Design Leadership - by Richard Banfield

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"Design Leadership" by Richard Banfield explores the role of design in organizations and provides insights on how to effectively lead and manage design teams. The 2016 book is targeted towards design professionals, managers, and leaders who want to understand the strategic value of design and how to leverage it within their organizations.

Richard Banfield is a renowned author, speaker, and expert in the field of design and design leadership. He has a diverse background with extensive experience in leading design teams and fostering design-driven cultures within organizations. He is the CEO and co-founder of Fresh Tilled Soil, a Boston-based design firm that specializes in designing digital products and services. Under his leadership, Fresh Tilled Soil has collaborated with numerous clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies.



Summary & Key Learnings

Chapter 1 - Culture
Chapter 2 - Talent
Chapter 3 - Office Space and Remote Working
Chapter 4 - Personal Growth and Finding Balance
Chapter 5 - Planning for the Future
Chapter 6 - Leadership Styles
Chapter 7 - Sales and Marketing
Chapter 8 - Learning from Our Biggest Mistakes

Banfield emphasises the importance of design thinking and its impact on business outcomes. He delves into various aspects of design leadership, including building and scaling design teams, fostering a design culture, and aligning design with the overall business strategy. The book also covers topics such as hiring and retaining talented designers, facilitating collaboration, and advocating for design within the organization.

By drawing on his own experiences and those of other design leaders, Banfield offers practical advice, case studies, and actionable strategies for individuals looking to enhance their design leadership skills. The book provides insights into the challenges faced by design leaders and offers guidance on how to overcome them, ultimately helping organizations harness the power of design to drive innovation and achieve business success.


Chapter 1 - Culture

Banfield starts by emphasising the transformative power of design and how it goes beyond aesthetics. He explores the role of design in driving innovation, problem-solving, and creating exceptional user experiences. Banfield highlights the importance of design leadership in fostering a design-driven organization where design is recognised as a strategic asset.

Whether you believe culture can be created or merely guided, the consensus is unanimous - culture is critically important to company success. The people you hire have the biggest impact on your culture. Knowing this and taking the time to invest in the right hires results in a better business. Design leaders often point to the fact that although their jobs revolve around the design and development, their work is to bring the best team together. America's Test Kitchen's John Torres says it best. "Ultimately, as design leaders, we're building teams and companies, not product and things."

Key takeaways:
  • Culture is definitely a high priority for successfully running design businesses.
  • To create culture, leaders need to construct the container and fill it with the right people. The container is made of the vision and values of the organisation.
  • Healthy culture can be thought of as learning cultures, which have a growth mentality and a desire to challenge themselves.
  • You can't create culture with ping-pong tables and beanbags.
  • The people in your organisation have the biggest influence on the culture.
  • Even though can't control every aspect of the culture, don't ignore it.
  • Healthy culture appears to increase staff retention and loyalty.
  • Team structures influence company culture. Select and combine teammates carefully.
  • Teams with mature attitudes toward personal growth are more likely to create a healthy culture.
  • Growing successful teams and people is the ultimate goal of the design leader.


Chapter 2 - Talent

Banfield goes to mention that almost none of the companies that him and his team interviewed used external recruiters to find new talent. He found this surprising considering the high volume of calls and emails they receive from recruiters at his own firm. However, the majority of the companies they spoke to either have a strong reputation in the community - which, by default, will attract talent - or run internal programs to develop junior talent, and in these ways are consciously nurturing the talent pipeline. Banfield's firm have also never relied on recruiters, which shows it's possible to grow your team without the help of external recruiters. The caveat to this is that a few of the larger companies that were interviewed used an internal recruiter or human resources person to fill that void. Jennifer Dary leaves us with some key questions to keep in mind about retaining talent. "Companies spend a lot of money hiring people. From the job postings, to the hours spent interviewing, to the referral fees, it really adds up. Hiring, frankly, is a boring and expensive problem to solve. What is more interesting is retention and the strategies put together in this area. Why are you losing bring people? How would your culture need to evolve to keep them? How are you tackling career paths (or not)? These are vital questions that need to be answered in any retention strategy." This chapter provides insights into these questions. 

Key takeaways:
  • A talent pipeline is just like a sales pipeline - invest in it constantly.
  • Hire people who are smarter than you.
  • When possible. hire people with great soft skills and train the hard skills.
  • Diversity adds to the creativity and wisdom of the team.
  • Coachable people are often better than knowledgeable people.
  • Hiring young or inexperienced people isn't always a cost saving.
  • Hire when capacity is consistently at its maximum, but not before.
  • Consider freelancers to buffer for the ups and downs of your business cycles.
  • Apprenticeships are invaluable and an alternative to expensive recruiting models.
  • Apprentice programs can be great talent pipelines and profit centers.


Chapter 3 - Office Space and Remote Working

If one thing's clear, it's that there's no single answer to how an office should be set up. The design leaders have their personal preferences, but they all agree that having a physical space to collaborate in can be a huge benefit. Even permanently remote teams meet a few times a year to discuss strategies and process. These annual or semiannual gatherings are a reminder that design teams need social interaction. In spite of the new telecommuting economy, humans still value each other. Whether the team is all in a single office or spread across the world, the key element is having the team connected in a way that improves collaboration. Even companies with proven models have to consider other organisational models.

Key takeaways:
  • There are no black-and-white solutions to physical space - they are more like shades of grey.
  • Successful office layouts tend to have healthy combinations of both open and closed, as well as casual and formal spaces.
  • The company's personality and brand should be allowed to shine through in the choice of location, space layout, and decor.
  • When moving to a new location, consider how that will affect culture, and try to preserve the elements that work.
  • Something as simple as providing extra seats for staff to engage in informal conversation around desks can increase communication between team members.
  • Don't be afraid to move people around the office from time to time. This allows new connections between team members to be created.
  • Remote teams need frequent and routine communication to stay bonded and aligned.
  • Hiring people that are already good self-managers makes remote working easier.


Chapter 4 - Personal Growth and Finding Balance

Sarah Testa pointed out, leadership is a work in progress. For leaders, their personal growth is not separate from the team's growth. Their advances reflect on the organisation that they build and nurture. The organisation they create in turn influences the growth of the people that work there. It's all connected. Aim to build an organisation that respects that dynamic in people's lives and allows them to create the professional sphere of that harmony in a way that respects other things that are happening in their lives. For these type of design leaders, there is a virtuous circle that connects their attitudes toward growth. The more they seek challenges that help them grow and learn, the more their teams do too.

Key takeaways:
  • If you are the leader, they your primary customer is your team.
  • Having personal and professional purpose gives your growth strategies focu and clarity.
  • Leaders invest in people and processes to keep distractions at bay.
  • Surround yourself with advisors and mentors that provide insight into areas of growth.
  • Most leaders need to constantly be developing their soft skills, like negotiation, presentation, and conflict resolution.
  • Protect your personal and family time by communicating to your team when you're unavailable. Use your calendar to book this time before it's too late.
  • Use design strategies to design an ideal life. Mapping out your days, weeks, months, and years gives you amazing amounts of control over your time.
  • Exercise is the primary method for reducing stress and building reserves for a busy schedule. Walking, running, cycling, and yoga top the lie fo activities.
  • Carving out time specifically to spend time with friends and family is considered by design leaders to be a critical part of harmonious life.
  • Work partnerships can be the source of harmony or stress. Find partners that complement your strengths and weaknesses so there's balance among you.
  • Life comes in waves. Use the ebbs to recharge for the times when things will be busy.
  • You are the average of the 5 people you spend most time with.


Chapter 5 - Planning for the Future

Planning isn't a solitary exercise. Design leaders can't be expected to take on the challenges of the future without help. The best plans happen when the design leaders get input from their team, their advisors, and their partners. Our interviews confirms that the most successful design leaders rely on outside input. 

Key takeaways:
  • Great plans first require a clear vision, guiding principles, values, and action steps.
  • Creating plans allows you to focus the business activities and avoid distractions.
  • Planning is a team sport. Get help from partners, advisors, mentors, and team members.
  • The future is ambiguous so plans never survive intact. Make plants that are flexible enough to adjust to an ever-changing future.
  • Planning for the future is often about finding a way to keep a culture that works.
  • Big goals are worth getting up for but can only achieved when you have clear plans.
  • Companies and teams don't grow linearly. Plan for spurts of fast growth with slow periods in between.
  • Long-term planning is not fashionable, but it's still the best approach to return value to the company and the team.
  • Geoff Wilson mentions, "One thing that I really want to get into as an agency, is to be able to develop our own products and start to have product revenue... to complement our service revenue. I think that's really important for our long-term survival. I think that to have a diversified stream of income, so it's not 100% client-services-focused, is whether I want to see us get to." 
  • Relying too much on one market sector or trend is dangerous.
  • Change is going to be constant.
  • "It's more about making connections. I have to expose myself to ideas and technologies."
  • The future is ambiguous so plans never survive in tact. Make plans that are flexible enough to adjust to an ever-changing future.


Chapter 6 - Leadership Styles

Leadership styles might be complex and varied, but underneath it all they all strive for the same outcome: getting the best out of the people they lead. Guiding people to being their best selves is the role of the design leader. How they get there is almost always a deeply personal journey. Your leadership style will be a complex collection of personal characteristics and experiences. There isn't going to be an ideal leadership style because each business is different.

Key takeaways:
  • Create an environment where failures can lead to personal and professional growth.
  • Being a teacher-style leader to your team can be a good way to become a student.
  • Lead by example. Get your hands dirty, but don't forget to also delegate.
  • Nobody wants a micromanager. Find ways to return authority and create trust.
  • One-on-one meetings are something you shouldn't delegate. The feedback is too valuable. 
  • Regardless of your style, ultimately it needs to motivate and empower your team.
  • Being a good communicator also means encouraging good communication.
  • Leadership means being considered as a part of the team and still being able to maintain your status as the leader.
  • Having a healthy mindset for growth means embracing failures and seeing challenges as a part of the path to something better. Learning mindset is being super adaptable. Create structures in which people can learn and figure things out. Craft an environment that supports learning when the teacher can't be around. Try to set an example in the work that you do that makes people look at you and say 'Yeah, I want to be like that."
  • When design leaders are open and transparent about themselves, their team member will often do the same.
  • The long-term style of leadership is oriented around thinking about things in the long-term. Steven Fitzgerald mentions, "We didn't want to create a lifestyle organisation. Unlike product companies that have a clear path to an exit, service companies tend to be in it for the long-term."
  • Warren Wilansky says, "Lead by example... I want my team to know that I am willing to do anything that they are doing. I am not above anything. I'm not above any task" (i.e. flat organisation). 


Chapter 7 - Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing can be a complicated dance. In a digital world, the lines between these departments are becoming increasingly blurred. To make things more challenging, delivering on business development objectives requires finely tuned hard skills and boatloads of soft skills. The good news seems to be that these skills can be taught and improved on by almost any design leader. The critical skills are things you can't learn in a book. They are the enthusiasm and empathy that many successful great design leaders bring to the table. Even leaders with no formal sales training can bring home opportunities using just their excitement and desire to solve clients' problems. "I think the owner will always be the best salesperson because they not only have the passion, but they have the ability to make decisions." says Ben Jordan. "If you have someone who is passionate about the business and passionate about it moving forward and passionate about solving potential clients' problems, they're going to be good at sales." There's a strong link between passion for the business and sales performance. "A lot of salespeople say it, but I think it's important for people to know that they shouldn't sell things they don't believe in." 

Key takeaways:
  • Sales and marketing can't be seen as separate activities. They are linked at every step.
  • Successful design leaders think of themselves as their team's primary marketing and sales representative.
  • Transparency about process, skills, challenges, and insights is now considered the norm. No more black-box methodologies and processes.
  • Developing sales skills is possible for almost anyone as long as you have the enthusiasm and passion for your business.
  • Sales, done correctly, is nothing more than a series of conversations about a mutually beneficial relationship and set of outcomes.
  • Relying on referrals and word of mouth isn't enough. A structured lead generation process is what drives a healthy pipeline.
  • Developing a sales lens that speaks to your firm's focus and strengths ensures that sales efforts are dedicated to the right opportunities, and avoids dead-end negotiations. 
  • Sales is never done. Even when things are good, it's necessary to push work into the pipeline.
  • Having said that, be prepared for ebbs and flows. Realise that in spite of consistent efforts, your results will vary month to month and season to season. 
  • Leadership means being considered as a part of the team and still being able to maintain your status as the leader.
  • For most leaders, public writing and speaking comes with the role. Sitting in the shadows isn't an option for the leaders or the people who work for them.
  • Traditional sales pitches, "mad-men-esque" pitches don't work anymore.
  • Alignment between purpose and business outcomes is something that's noticeable in all the successful design firms. When companies are aligning with their core values, they have stronger sales pipelines, lower staff turnover, higher revenues, and wider margins. What was common to successful leaders was they all had a very clear vision. What's more, they knew how to translate that vision into action.
  • For all of the different inbound and outbound channels, you need to have 3 different tiers of individuals processing the incoming business. 
    1. So you have the head hunters who go out and bring in the leads. They don't necessarily close the business. but they go out there and establish those relationships and have the initial discussions.
    2. You have the closers, which are folks that are typically more mature and sophisticated in how they do things. They understand the strategy component much better.
    3. Then you have the last piece, which is the farmers, the individuals, typically like account execs and so on, who work within in the account to make sure the customer is happy and that they continue doing business, potentially even expanding the footprint within the organisation.
Breaking down the components of the business development funnel into layers is ideal, but not all organisations have the people to do that. Smaller firms need to have someone who can wear several hats and fill multiple roles.


Chapter 8 - Learning from Our Biggest Mistakes

Making mistakes is human. They cannot be avoided and from what we heard, it's clearly better to embrace these mistakes as learning experiences. What separates design leaders from others is the ability to tackle life knowing full well that the mistakes will come. Having the courage to lead knowing that you'll face failure and disappointment is a special quality. Taking the more challenging path isn't less scary, but the rewards seems to be better. "Don't be ashamed. Don't be shy," says Jeb Barner. "Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. Be bolder." Richard Banfield mentions, "I've made my share of mistakes, but the biggest have also resulted in the best lessons learned. For me, these lessons are almost always about managing people's expectations. Not overpromising has been key to this. In the early part of my career, I wanted to please too many people. This lead to promising the world to my teams and to my clients. That spread me too thin and eventually lead to me disappointing a lot of people. The worst part is that this type of behaviour also results in exhaustion."

Key takeaways:
  •  Communication problems tend to be at the root of all project problems. Getting on the same page prevents mistakes.
  • Be empathetic and learn to speak your client's business language. Don't' just use design jargon.
  • Business is also a creative task. Approaching business like a design project can prevent mistakes and can feel more engaging for design leaders without business training.
  • Mistakes can happen when decision-making powers are not clear. The buck has to stop somewhere.
  • Letting go and delegating gives design leaders more freedom and time to deal with the bigger issues.
  • Building trust with the team is the fastest way to delegating success.
  • Don't grow for growth's sake. Being bigger for the purpose of being bigger isn't a reasonable strategy.
  • Avoid mistakes by developing contracts and documentation to make project expectations clear to everyone.
  • Contracts are also a great fallback when things do go wrong.
  • Owners and leaders are very often the technical crafts people who through happenstance, find themselves running a business.


Top image source: Design Leadership Handbook

 




About Post Author

Hi, my name is Christine Calo and I'm a designer by trade who has an engineering background. I have an interest in design, technology and science which I like to read, watch and write about from time to time. This blog contains random ramblings of these topics and may tangent off to other topics. Want to say hello, you can contact me on: calo.christine@gmail.com

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