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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Industrial Designers: Saturday

Almost there! This is the second last habit of our week long series, whereby I will publish one of the seven habits on each day of the week. Here is the link to Friday’s post if you missed it.
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Talk bubble by spekulator
6) Strong communication and people skills
This one is pretty interesting as there are two sides of the coin in this discussion.
The first side basically should come as no surprise; effective designers have the ability to communicate to other designers well. He can articulate complex design problems or theories in a language that even the non-designer can understand. Fantastic presentation skills are also part of the equation. Look for the designer that always gets the client’s approval and the designer that every one loves working with. This designer also has vision and control, so much so that people are both inspired and motivated to work with him.
On the other side of the coin these effective designers have great “bed side” manners. They are superb active listeners and have the ability to empathize with the other party. The listen, analyse, and make great recommendations to problems. No only that, their empathy with other people, allow such designers to come up with great user focused design solutions.
Of all the habits, the designers that are strong in this habit, are the ones that also makes the best design managers.
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I do hope you enjoyed Saturday’s entry; if you did, do check out Sunday’s final habit which is up here.

4 Comments
  • DT

    September 3, 2007 at 9:05 pm Reply

    Hi Berry,
    That is a great question. Honestly its pretty easy to be a Manager in any profession. Work long enough, and in the right place and right time, most people get promoted to be the manager.
    Sometimes managers also get picked simply because companies think that the best designer should be a the design manager. Unfortunately a good designer sometimes have the difficulty to articulate how he does what he does so at to motivate others.
    It’s the sad truth, I have worked with many bad managers, and I often wonder the same as you.

  • berry

    September 3, 2007 at 12:48 am Reply

    I totally agree with your analysis of a good designer.
    Some people has fantastic presentation skills, has visions, can articulate complex design problems in layman’s term, can convince.
    But lacks empathy, not welcomed around people, not controled, doesn’t motivate and inspire.
    Why does these people still lead a team?

  • DT

    September 1, 2007 at 4:39 pm Reply

    Hey malique,
    Thanks for your comments, and I hope blogs can help us designers take our communication skills and ability to the next level.

  • malique

    September 1, 2007 at 2:29 pm Reply

    i believe communication and pr skills are numero uno in any business.
    good read!

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