Balance

There has been much of chatter lately about whether design thinking or business thinking is better. I think it's time for some cognitive balance, no?

LukeW does a nice job of showing how the various aspects of each mindset fall out and stays away from saying that either is better (even if his leanings are somewhat implied).

We carp on the dichotomy between these in order to effect some major shifts in the way that businesses value the way we think as designers. Our endgame, I believe, is to find the place where the clarity of the bottom line meets the vision of design.

I work for a firm where the business folks run the shop. Luckily, my leaders are brilliant business thinkers, so we do very well bottom-line wise. Still, I believe we could multiply those numbers by applying some serious design acumen. That is what I work to affect every day.

Do I get carried away by the business tasks put in front of me? Sure, and that's a source of frustration. However, I constantly seed my coworkers with a different perspective and show them how we can use both sides of our "brain" to find the most effective product offering for both us and our customers.

So far, so good.

Thanks for pointing out the post, Victor.