Design Studio Manifesto

6 guides to being a good design partner

We are team, working on a shared problem and opportunity. Your leaders are your guides, your colleagues are your collaborators, and peers.  Sitting as a member of this community, we embrace a ‘growth’ mindset–  "embrace challenges, persist in the face of setbacks, see effort as the path to mastery, learn from criticism, find lessons and inspiration in the success of others."– Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. 

Good ideas can come from anywhere. Don’t dominate the conversation. Make room for everyone to speak and present ideas.

Bring everyone together in the same ‘room’. Get the whole team together, and even bring some outsiders in too for a collective discussion of the concept. One conversation can be more powerful than 10 small conversations.

Apply a ‘YES, AND....’ attitude. Don’t shoot ideas down, build on ideas.

Sometimes faster is better. Create a sense of urgency with design ideas. A sprint is about a surge of creativity and energy, so don’t let the work drag out over days and weeks. See what can be accomplished with a focus team for 1hr, 4hr, 1 day?

Start with low tech visuals. Make your ideas visual– sketch, pin up, sketch some more. Explore ideas, get things done quickly and low tech before you move into ‘on screen’.

Create a dedicated space. When having your design conversations, create a dedicated space to post and visualize the process, ideas and progress.