interactiondesigning:

Four Meta-Strategies for Design & Management by Kipum Lee

Ref: “The Future of the Liberal Arts” by Richard McKeon

How do you design management? a manager is designing processes, procedures, programs, in a company.

User Experience/Design  ↔ Management 

1. VALUES ← interpretation → FACTS
2. INNOVATION ← invention → TRADITION
3. PARTICULARS ← connection → UNIVERSALS
4. WHOLES ← systematization → PARTS

1. Designers can select data to show a particular view, use emotional data, to prove a point. This is as important as hard ‘facts’. Managers design environments that allow people to work in a way such that things can have multiple interpretations and a multi-disciplinary team/view.
2. Designers rethink ux design, journey framework/use-cases. Managers can inform from experience of what has worked in the past – but can’t be so new that people lose all sense of the past.
3. Designers should do more problem-framing than problem-solving. Look for patterns and pick a problem worth solving/resolving by beginning with universal problems. Managers respect the method of going from particulars to universals and getting your hands dirty in the nitty gritty details.
4. Designers should think how the product connects to the brand pillars of a company. Managers should move down from the principals/branding of a company to the details.

It’s so important to be able to think at a macro and micro level in any project.I think often times, once we have a set job title, its easy to just do only what is expected of us. For example, a how often would the back-end developer go make . Once we’ve got the magnifying glasses on, it takes too much effort to switch to binoculars. To be a successful designer or manager, you have to be ready to switch back and forth from thinking at the conceptual level and down to concrete ground level. You know, be like this legoman with a hand on each. 

I’ve been put in unique positions where I had to be thinking at the managerial level by thinking of the branding, art direction, work flow, and creating/improving work processes in a organization. I’m always changing the my hat constantly, so sometimes I like to joke that my real job title is actually “Professional Hats Wearer” because I don’t have just 1 responsibility but many. My nature and personality is very adaptive so perhaps it came naturally for me, but its important to note that being able to change hats is not enough. Performing the responsibilities, skills, and mindset for each hat at appropriate times is the real purpose. I’m not sure if this ability is something that can be learned but rather its something you pick up as you get thrown into hairy situation where your survival instincts will hopefully kick in.