Business X Design Martin Dowson

Season 1 Final Episode - Martin & Brian Hoadley review the season.

I've invited Brian Hoadley to return, having opened the season, and reflect back with me on 9 interviews with 9 very different Leaders of Design.  All of our guests have led design in an in-house, large-scale complex environment and have brought with them some insightful perspectives on the role of Design and Design Leadership in its intersections with Business Leadership.

In this review episode, Brian and I unpack what we've learnt across the whole Season and start to reflect on where we need to go next in elevating the impact of Design within Business.

This will be a great episode for anyone looking to reflect on their learnings from the season as we touch on just about everything, and it may also be a useful guide for anyone new to the seasons (although I'd still encourage you to listen to the series and then the summary so you can reflect along with us).

I'd like to thank all my guests for Season 1 of Business X Design

Brian Hoadley - Interim Design Exec
Dr Anne Stenros - ex CDO City of Helsinki
Andrew Barraclough - Design Director - GSK
Clive Grinyer - Head of Service Design - Royal College of Art
Jose Dos Santos - Head of Design - Signify and PhD - 10 Barriers to Designers at the c-suite
Pernilla Johansson - CDO Electrolux
Peter Merholz - Founder Adaptive Path, Author - Org Design for Design Orgs
Jane Austin - CXO - Digital and previously CDO in Healthcare
Nathan Weyer - COO Design at Philips

SHOW RESOURCES:
subscribe to the Business x Design Newsletter here

and connect with your show host Martin Dowson on LinkedIn - we really welcome feedback from our listeners so do get in touch!

OVERVIEW
In today's episode, I'm going to be in conversation with Nathan Weyer COO of Design at Phillips.

For me Phillips is one of two aspirational models for Design in complex legacy organizations (The other being IBM). Organisations that have transformed themselves to be relevant and growing into the future with Design as a core superpower.

In this episode, you'll gain an insight into Phillips Design Team,  their scale, their approach and attitude and you'll hear Nathan reflect on the balance between human and business outcomes that has been central to the company and the Design Team's success.  For me it's the evidence that with humble, but bold leadership and a purpose that aligns across disciplines within a company - Design can be the heart of the delivery of meaningful and profitable outcomes.

I hope you enjoy the episode

SHOW LINKS & RESOURCES:

You can find out more about the Philps Design Team at this public website
and you can connect with Nethen Weyer on LinkedIn

subscribe to the Business x Design Newsletter here

and connect with your show host Martin Dowson on LinkedIn - we really welcome feedback from our listeners so do get in touch!

OVERVIEW:
In this episode, I am joined by Peter Merholz, Design Executive and Organisational Consultant, Author and Founder of Adaptive Path.
His book, co-authored with Kristin Skinner, Organisational Design for Design Orgs is a go-to book for so many Designers, Design and non-design Leaders.  
 
In our conversation, we cover specifically the difference between Tech-First and Legacy Organisations in how they see Design within their organisational structure, what difference this makes to the way they invest in and support Design, what this means for newly minted design executives.  We touch on themes that I covered with both Jose Dos Santos and Clive Grinyer in earlier episodes about the blockers that Design-Leaders face on the way to the c-suite.
This is a conversation about the mindset, skills, attention and orientation of executive leadership and what Design needs to ‘get over’ (sometimes itself and sometimes others) in order to achieve that.
 SHOW LINKS & RESOURCES:

I referenced an article that Peter published recently on the focus and role of a Design Executive which is really useful to remind Senior Design Executives what is expected of the executive role.

Other ways to connect and follow Peter's thinking:
Peter Merholz on LinkedInPeters Personal Website contains his writing and musings on humanising DesignOrg Design for Design Orgs the website contains updated reflections on the topic of Design Orgs and Design Leadership and is worth following

Peter has his own podcast - co-hosted with Jesse James Garrett - call Finding Our Way that is absolutely worth adding to your regular downloads - I'm a subscriber and find it invaluable.

subscribe to the Business x Design Newsletter here

and connect with your show host Martin Dowson on LinkedIn - we really welcome feedback from our listeners so do get in touch!

In this episode, I am joined in conversation by Jane Austin who is the Chief Experience Officer for Digitas UK, prior to which she held a number of Design Exec roles for in-house teams. 

Jane recently delivered a talk on the Language of Business at UXLive where she shared measurement frameworks such as Pirate Metrics with the Audience.  She speaks with experience about the need for Design Executives to operate with clear understanding of how the business makes money, to have situational awareness alongside self-awareness so that they can be clear-sighted about how Design will add value to THIS organisation.  The need to understand the cultural change that elevating Design represents and whether or not the organisation is actually ready for that change.

Jane draws on her experience at GDS and we discuss the role of the Design Exec in supporting cultural change within an organisation.

you can follow Jane on LinkedIn or on Twitter at @msjaneaustin
and you can find out more about Digitas UK  here
and Digitas UK new leadership team here

subscribe to the Business x Design Newsletter here
and connect with your show host Martin Dowson  on LinkedIn - we really welcome feedback from our listeners so do get in touch!

In this episode, I am joined in conversation by Pernilla Johansson, who when we were recording this, was stepping down as the Chief Design Officer of Electrolux. 

Pernilla shares her own journey through Design from Philips to Electrolux, from going deep into the belly of industrial design processes, working across global teams through to setting up brand new teams in territories. 

We reflect on the crucial moment of being asked to take the reigns as Chief Design Officer at Electrolux, how the role of Design Leadership evolves at the moment and how Pernilla chose to approach the challenge of elevating the impact that Design can have in a corporation.

Corporate Purpose, organisational structure, business models, cross-silo collaboration and bottom-up change all play a part in her story which she shares with us in this episode.  Finally, we discuss the crucial role of the CDO in a diverse executive team made up of specialists and generalists.

you can follow Pernilla on LinkedIn
and you can find out more about Electrolux Design here

subscribe to the Business x Design Newsletter here
and connect with your show host Martin Dowson  on LinkedIn - we really welcome feedback from our listeners so do get in touch!

In this episode, I talk with José Dos Santos, Head of Design at Signify, about his Ph.D. research into the lack of Designers in the C-Suite of large-scale complex organisations. 

This is a fascinating piece of work articulation 10 key factors behind why there are not more Designers at the C-suite level.  Some of the factors are intrinsic to what José calls the 'Ethos' of Designers and some are external to the organisations - the nature and quality of the advice the c-suite takes about elevating design.

We cover most of the 10 factors through the episode deep diving on some of the factors more within our control as individuals, reflecting on intentional choices available to Designers and to those already at the c-suite level about how we can create better conditions for design's presence at an executive level.   It is a conversation that some of you will find, at times, challenging but I hope always insightful and useful.

José Dos Santos on LinkedIn
José's PhD is wonderfully presented for easy consumption on his website zemanel.com

subscribe to the Business x Design Newsletter here
and connect with your show host Martin Dowson  on LinkedIn - we really welcome feedback from our listeners so do get in touch!