How to be a good client.
There’s an old adage that states “a consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is”. Well, maybe – if the consultant has some special skill that better equips them to decipher the time. And perhaps a different perspective. Or at least more bandwidth.
Ok, enough stereotyping.
There’s no arguing that consulting is by definition a professional service that requires a lot of high-quality personal interactions in order to successfully impart expert know-how to client organizations. But is the burden of best practices borne by the consultant alone? I would suggest not. The best forms of consulting are enjoyable and rewarding collaborations that thrive on dialogue, not just monologue. This is even truer when the consultant is advising on something that is not typically part of daily operations at Client Co. Design, for example. For most organizations seeking to integrate design as a strategic innovation tool into their business world, the mysterious nature of what design consultants do can make the prospect of working with them confusing, risky, or even frightening to those who sign the check.
So if you’re in a business that’s contemplating working with a design consultancy, here’s what you can do to embrace a ‘design thinking’ philosophy and have a valuable experience in the process:
Don’t wait until the fire trucks show up. Don’t wait for a competitive crisis to think about innovation. Start these conversations early, not only within your organization but also with a potential design partner. The goal should be to provide enough lead time to ensure that the scope of work both meets your budgetary and time frame requirements. And as anyone who is familiar with the consulting business knows, getting the right resources in place at the right time is an efficiency expert’s worst nightmare. So be proactive, not reactive. Needing something “yesterday” is so, um, yesterday.
Acknowledge your agenda. It’s important to be honest about why you’ve decided to work with a design consultant as opposed to any other type of consultant. What was the trigger? What is your need? It usually has something to do with growth. Most would admit that they wish to know their customers better, in order to develop new products or services for them or to find new ways of more meaningfully interacting with them. Others might be seeking new tools for bringing innovation capabilities in-house and making it a sustainable skill. There are many consultants out there who can assist with these kinds of goals, but they may utilize different tools and processes, and require different modes of client participation as well. Design consultants are a great partner if you believe that growth opportunities are not just about producing a new ‘thing’ but about appealing to the human values associated with experiencing the thing. Think of the brilliant MasterCard ad campaign – it’s the human experience, not the individual things, that is ‘priceless’. A purely analytical approach and a PowerPoint presentation probably aren’t enough to get you there.
Envision an outcome. Know your innovation needs. It’s important to have a sense of what kind of results you would like to see at the end of a consulting engagement, even before you start. When you discuss these with a consultant, try to articulate in as precise terms as possible what you hope to come away with. You’ll know it’s the right outcome for you if the deliverables are actionable or, at the very least, help inform your next steps. Gone are the days when the only type of projects designers were involved with resulted in a toaster (as in, “Please design us a new toaster.”). Now designers are just as likely to be asked to explore “the future of the cooking experience”, a challenge whose outcome could take any number of forms. Giving some thought to this in advance and sharing it with your design partner will help them develop the best approach to meeting your needs.
Avoid being absent. Design consultants are more like nurses than brain surgeons. We need to be able to ask you questions and you should be available to answer them throughout the procedure if we’re going to make progress. Whether you’re physically in the room with us or not, you’ll benefit from being an active participant in the process. This is true for two reasons – first, who better than you can provide relevant information about your business? The other is that you will have a better understanding of where some of our insights came from. Yes, time is scarce, but if you’re able to consistently commit an appropriate number of influential stakeholders to the engagement the odds are in your favor that the project will have real impact.
Keep your eyes open. To truly realize the value of working with a design partner requires that you see the world as they do. In one respect this is accomplished by initially (and temporarily) stepping away from all that you believe to be true about your business and its enablers or barriers. Abandon what I call the Field of Dreams strategy (yes, the one that states “if we build, it they will come”) and look at the world through the eyes of your consumers or customers. How well do you really know them? Re-examine the obvious to perhaps see the not-so-obvious. Armed with an understanding of human needs, your business and technology decisions will become more grounded. Taken seriously, this more integrated approach to innovation will be the lasting benefit long after the formal consulting engagement has ended.
Embrace messiness. Lots of things about design are messy – the process and the workspaces, to name two. An important contributor to this messiness is the fact that we don’t know everything, and that’s to your benefit. We’re able to see most problems with a beginner’s mind on the one hand and as an expert integrator of seemingly disparate ideas on the other. Unlike some forms of classical problem solving that rely on empirical thinking, design is an art not a science, and thus often follows a circuitous path before achieving its goal. Some clients who are uncomfortable with the ambiguity that characterizes many elements of this process react by rushing too quickly towards a solution. We’ll often address this impulse by introducing something called a ‘mood meter’, a simple graphic tool that predicts relative levels of client enthusiasm and frustration at various engagement milestones. It’s important to take that leap of faith; it’s also important to know that others have jumped before you and survived.
Have someone ready for the hand-off. Designers do not hold a monopoly on good ideas. In fact, it is you, the client, who holds all the cards when it comes to bringing innovation to life. History will show that the most powerful innovations in the world happen as a result of exceptional execution not simply good ideation. Who are the key players inside your organization that will be responsible for taking the outcomes of a design engagement and making something happen? Have they been invited into the project at an appropriate time? Have they been positioned to not only share their wisdom about what’s going to happen to your business down the road but also serve as stewards who can help clear potential roadblocks? Make sure you’ve got the right people in the room at all times so that when you receive that hand-off from your design partner you’ll be prepared to run the next leg.
Appreciate that there is no silver bullet. Innovation is hard. And it takes time. Believing that a single engagement with your design partner (even a substantial one) will guarantee immediate success is unrealistic. This is an ‘event-based’ view of innovation and it’s a set up for disappointment. Instead, adopt a ‘continuous’ approach to innovation. A little here, a little there. Make it easier to try some things out and re-direct your focus if necessary. Some of these things you’ll be able to do yourself and other things will require outside assistance or expertise. So think of your design partner as an accelerator pedal to be deployed as needed over time to help you move in a new direction.
Just don’t wait for the fire trucks to show up to get started.
