Design Thinking Roles - Project Leader
Steven Forth is co-founder and managing partner at Ibbaka. See his skill profile here.
Roles are central to Ibbaka’s Open Competency Models. We see jobs as being bundles of roles. One can also play a role on a team and then there are all those ad-hoc roles that we play (‘I am doing this off the side of my desk’).
There are currently six roles in the Design Thinking competency model (an additional role for diversity and inclusion is being developed).
You can access the Design Thinking Competency Model here.
The six current roles are as follows:
The Design Thinking Project Leader Role
This is the pivotal role in design thinking. The project leader role should be on the career path of anyone who aspires to the roles of Design Thinking Coach or Design Thinking Innovator.
On design thinking projects, the project leader has many responsibilities beyond managing the schedule and budget and keeping the deliverables organized.
In many projects I have seen, the biggest challenge is to help the project team have empathy with the different stakeholders, who may have very different life experiences and life goals than anyone on the team.
Another challenge is to act as a brake and prevent the team from jumping to design decisions before exploring options. This happens far too often as there is off pressure to ‘get on with things’ both inside the team and outside. The project leader needs to protect the team from these pressures and make sure that options are generated and explored.
The project leader is also responsible for understanding when the exploration needs to move to prototyping and testing. One cannot afford to get stuck in exploration. When this happens, the project leader needs to find ways to get the team moving forward. Knowing when and how to do this is a critical skill but not yet defined in the model. Let us know at info@ibbaka.com how you would define the skills needed to do this.
Ideally, the project leader should have a say in team composition (This is not always possible, of course). A good design thinking team is diverse. It will have
Experts from two or more relevant domains, not just one
People with expertise in two or more design disciplines, not just one (a theme is developing)
People who can represent and empathize with the stakeholders
A person with experience in systems thinking
At least one person, in addition to the project leader, who has experience with the design thinking process being applied
Good knowledge of the design thinking process is applied. This competency model is designed around the standard IDEO/d.school process. This is not the only process for design thinking. Other examples include Kees Dorst’s Frame Innovation or even Jobs to Be Done. The design thinking project leader will be more effective if they know more than one approach to design thinking.
MUST HAVE SKILLS for a DESIGN THINKING PROJECT LEADER
This role also has many Should Have skills identified. This is a reflection of its pivotal importance. No one will have all of these Should Have skills, and the specific mix required will depend on the project and the culture of the organization.
Posts on Roles in the Open Competency Model for Design Thinking
Design Thinking Project Leader (this post)
Design Thinking Project Member
Design Thinking Researcher (coming)
Stakeholder Engagement Leader (coming)