Chris Bangle on Design Leadership
Bradley Derry (at Fuel Your Product Design) ran a really nice interview with Chris Bangle on what makes a good design leader. It is really good to hear from Chris, a friend of Design Sojourn, who has been somewhat quiet of late.
Some great advice all around, including my favorite:
If you could go back in time, what is some advice you would give to the young Chris Bangle?
Look at the long game. There are no seasons in design, it is a continuum of minor successes. Measure your success by the ability to rise after numerous defeats.
Take notes and keep notebooks. Sketch scenes- like what people said, notes on life, what you’ve read, etc. Refer back to them often. Analyse your thoughts again at different times to re-frame the situation
If you don’t have time to watch the full video, check out the shorter edited transcript at Fuel Your Product Design.
Omer @ Outlines Design Studio
June 16, 2011 at 8:28 amChris is truly wise in this interview – great advice. As a graphic and web designer I personally I worked under a few design leaders and you can really notice the big difference between them. Leader A which just stands behind you trying to get out of your way and leader B which inspires and pushes you to places you don’t want to go. Regarding the leader being an x-designer himself is a tough one indeed. Like in many other areas, sometimes you need an outsider to give you the best insight and sometimes, like Chris mentioned, more inside knowledge is required to give an informed review. Thanks for sharing this – it was very educational.