A Rough Design Maturity Model
Something that causes all kinds of misunderstanding in the design community and business press is when people talk about “Design” but mean different things. I don’t tell my neighbors that I’m a designer, because then they think I wear black turtlenecks (sometimes true) and make things look pretty (usually false). Even places like the AIGA suffer from people meaning many things by design. And as frustrating as that is, I don’t think there’s going to be a universal definition of design any time soon.
However, following my personal preference for a “describe, don’t define” approach, I think that we can describe different kinds of design practice. Interestingly, those practices vary across a continuum of maturity (23 kb PDF), from no conscious design effort to design that redefines and reframes the way a corporation sees the world. I touched on this in an article I just submitted with a colleague for the next issue of Ambidextrous. We made the point that organizations are at different levels of design maturity. Something I didn’t get the chance to discuss was the fact that designers are at different levels of design maturity too. We can talk all we want about having a seat in the boardroom, but we won’t have that strategic impact if designers continue to focus on the cosmetic level of style, instead of leveraging design skills to redefine and solve organizational challenges.
Of course, maturity varies even within individuals and organizations. But I’d be interested in your thoughts on the rough design maturity model I put together (23kb PDF). Are there further levels of maturity that extend beyond framing? Other levels in between that merit their own section? Comments welcome (and yes, these are not original ideas - just useful, though I’ve never seen them packaged like this before).
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