How to get design in to the boardroom / Homaxi Irani / Episode #114

Here's a challenge I think you'll recognize... How do you move design up the maturity ladder in an organisation? Back in the day when I would get called in for a project I knew the client wouldn't get a lot of value out of the design approach when we would just apply it on the superficial layers of a service. No surprise here. To have any meaningful impact on business and customers we needed to use design from strategy to implementation. The truth is that I often got quite frustrated about this process. Many clients weren't ready for this. And navigating through the organisational layers and the internal politics isn't what I signed up for (or at least I thought). But I also didn't want to get stuck doing work on the margins. Especially when you know which value you can contribute. This seems to be a common channel for many service designers out there. If this sounds familiar than this week's episode is just for you! I sat down with Homaxi Irani to discuss what you can do to successfully grow the influence of and appreciation for design within an organisation. Usually the conversations about this topic tend to stay quite abstract and high level. But as you'll hear Homaxi shares some very practical advice on things you can do tomorrow. So if you want to take design to the next level within your organisation make sure you don't miss this episode. --- [ GUIDE ] -— 00:00 Welcome to episode 114 02:40 Who is Homaxi 03:20 60 second rapid fire question round 05:30 Bringing design in to the broardroom 08:00 Why should we want to bring design into the boardroom 17:30 How to gain more influence 24:00 What is the secret sauce 28:30 Navigating the middle management swamp 34:00 Showcasing the value of design 42:00 Is design a risk? 50:00 How to move forward 59:00 The power of pragmatism 1:02:30 Get in touch with Homaxi 1:03:30 Final thoughts --- [ LINKS ] --- * https://www.linkedin.com/in/homaxi/ * Battle Scars by Dinaaz Lentin (book) - https://amzn.to/3fq5mkw * Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton (book) - https://amzn.to/35ZyUCv --- [ MORE ] --- Enjoyed the show? Take a look at some of the other episodes. https://go.servicedesignshow.com/spotify YOUTUBE Every episode of the Service Design Show is also available as via the official YouTube channel. https://go.servicedesignshow.com/youtube INSTAGRAM Get an exclusive behind the scenes look of the Show. https://go.servicedesignshow.com/instagram --- [ FREE COURSE ] --- HOW TO EXPLAIN SERVICE DESIGN Learn what it takes to get your clients, colleagues, managers, CEOs and even grandmas as excited about service design as you are! https://servicedesignshow.com/free-course