It's About Damn Time

Catalysing the power of the underestimated

"Colour Sprinkles" by Rutger de Vries. The toilet door at the Nieuwe Instituut. You can't underestimate this toilet.

Happy day, marvellous humans of planet Earth. This is Marzia, bringing you your weekly dose of strategic design thoughts.

I recently finished reading Arlan Hamilton's first book, “It's About Damn Time,” which describes her journey from being homeless to founding and successfully running a multimillion venture capital fund aimed at supporting underrepresented founders. Backstage Capital supports women, people of colour, and LGBTQ+ founders by giving them access to capital to fuel their businesses. I loved the book; it is authentic, inspirational, aspirational, and very relatable.

In the book, Arlan tells about one of her key realisations in her journey, the general assumption that underrepresented founders are also underqualified, inexperienced, and unskilled. This brought her to realise that these people are not only underrepresented, but they are also, and more importantly, underestimated. She made it her life mission to prove this assumption wrong and to provide the means for underestimated founders to excel.

“I came to realize that women founders, LGBTQ founders, and founders of color aren’t just underrepresented, they are underestimated … That’s true not only in the start-up world; these groups have been systematically underestimated in one way or another in just about every field.” Arlan Hamilton

The book made me think about all the ways I have been underestimated in my life and career. Being a woman has certainly been a reason people have used to underestimate me. Coming from the South of Europe. Identifying as LGBTQ. Gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation are some of the elements that contribute to people being underestimated in business. While reflecting on this topic, I started to realise that in my experience, being a designer is another source of underestimation. Or better yet, being a designer in organisations where the dominant operating logic is rooted in traditional business paradigms.

The general assumption is that designers have "no place" to talk about "business matters" and should be relegated to the aesthetics or function of a product. However, the reality is that over the years, designers have transformed their object of design following the demands of rapid and deep economic shifts. As we transitioned from an industrial to an experience economy, the designer's object of design has shifted from physical products to digital products, services, experiences, business models, organisational models, and leadership. Designers actively seek change and apply their mindset and methodology to improve and innovate anything in need of change. They do so by surrounding themselves with knowledge experts and key stakeholders, as design is a collaborative practice.

Not everyone in business has received the memo. Therefore, the involvement of designers in change efforts is often being challenged, if not rejected altogether. Sara Wachter-Boettcher has recently written a piece titled “Hey designers, they’re gaslighting you” on the ways business undermines and underestimates designers' work and contribution. Her argument, which I very much support, is that most organisations out there rely on business structures that prioritise shareholders and investors' value over everything else. This short-term view of business collides with the long-term value creation tendency of designers.

“The reality is that many of us are working for companies where the business model is fundamentally misaligned to a good user experience, because shareholders and investors are the only audience that actually matters. And shareholders and investors are focused on making a return on their investment right now, at the expense of pretty much everything else: the health of the planet, the lives of workers, users’ wellbeing, you name it. All of that becomes a distant second in a world where shareholder primacy is the standard.” Sara Wachter-Boettcher

I recently had a great conversation with Joana Casaca Lemos, who is a fellow designer specialised in the development of regenerative solutions. She primarily works in the field of design for sustainability. In our conversation, she mentioned how she feels design as a practice is at a fundamental tipping point. She argued how ecological regeneration—as with many of the complex challenges we face at this time and age—requires new design knowledge, which is embedded in the people at the forefront of the ecological transformation. This knowledge resides in the underestimated, the people Joana calls "the unusual experts." Farmers, fishermen, community catalysts, people experimenting at the forefront of new forms of regeneration.

I loved the concept of unusual experts. As the design discourse is pivoting from human-centricity to life-centricity (including people, the planet, and all living beings), the concept of unusual experts as a repository of design knowledge seems to me a fundamental one. In a world that values titles and positions above all, there is something radical in putting informal knowledge at the centre stage as a source of the next wave of change. The question is, therefore, no longer how to involve these people as stakeholders but how to empower these people as changemakers.

Two questions I'd like you to reflect on from your current position:

Are you being underestimated as a designer in your organisation? What is the dominant business logic that undermines your very presence and contribution? It could be that you will realise it is the traditional market logic of revenue and cost, and you are seen as an unnecessary cost. Or it could be that the dominant logic is one of digital and speed, and you are seen as overcomplicating by adding humans (and/or planet) to the equation and taking too much time. Whatever the narrative, how can you reframe to hold your ground? You deserve to be in that room; you are needed in that room. Those traditional narratives are the ones that have brought us as a species to the verge of destruction and mass extinction. Your narrative is needed. Even if people around you do not yet see it. Do not let anyone make you believe otherwise.

“When you come in with the scissors, people are going to tell you, “You’re crazy,” “You’re too much,” “This isn’t the way things are done.” Well, that’s the point. We’re not going to settle for the way things have been done in the past, because we want a future that is brighter than the present.” Arlan Hamilton

Who's your source of design knowledge? I want you to start thinking about the actors and factors you include in your design work. I want you to think broader than just the user, the customer, and your immediate organisational stakeholders. Who are the people on the fringes that informally hold knowledge relevant to your domain? Talk to that person, explore that thing, include that perspective in your work and see what changes.

I'd love to hear your reflections in the comments of this blog. Follow me on LinkedIn and subscribe to this blog to receive next week's story.