Barbarians or Bureaucrats: Examining the Shift from Design Policy to Strategy in E-Business Innovation

Introduction Often caught within the complexities of e-business software innovation, a designer may feel at odds trying to propagate a healthy balance of user experience value while serving personal goals as well as the corporate agenda, whether it’s coordination, enforcement, and so forth. Delivering this value involves playing multiple roles, with limited resources. Underscoring these tensions of design practice is the popular question, “What is the role, place, and identity of design as the organization confronts emerging demands?“ Proposed answers often point to structural patterns of design activity (e.g., consultant or inhouse) or ideals of interdisciplinary practice (e.g., user-centered design). Perhaps by shifting the question to focus on the proper alignment between a designer's attitude and the sponsoring organization’s lifecycle, an opportunity to enrich design understanding arises. In addition to optimal fulfillment of design potential and resource allocation, there may be new thematic connections across real situations to inform the design leadership community and corporate partners. Ultimately, the benefit of exploring this issue is found in the need to support design managers so they can create the most favorable conditions for creativity.