Michael Roller

How Can I Be More Strategic?

I often find myself asking this question, and Victor Lombardi’s blog Noise Between Stations recently posted an excellent list of answers. Lombardi smartly reminds us that sometimes what we’re really asking is, “How can I convince or influence others to do things my way?” I’ll be the first to admit this is true for me at times. Click here to check out the full post, here are my favorites:

Illustrate the strategic implications of seemingly tactical efforts. If strategic = long-term, show the long-term effects.

It’s easy to get caught up in the details of a project during the messy middle. This point reminds me to start each presentation with a review of the overall project goals and implications of our solutions. It’s a great way to turn seemingly tactical work into a strategic piece of design.

Be more thoughtful, for example go beyond providing expertise to providing decision-making frameworks.

As an industrial designer, sometimes we have to evaluate the importance of various product features in order to cut costs to meet price targets. I’m reminded of an Excel tool my co-worker created in order to help our client rank features according to cost, importance, manufacturing challenges, and a few other qualities. It was a great tool and we should use it every time we work on large, technical projects.

Educate yourself. Strategy may be harder than finance, operations, and other business topics. Take the time to learn what strategists really do.

It’s okay that designers have larger-than-average egos, but we get ourselves into trouble when we take on projects that are beyond our capabilities without getting some help. This point reminds me that we can’t just say we’re strategic, we need to back it up with experience and the right skill set. I often bounce ideas off of the marketers at Kaleidoscope to learn more about how to be a strategic thinker.

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