Building a team of generalists vs specialists: Unicorns or experts?

What should you know when building your design team? Pros and cons of hiring multiple individuals with each skill or developing multi-skills individuals?

Presented by Leandro Gama and Marc Decerle at Managing Design 2016

Transcript

1. SPECIALIST VS GENERALIST LEO GAMA & MARC DECERLE
2. UNDERSTAND IDEATE CONVERGE BUILD PROMOTE MANAGE ANALYSE ACQUIRE THE UNICORN
3. UNDERSTAND REQUIRED SKILLS SALES & MARKETING BUSINESS DESIGN EXPERIENCE DESIGN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT ̣̤̤ Inbound Marketing ̣̤̤ Competitive Edge ̣̣̤ Sales and Negotiations ̤̤̤ Business Case ̣̤̤ Business Require… ̣̣̤ User Research ̣̣̤ User Experience ̣̣̤ Functional Spec. ̣̣̣ UI Design ̤̤̤ Solutions Archi. ̤̤̤ Technical Spec. ̣̤̤ Coding Language ̣̤̤ Product Knowledge ̣̤̤ Technical Skills ̣̣̤ Client Engagement
4. THE SPECIALIST Differentiation: ✓ How can you beat competition, deliver outstanding products and services and attract high quality resources?? Skill Gap and Mentoring: ✓ Which areas do you need to up-skill as an organisation? ✓ How do you ensure that junior staff continue to grow and develop? THE GENERALIST Predictable Demand: ✓ How predictable is your demand for services? ✓ Does your demand for services justify dedicated resources? Size & budget: ✓ How big is your organisation? How to manage resource utilisation? ✓ How much can you realistic afford to cover your core needs? WHAT TO CONSIDER
5. UNDERSTAND IDEATE CONVERGE BUILD PROMOTE MANAGE ANALYSE ACQUIRE Business Design Design Thinking Workshop Facilitation User Research Design Studio Diagramming Wireframing Prototyping Visual Design Branding UI Design Animation Design Marketing Case studies Packaging Training Pre-sales Sales Education Collaterals Product Management Lean Agile Roadmaps Analytics A/B Testing Backend Frontend Web Native
6. HOW TO FILL YOUR GAP “Create useful and engaging solution with a true understanding of the business problem” Find a match between the organisation & designer needs Look for Attitude & Personality Curiosity Empathy Drive Resilience Responsibility Flexibility Bold Spirited
7. KEY LESSONS Unicorns don’t exist, but you can grow hybrids. Soft skills are equally, if not more important. Develop skills through multi-disciplinary activities. Sync the designer and organisation need.
8. THANK YOU LEANDRO GAMA Business Design Lead M. +61 404 206 673 E. lgama74@gmail.com MARC DECERLE Experience Design Lead M. +61 402 031 772 E. mdecerle@gmail.com