People have a better idea of how films get made than how [digital] design gets done I was listening to Peter Merholz talk to Andy Polaine (thanks Mathew) who, 35 minutes in, talk about the institutionalisation of Design and it got me thinking: do we need a Digital Design Council? I did a stint at… Continue reading The case for a Digital Design Council
Category: Innovation & business
What to expect (when you’re graduating)
So you’re graduating from a design course this summer? Well done you. Also, welcome to the madness. It’s been a quietly devastating recession and most of my very talented and employable friends are struggling to find work. All the non profits I work with have have suffered from months of funding rejections and unresponsive funders.… Continue reading What to expect (when you’re graduating)
What is a design consultant?
I’m Design Director in a digital transformation consultancy after having worked as a consultant for 10+ years and in-house since 2018. Being a designer in a consulting environment is pretty unique so I thought I’d try to describe it for others who are interested in moving into that industry. Sometimes, the user is your client.… Continue reading What is a design consultant?
On middle management in design
Middle management is the intermediate management level of a hierarchical organization that is subordinate to the executive management and responsible for “team leading” line managers and/or “specialist” line managers. Middle management is indirectly (through line management) responsible for junior staff performance and productivity. – Wikipedia After a few years reporting to the founders/CEO of organisations, I find myself in middle management for the… Continue reading On middle management in design
Organising Design (or why you need to care about spreadsheets)
About 10 years ago, I became an assessor for funding agencies. I have since worked for AHRC, Innovate UK, EIT and EU programmes to help them assess funding applications. As a result I spent a lot of time looking at other people’s (sometimes terrible) spreadsheets and it’s become a bit of an obsession. I’ve often… Continue reading Organising Design (or why you need to care about spreadsheets)
The Long Tail of Design Work
I started a new role 9 weeks ago at TPXimpact, a digital transformation consultancy born out of the merger of a mix of agencies that included FutureGov. My boss is Ben the Chief Designer and I’m Design Director. We work with 108 designers with a wide array of experiences and backgrounds across four practice areas:… Continue reading The Long Tail of Design Work
72 questions on digital human values
In 2020, the Human Values team at BBC R&D North Lab and I won some funding from NESTA to turn their Human Values work into practical tools for policy-making. Building on my experience shepherding the London Internet of Things community into developing the Better IoT assessment tool, I helped them develop a questionnaire for people… Continue reading 72 questions on digital human values
A beginner’s guide to exporting post-Brexit
I’m coming to the end of my contract working with Media Powerhouse as a project coordinator. This wasn’t my usual gig but I met their technical project manager Callum while working on my last client project. What I thought would be a project management role turned into a project coordination and administration role with a… Continue reading A beginner’s guide to exporting post-Brexit
Repairable by design?
I’ve been a trustee of The Restart Project, a right to repair charity, for almost a year. They are focused on raising political awareness of the need for right to repair legislation in the UK and Europe and have been doing a fantastic job over the past 6 years. It’s an honour to meet with… Continue reading Repairable by design?
Creating a Culture of Innovation (an introduction)
Just like I did with my first book here’s an intro to my new book which is out now! The initial premise of the book was to highlight the various ways in which organisations sabotage their own research & innovation efforts. With time (I submitted my table of contents to Apress in July 2019), it… Continue reading Creating a Culture of Innovation (an introduction)