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Something that I’ve been thinking of a lot recently is the importance for in-house designers to not only know the product (or service) their company is selling, but who is purchasing those goods or services. A lot of times, in-house design is just that; creatives supporting the external operational functions of a company. Unfortunately, a lot of creatives tend to get burnt out by this type of work rather quickly- most times it’s because they don’t ever get to see how their efforts contribute to the big picture.
So here’s my solution; get out of your cubicle and get into the field. Get to know how the different departments of your company fit together, and *gasp* try to get out and meet some of your company’s customers.
A few years back, I was the jack-of-all-trades marketing/creative guy for a company that provided jet fuel and concierge services to private/business aircraft and their passengers. Our corporate offices were housed within our largest base at a fairly busy airport, and on a busy day, we had a few hundred customers in and out of our building. For as much time as I spent in the office supporting the creative/marketing needs of my company, I found it beneficial to be out in front of the customer to get a better sense of their personalities, spending habits, lifestyle, and needs.
The way our building was set up, it was very easy for me to grab a cup of coffee every morning and walk around our executive terminal to observe (and meet) our customers. How did they utilize the amenities in our terminal? How were their interactions with our customer service staff? By spending 15 minutes a day doing this, I got an instant idea on if those new point-of-sale displays I designed last week were effective. I got to see if any customers paid attention to our notices and discounts advertised the LCD ad screens in our lobbies. I took note of what magazines our customers carried with them so I had a better idea where we should advertise. I got to see how our customers truly experienced our brand, and if we really were living up to our claims that we had the best customer service.
Doing this always gave me a sense of ownership in the company, and it got me thinking about how I can improve my product, and more importantly, about how I could better position my creative/marketing services to my company to meet the needs of our customers.
Granted, not all industries will allow for the same freedoms, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask your Marketing Director if you can spend a day or two out in the field to go take a look at how customers are seeing your brand “in the wild”. Ask to accompany a salesperson on a call to get a better idea of how you can improve your collateral materials, or ask to attend a trade show where your company is exhibiting to hear the sales pitch of your business development people, see how your branding elements are being used, get a sense of what potential customers are looking for, and see what your competitors are up to.
Get out of your cubicle and get to know your customers so you can see first hand how you fit into the bigger picture, and why in-house design is so valuable to a company.
Brendon Derr of Cella Consulting describes it as “the elephant in the room that nobody knows is there until it moves in the wrong direction.”
“A healthy corporate culture”, Derr explains, “can be one of the most, if not the most, valuable assets to a Creative Executive. The quantifiable outcomes of a healthy corporate culture can be tied to increased productivity, higher employee retention, accelerated learning, and more consistent innovation. If the culture is healthy and has been that way for a long period of time, you may never even realize how much you’re benefiting from it. However, when the cultural health of a creative organization goes south, you’ll quickly begin realizing its negative impact.”
Derr also points out that the creative industry has always had a problem with defining career paths, noting that “creatives tend to reach the highest rung of the corporate ladder much more quickly” then their counterparts in Human Resources, or Accounting, for example. This is something that I’ve experienced first hand; I was hired on at a company in 2005 as a Marketing Coordinator, and in about a year was promoted to Marketing Director. A promotion in title wasn’t possible, so it remained the same (but my salary grew) through my tenure there. To take Derr’s point a step further, when one is promoted quickly and has nowhere to go, one’s learning curve plateaus. Once this happens, morale drops (almost infectiously), and culture is negatively affected.
In Derr’s post, he chats with David Olson, President of Walton Consulting, Inc., who suggests,
“The key word is not ‘advancement’ but ‘contribution.’ Most companies from every industry under the sun have this problem. Intrinsically, employees want advancement so they can feel like they are growing and contributing. In an organization that is flat in the area of advancement, you need to engage the employees in other forms of growth, measure the contributions, and encourage them and reward them when their contributions grow.”
Furthermore, Olson explains that when a creative department is feeling isolated from the rest of the company, that fixing it is a leadership discussion.
“It is the leader’s job to show how each department plays a role toward helping the organization succeed, hit its goals, win the game, reach its vision, fulfill its mission, etc. It’s also important, when relevant, to show each department how they serve one another so they feel like they’re on the same team. Bottom line, leadership in any corporate function needs to define company and departmental objectives and then become evangelists in the effort to communicate it on a regular and consistent basis.”
Both men mention that keeping an eye on the culture of a team (and the organization as a whole) is something that should be done at all times.
Via the CreativeExecs Blog.
I’m pleased to announce that I just finished The Corporate Creative: Tips and Tactics for Thriving as an In-House Designer by Andy Epstein. I had the pleasure of attending two of Andy’s seminars at the 2009 HOW Design Conference in Austin, and it’s worth reporting that Andy is responsible for my current quest for knowledge on the intricacies of running (or being a part of) an in-house corporate design department.
I’ve described a few of Andy’s points that really hit home for me:
One of the most powerful actions you can take is to consistently forge strong personal relationships with your clients and upper management. Embrace the tenets of customer service! Your clients will be the biggest advocates for you (and your department) when you provide them with great service. Want some real-life proof? Here’s an excerpt from an e-mail my in-house team got yesterday:
“Hey marketing geniuses, our meeting with [name omitted] could not have gone any better! The book you all prepared for us made the meeting go incredibly smooth… It’s one thing to have a good program and talk about it, its another to back it up with the style and class you put forth… Thank you again! [Department name omitted] would still be in the dark ages if it weren’t for Marketing.”
Practice the Three-R’s: Retreat, Reflect, and Respond. Whatever that zinger is about to slip out, either mentally or physically withdraw from the situation, think about what result you’d like to have come out of that situation, and act appropriately to achieve that result. Us designers tend to wear our hearts on our sleeves… my current boss even told me once that I have no poker face. (This further explains why I don’t really care for poker.) Be professional, be polished, and be proactive.
If a client asks for something to be completed in an unworkably short period of time, don’t use the word unreasonable, which could be interpreted as your seemingly self-serving option. Use the word “unworkable” and explain why it’s unworkable. Technical constraints? Quality concerns? Need time for the creative process to happen? Tell the client, be specific about it, and over-communicate your progress!
Remember, it’s who you are that matters. Andy suggests remembering these four points:
1. It’s not enough just to be a good designer when working in-house.
2. It’s not enough to satisfy your creative muse through the practice of design.
3. It’s not enough to coast through your job.
4. And it’s definitely not enough to skirt the big issues regarding your career and blow off taking the time to really determine what you want in your professional life…As an in-house designer, you need skills that your peers in agencies and studios don’t.
As a designer, you are one of the “experts” of your brand. Andy advocates avoiding “brand blindness” by asking yourself these three questions:
1. Who buys our product?
2. Where is the first point of contact made?
3. Is the brand message clearly communicated in our design?
Focus! Interpret what the client is saying (ie. “Make the logo bigger!”) into something that will make the design better (“The client is telling me that our branding needs to be clearer to the end user… making the logo bigger may not be the best solution, but I’ll think of other ways to achieve this goal.”).
Define the problem before you offer any solutions! Whenever your client starts to art direct (and they will), move the conversation back to the marketing goals. As I mentioned in a previous post, ask questions… ask a ton of questions!
Don’t forget about quality: in your work, in your relationships, in your environment, and in your talent… if you don’t effectively advocate for quality in your companies, you and your team are destined to become mere order takers with fixed inputs and outputs, devoid of quality thought and design, that add no real value to your company.
Don’t give up! We all have our bad days, but remember to stay positive; your mood will be reflected IN your work, and in your performance AT work.
When your job beats you down, or your clients disrespect you, when you get little support from upper management, and all your peers are constantly complaining, it’s easy to throw in the towel and become just another apathetic disaffected in-house designer. If you’re unfortunate enough to get to that point, you should either quit (your job) or start taking positive action to improve your environment. Otherwise, you’ll end up far worse professionally, creatively, and personally.
Be a creative consultant; think differently than your nondesign peers and contribute perspectives and insights on nondesign problems that will be innovative and valuable. What else can be said? Make yourself available, and make yourself known as a knowledgeable and talented resource to your clients!
Andy’s book is full of very useful, and incredibly relevant information on all aspects of building, working in, and maintaining a successful, productive, and respected in-house design department. This book is so comprehensive that I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone: a current in-house designer, a designer switching over from an agency, a student, or perhaps most importantly, the Vice President of your company (who’s probably not exactly sure what the heck it is you do).
In the meantime, go buy Andy’s book at Amazon.com, or at MyDesignShop.com. While you wait for that to arrive, visit Andy’s blog, the InHOWse Designer Blog, which offers daily posts on in-house design.
In-house designers, believe it or not, have access to things that their counterparts in outside agencies will never have; namely the time to connect with their internal clients. Though, as AIGA.org columnist Michelle Taute points out, the in-house designer might feel like his/her fellow employees don’t even speak the same language at times.
Don’t forget: EPS might be the designer’s “Encapsulated PostScript”, but it will be “Earnings Per Share” to a chief officer.
Taute advises to mirror your client’s communication style and vocabulary. For example, here’s how she suggests to effectively communicate with these groups:
C-level executives:
“Making a succinct business case can help you engage a C-level audience because you’re highlighting what they care about most: the bottom line. Before meeting with a senior leader, practice what you’re going to say and eliminate unnecessary information. Also, be ready to swiftly move to the most essential information.”
“Most marketing and communications professionals have worked with creative staff members before, but that doesn’t mean communication is always smooth. Meet with your marketing peers to make sure everyone is on the same page with a project before you start the first comp. Outline specific goals and objectives that everyone can work toward. What do you want people to do or think when they receive the brochure? What’s most important to get across? How will you measure success?”
Other staff:
“Unlike marketing professionals who may commonly work with creative teams, staff-level professionals in other departments may have little or no experience collaborating with designers. Because of that, it’s useful to spend a little time educating them on the design process, without using jargon or becoming overly technical. A member of your sales team, for example, may have no idea that making changes to a brochure at blueline could result in cost overruns, for example.”
Finally, Taute shares some basic communication techniques for any client:
“1. Always take a team approach. Adopting an “us vs. them” mentality with a client will only make the project harder.
2. If you’re discussing visual styles, use samples to get on the same page rather than descriptors. “Simple” and “elegant” don’t mean the same thing to everyone.
3. Get to know the client and work on building the relationship. Ask about the biggest tasks and challenges they face, and remember to really listen to the answers.
4. Read the trades. If you frequently work with a particular department—for example, direct marketing—read trade magazines to get a sense of the latest developments and challenges in that industry.”
I might add at this point, that I think numbers 1 and 3 are of utmost importance. Don’t forget- as a designer, you are a problem solver and you are there to provide service to your client. Establishing a relationship and showing that you have just as much vested in a project as the client does shows them that you’re committed to a solution!
Via AIGA.org.
A great article on AIGA.org from Andy Epstein, the co-founder of InSource, an association dedicated to providing support to in-house designers and design team managers. Andy is also head of an AIGA task force on corporate design, where he continues his efforts to empower in-house teams and raise their stature in the design and business communities.
I heard Andy give two talks this past summer at the HOW Design Conference in Austin, where he spoke about this very subject. At the time, I thought I was the only one facing these situations in the workplace; it was a real eye-opener for me (and a load off my mind) that other designers were facing the same challenges. As the sole member of an in-house design team, I always tried to position myself as being very accessible and available to those around my organization (providing service); but sometimes it felt as though upper managers were taking advantage of my expertise and willingness to help out (pushed into servitude).
A fine line that often gets crossed, Epstein shares that:
“For many in-house design teams, service has come to be perceived as an expletive and not as a valued behavior or mindset… The connotation, in this view, equates the meaning of service with such uses as “cleaning service” or “administrative services”—a decidedly tactical and non-strategic definition. This meaning and perception, of course, is the bane of all in-house designers who are trying to elevate themselves to a more strategic role within their companies. Rather than remain order-takers who are viewed by their clients as mere production artists incapable of functioning as strategic partners with powerful insights, most internal creatives are fighting hard to shed the epithet of “service provider.””
Chances are, if you’re a member of an in-house design team, you’re facing similar challenges. Give Andy’s article a read, and take a look at AIGA’s In-House Design Resources for that matter, too.
I picked this one up at this year’s HOW Design Conference. I’m just a few pages into it so far, and it looks useful!
Here’s where to get a copy.
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