The Business of Design

Category: Mentoring

  • Who’s in Control?

    When your gut feels uncomfortable, it probably means you don’t have everything you need to be in control of a situation. Should you be in control of it?

  • Feeling Relevant is Important

    A part of the human condition is a desire to feel needed. The reality is that in most of our interactions, we won’t be needed… but we can be relevant. And our relevancy doesn’t need to me immediate, there is a similar benefit to thinking we can be relevant in the future. When I interact…

  • What Value Will You Leave Behind?

    The true test of how good an employee was is what value they created in your company, and successfully left behind for the company to use.

  • Free Energy For All

    Where do you get the energy which propels you professionally?

  • Design: What Are You Buying?

    Return on investment within design is an interesting spectrum of bare bones functions to excess.

  • The Line Cook Crux

    In your business, which staff role is the closest to the successful delivery of your product or service? Who’s your line cook?

  • Survey Says? Fact, Value or Policy.

    Fact. Value. Policy. What is the basis for making a decision? And who needs to be responsible for it?

  • The Beauty of Being a Hack

    Most of us are like kids in a scouting program. We work within a system where each badge you get prepares you a bit more for the next one, and the sash that you wear them on illustrates your incremental momentum toward being less and less of a hack. There are those around us who…

  • Benevolent Manipulation (aka Helping Someone Out)

    Our work lives require us to be professional. Being professional requires that we train ourselves with a filter that kicks in instantly to cancel out our base instincts. There may be times where that filter malfunctions.

  • Tools… Not Tales.

    A reminder that vision and philosophy are great, but we also need to provide each other with the tools to be able to achieve our vision. It’s not enough to just drink the kool-aid and spout inspirational quotes at one another.