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 […]

Read More

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 […]

Read More

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 […]

Read More

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 […]

Read More

Ten recruiting predictions for 2016 – and the role of design

General Electric, the nations largest industrial company, just announced it is moving it’s headquarters from Connecticut to Boston. Of their 360,000 G.E. employees globally, only 800 will go to the new HQ in Boston. What I find most interesting is that the New York Times reports that of the 800 going to headquarters only 200 will […]

Read More

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 […]

Read More

Retained recruiting – six industry changes.

Those of you who know me know that I’ve been a bit of a conference junkie. Going to conferences is a great way to learn new things, meet new people, share interesting conversations and see interesting places. My policy: visit a museum on every conference trip. Recently I went to the two leading international conferences […]

Read More

How to critique user experience design portfolios

Here are seven tips to evaluate UX designers Critiquing user experience design portfolios accurately can be a challenge. It’s tough to know what is appropriate design for a given project, tough to isolate a persons exact role and contribution, and even more difficult if you are evaluating the work of design leaders. To help evaluate […]

Read More

Creative Intelligence.

By Bruce Nussbaum.  In 2011, Dr. Dre was an unhappy hip hop music producer and businessman. He had built n empire on his kind of music, studio music played in clubs for serious dancing. He had designed a very specific music profile–heavy at the bottom but with clarity and good range. He was proud of […]

Read More