Skills

While the eleven companies we spoke to employed designers with expertise in different design disciplines – such as graphic design, product and industrial design, visual communication and human interface expertise – in these organisations there is a common requirement for, and emphasis on, a wider skill set. 

There was a clear and strategic requirement from the heads of design in these companies to recruit and train designers who demonstrate multi-disciplinary working, business acumen and strategic thinking. 

The types of skills highlighted by these companies can be delineated using the following characteristics:

• Business acumen: An understanding of the business and the ability to put design solutions through the test of business objectives and priorities is key for most businesses. 
• Design management skills: Given that many businesses now have outsourced manufacturing and commodity activities, the design process can equally be a design management process. And where design is outsourced, this can be about managing design implementation remotely. 
• Multi-disciplinary skills: Whether it’s an understanding of software programming, materials development, higher levels of technology or user research methodology, designers are expected to actively and effectively engage with other disciplines. The purpose is for them to understand the touch-points that design has with and its effects on other parts of the business, and to learn how to work with these in practice. This involves learning different 'languages' and using appropriate communication tools to achieve cross functional and cross departmental project management.
• A ‘go-getter’ attitude: Designers need to be inquisitive, daring and take initiatives to move ‘beyond the drawing board’ and act strategically. They need to seek opportunities to engage with the wider business and use their design expertise to spot areas for innovation and improvement.
• User focus: Again, given the emphasis on the user in these companies, it was seen as important that designers could understand and interpret user needs.
• Evangelising: Companies expect their designers to act as advocates for design within the business, and to be able to promote its role, benefits and importance to other functions and departments. 

This follows on from a general trend in many sectors where employees with a cross-function appeal and style of management are sought-after. 

Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, has pointed to the necessity for 'T-shaped employees.' He describes them as: 'people who are so inquisitive about the world that they're willing to try to do what you do. We call them 'T-shaped people.' They have a principal skill that describes the vertical leg of the T - they're mechanical engineers or industrial designers. But they are so empathetic that they can branch out into other skills, such as anthropology, and do them as well. They are able to explore insights from many different perspectives and recognize patterns of behaviour that point to a universal human need. That's what you're after at this point – patterns that yield ideas.'