What do design leaders lead?

Of course design leaders lead design. But there can be sooooooo much more. A good leader provides inspiration, influence, direction, guidance, control and management, a good design leader even more. Given the right context and cultural environment, design leaders can do amazing things for any company; here is a snapshot of what the best design […]

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Ten characteristics of great design leaders

After interviewing hundreds of design leaders in my recruiting business for the last three and a half years, sitting thru about 350 speeches by design leaders whilst running DMI for six years, reading about 350 articles by design leaders as the publisher of the DMI Review and the DMI Journal, and co-editing/writing four anthology books […]

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How to hire great design leaders

Let’s face it, every business must innovate for the future, and innovation requires creativity. Not just creativity, but appropriately focused and managed creativity. But this kind of creativity doesn’t just pop up on demand, and you can’t just click on it; it takes savvy Design, UX and Innovation leaders that know how to nurture and […]

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Interview tip: Replace the resume with a whiteboard.

Need a more innovative workforce? Then start with how you use the resume. How long has the resume concept been around, forever? How much have they evolved? While reviewing the listing of job experiences on paper or online is still important, if you need a more innovative workforce, it’s time to take a look at […]

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Time to create create.

A key objective for nearly every organization is to innovate. Business thrives on creating new products and services that add value for its stakeholders and customers. To that end, the successful organizations are those that make the most of the creativity of their employees and their partners. As Marty Neumeier observes in The Designful Company, […]

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Finding X: Why T-shaped people are valuable but insufficient in an age of nonstop innovation.

By Marty Neumeier.  Companies are quickly learning that a post-graduate degree offers no guarantee of real-world innovation skills. That’s why, in design-driven organizations with multi-disciplinary teams, there’s an ongoing search for “T-shaped” people. A T-shaped person is someone who has a strong descender (the vertical stroke of the T) and a well-developed crossbar (the horizontal […]

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Interview tip by Thomas Edison

Interview tip – no salt! Here is a story I heard about how Thomas Edison conducted interviews. His technique goes like this: Back in his day, people often had soup for lunch. So when Edison met a potential hire, he would invite them to lunch, and order soup. The candidates most often ordered soup too. […]

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How to critique product design portfolios

Here are seven tips to evaluate product design portfolios Lets be honest, critiquing design portfolios can be difficult. And for the untrained reviewer, even daunting. It’s easy to get swept away by beautiful renderings and snappy concept sketches. And its even more difficult if you are looking for design leaders. To evaluate a design candidates […]

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