client - especially whenever the client’s desire stroke with what the designers believe is best for the end-users. A visual designer said in an interview: “because we are, we really believe in our idea and we are not for following the client, we are proponents of ‘saying no’ to the client”. Some designers even claimed that the possibility to ‘reject’ clients’ feedback is what sets them apart from other occupation - and especially from “normal consultants”. For the business designers, however, it was important to create a supportive environment with respect to the clients and make sure that their expectations are met. A business designer explained: “if we work on empathy for the customer, it means nothing if we don’t have empathy with the client first. It is the first thing.” Let us further illustrate this by turning to a moment in the project we followed. At the end of the first phase of the design project, the clients asked the designers to give strategic advice. This triggered a