Just came across this article and being a designer who was acquired by a management consultancy I absolutely agree. It's been 5 years now since the acquisition and I often have conversations with my colleagues trying to articulate what designers do. It's not as simple as "I'm a UX designer". Now I find myself trying to solve more complex questions and straying into more holistic "product/service strategy" which I find challenging and interesting but sometimes I do day dream about putting on my headphones and spending time actually designing things.
"...sometimes I do day dream about putting on my headphones and spending time actually designing things" LOL
How do you explain the value of what you do without using the word design? That's the real challenge. If you manage to articulate that, your life will get easier in my experience.
Yes, and yes. Your post looks at the level of single enterprises. Now when considering the transformative potential of this generation of designers, and the ecological and societal mess we are heading towards, we could do this reflection again.
I hope i'm not late to this conversation! I think what I am seeing is also an emergence of the 'fluid' middle. Meaning, that fixed middle ground is vulnerable to be chipped away until the agency is no longer viable. Fluid middle is often made of networks or co-ops of freelancers, entrepreneurs, niche experts that collaborate together to scale up or down in terms of projects. Because its a network its not in jeopardy during slow periods, but can also respond during peak periods too.
Never too late! This is an ongoing discussion. I totally agree with your point Antonio, I have also noticed many new forms of networks emerging. Some some seriously interesting formats, like this one: https://www.ffforward.com/ .
As a Masters student of Strategic Design for Innovation and Transformation at Politecnico di Milano, I have been trying to study the shifts in our uncertain and rapidly changing world and understand what it means for me professionally as a service/strategic designer/design leader.
Thanks, Marzia! Your piece has been an enriching read for me to make deeper sense of something I studied and discussed first in one of my classes on Design Thinking for Business. 71 design agencies have been acquired since 2004 by big tech companies (Google, Adobe, Facebook etc.) or management consulting companies (Accenture, Deloitte, PWC and so). More than 50% of which have been acquired in the last decade! I wonder if IDEO's layoffs have anything to do with resisting this trend (what are your thoughts?)
This has helped me read the world around me from a new lens as I'm figuring out what's next for me! Look forward to more discussions and sense-making through your posts and comments. Speak soon! :)
My thoughts exactly. I think the interesting thing is what comes next. I imagine some sort of new agency model. Maybe more networked. Some small shops are doing interesting things with coops and employee ownership. I’d like to part of this new wave but it still feels like the way forward is unclear.
Hello Emma! Yes, I agree, the interesting part is the “what next.” A few thoughts on what I see potentially happening:
- Orgs in some specific industries -e.g. energy, manufacturing, insurance- will have to step up the game and truly innovate if they want to keep playing. There are two options here, 1) they learn how to appreciate and unleash the power of their internal design teams, 2) they will start buying creativity outside, in this case I see the emergence of niche highly specialised design agencies dedicated to specific sectors if not specific problems. We already see this happening in healthcare for example.
- We are dealing with issues -say circularity in fast fashion- that are too complex and systemic to be cracked by one company in isolation. I see the emergence of industry specific consortia around specific challenges, where each firm puts money in a bucket for a group of experts to research and suggest solutions to then be contextualised in each company area.
- Individual provocateurs, challengers, thought leaders will keep growing as folks are looking for direction. And whatever happens, I doubt McKinsey or Accenture will give us direction. Not gonna happen.
Thanks for this Marzia. I think your right, and I highly appreciate your thoughts.
We are currently looking at, and trying to redefine our value proposition(s). What I´m seeing so far is 3 things:
1: We are becomming more niche in our sector offerings.
2: We are getting better at supporting, and driving the entire implementation of strategic initiatives all the way to value realisation. (Solving a specific problem with alignment and adoption)
3: We are redefining the role of design and how we integrate with other disciplines.
Currently experimenting, but curious to see what happens, both to us, other agencies and the design practice
Thanks for sharing your experience Morten. I think what you are seeing is very much in line with what is broadly happening in the industry. Interesting times ahead!
I agree there is a change in action. And by observing it, I think it's important to reflect upon which game we do individually want to play in the future. Old models will not fade - at least not so quickly IMO. People in orgs will be happy to keep investing money to understand benchmarks, create research nobody will use, or to run design sprints out of the blue. You buy what you know - if you still trust it. It is fascinating though, to see that the crisis of old employement models makes space for new models to rise. On top of that, increased self-awareness will act as a compass in our future decisions. What is the most suitable model for me? I do not know yet. Whatever the answer is, whatever our skills are, I think it is fundamental to find the right combination of luck and agency to work with people we can trust, learn from, get inspired by. Whatever we do, it's a teamsport and will remain such.
Just came across this article and being a designer who was acquired by a management consultancy I absolutely agree. It's been 5 years now since the acquisition and I often have conversations with my colleagues trying to articulate what designers do. It's not as simple as "I'm a UX designer". Now I find myself trying to solve more complex questions and straying into more holistic "product/service strategy" which I find challenging and interesting but sometimes I do day dream about putting on my headphones and spending time actually designing things.
"...sometimes I do day dream about putting on my headphones and spending time actually designing things" LOL
How do you explain the value of what you do without using the word design? That's the real challenge. If you manage to articulate that, your life will get easier in my experience.
Yeh totally - your post about what matters to different business functions is super useful (I shared it with my team so thank you!)
Yes, and yes. Your post looks at the level of single enterprises. Now when considering the transformative potential of this generation of designers, and the ecological and societal mess we are heading towards, we could do this reflection again.
Let's do this reflection again then!
If they stop smokeselling solutions, that will be the next phase.
Regards
I hope i'm not late to this conversation! I think what I am seeing is also an emergence of the 'fluid' middle. Meaning, that fixed middle ground is vulnerable to be chipped away until the agency is no longer viable. Fluid middle is often made of networks or co-ops of freelancers, entrepreneurs, niche experts that collaborate together to scale up or down in terms of projects. Because its a network its not in jeopardy during slow periods, but can also respond during peak periods too.
Never too late! This is an ongoing discussion. I totally agree with your point Antonio, I have also noticed many new forms of networks emerging. Some some seriously interesting formats, like this one: https://www.ffforward.com/ .
As a Masters student of Strategic Design for Innovation and Transformation at Politecnico di Milano, I have been trying to study the shifts in our uncertain and rapidly changing world and understand what it means for me professionally as a service/strategic designer/design leader.
Thanks, Marzia! Your piece has been an enriching read for me to make deeper sense of something I studied and discussed first in one of my classes on Design Thinking for Business. 71 design agencies have been acquired since 2004 by big tech companies (Google, Adobe, Facebook etc.) or management consulting companies (Accenture, Deloitte, PWC and so). More than 50% of which have been acquired in the last decade! I wonder if IDEO's layoffs have anything to do with resisting this trend (what are your thoughts?)
This has helped me read the world around me from a new lens as I'm figuring out what's next for me! Look forward to more discussions and sense-making through your posts and comments. Speak soon! :)
Thank you for sharing your thoughts Kanchan!
My thoughts exactly. I think the interesting thing is what comes next. I imagine some sort of new agency model. Maybe more networked. Some small shops are doing interesting things with coops and employee ownership. I’d like to part of this new wave but it still feels like the way forward is unclear.
Hello Emma! Yes, I agree, the interesting part is the “what next.” A few thoughts on what I see potentially happening:
- Orgs in some specific industries -e.g. energy, manufacturing, insurance- will have to step up the game and truly innovate if they want to keep playing. There are two options here, 1) they learn how to appreciate and unleash the power of their internal design teams, 2) they will start buying creativity outside, in this case I see the emergence of niche highly specialised design agencies dedicated to specific sectors if not specific problems. We already see this happening in healthcare for example.
- We are dealing with issues -say circularity in fast fashion- that are too complex and systemic to be cracked by one company in isolation. I see the emergence of industry specific consortia around specific challenges, where each firm puts money in a bucket for a group of experts to research and suggest solutions to then be contextualised in each company area.
- Individual provocateurs, challengers, thought leaders will keep growing as folks are looking for direction. And whatever happens, I doubt McKinsey or Accenture will give us direction. Not gonna happen.
Thanks for this Marzia. I think your right, and I highly appreciate your thoughts.
We are currently looking at, and trying to redefine our value proposition(s). What I´m seeing so far is 3 things:
1: We are becomming more niche in our sector offerings.
2: We are getting better at supporting, and driving the entire implementation of strategic initiatives all the way to value realisation. (Solving a specific problem with alignment and adoption)
3: We are redefining the role of design and how we integrate with other disciplines.
Currently experimenting, but curious to see what happens, both to us, other agencies and the design practice
All the best
Morten
Thanks for sharing your experience Morten. I think what you are seeing is very much in line with what is broadly happening in the industry. Interesting times ahead!
I agree there is a change in action. And by observing it, I think it's important to reflect upon which game we do individually want to play in the future. Old models will not fade - at least not so quickly IMO. People in orgs will be happy to keep investing money to understand benchmarks, create research nobody will use, or to run design sprints out of the blue. You buy what you know - if you still trust it. It is fascinating though, to see that the crisis of old employement models makes space for new models to rise. On top of that, increased self-awareness will act as a compass in our future decisions. What is the most suitable model for me? I do not know yet. Whatever the answer is, whatever our skills are, I think it is fundamental to find the right combination of luck and agency to work with people we can trust, learn from, get inspired by. Whatever we do, it's a teamsport and will remain such.