More Design Strategists – one global community

In a recent Fast Company article, Artefact's John Rousseau expressed his view that in the future design strategists will continue to indispensable. For John,

"The importance of design strategy will grow. Future design strategists will need the ability to understand and model increasingly complex systems and will design new products and services in a volatile environment characterized by continuous disruption and a high degree of uncertainty."

In my role as a design strategist for Unilever – I've seen the importance design strategy can play for companies and their communities first-hand. The trick is knowing where to look.

Oftentimes, I hear the people focus on shiny new technologies coming out of SF or Boston and how a disruptive new service will change the transform metropolitan cities, but it can be shortsighted to stop there. In my work, I witnessed firsthand how looking at emergent centers of creativity–places like Shanghai & Mumbai – can often be much more revealing. There, local entrepreneurs, artists & designers create products and services that they know will make a huge change to their own communities – and their lives are just like those of millions around the world.

That's why today, it's even more important than ever for design strategists to connect insights & resources across the continents – create bridges that will help speed up and elevate new ideas. In short, I think the next set of changes will come from emergent urban centers. Because in a world where a political, social, business, and tech disruption that can happen overnight, design strategist will be there to ensure their companies are on top of that change rather than get left behind.

The value Design Strategist bring comes from the collective network of strategist within different industries around the world. As this industry grows, it's important we continue to connect, share and experiment together. Reach out to me if you have something to share.