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[0:00:02] Female Voice: Welcome to the Triple Bottom Line, where we reveal how today’s business leaders are reaching a new level of success with a people-planet-profit approach. And here is your host, Taylor Martin!
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Taylor Martin: Welcome back to the Triple Bottom Line. I’m always excited when we get to talk about something that revolves around design. And, today, I will not disappoint you! We get to talk about how to shape, build, and sometimes fix design departments. And I would like to introduce you all to Jay Peters. He is the Managing Director of PARK USA. PARK is a world-leading consultancy in design management and leadership. They come in to help you get your design department where you want it to be. And with design and user experiences being the center stage for brands these days, I thought it would be great to hear from the people who help companies be more successful by being more cost effective, faster to market, creatively stronger, forward thinking, sustainable, people-centric, visionary… I mean, the list goes on and on and on. So many things can spawn from that, so ultimately, you’re bringing value to your customers. So, without further ado, I would like to welcome Jay Peters to the show. Jay, please tell our listeners a little bit more about your history and how you came into your position at PARK.
Jay Peters: Yeah, absolutely. So, thanks for having me, Taylor. Looking forward to a great conversation, So, long story short, my background is academia in product design, traditionally trained product designer. And how I met PARK was some years ago I decided to do a Master’s degree in business design in Milan, Italy. At that time, we had a student program from PARK where we connected with universities across Europe, looking for leading scouts to help work on corporate sponsored challenges. So, I met PARK back then about 15 years ago, thought what they were doing was amazing. I never really heard of design management and thought it was amazing. And I have been an entrepreneur in my own background. I had started some companies the years prior, and said, “hey, guys. What you are doing amazing. There’s another opportunity on the other side of the pound and maybe we should talk.” And, we had kept in touch over the years and eventually they called me and said, “we have an opening in our Holland office. Are you interested?” We, at that time, had offices in Hamburg and in the Netherlands. And I said, “yeah. What a great opportunity, but I would like to come back and drive these brands in the U.S. market.” So, a long story short. So, that’s how things kind of came to be and I have been with the company for over 10 years- actually going on about 12 years now- and for the past 5 years, I have been in the U.S., running our U.S. divisions for our services, state-side, here.
Taylor Martin: Well, being in your during that time, how much was it a shift going from Holland and European mindsight of design and marketing and all the things you guys do with companies and shifting gears back to the U.S.? Was there any type of change for you or was it difficult?
Jay Peters: There was a little bit of change. I think, personally, it was interesting ‘cause I almost had to assimilate to the U.S. culture after living in Europe 6+ years, and the kind of stereotypes of Americans were a little but more visible as I kind of came back. But, you know, regarding industry… And we still have this discussion today, you know, how do businesses... How do companies and people do business across the globe? There is no set answer. And what I thought was interesting in my experience as an American working in Europe: I was on a plane every week. I was in a different country, a different company, a different culture and really had to be conscious and cognizant or those cultural factors, right? A ‘no’ in Germany is a different ‘no’ in Denmark- the country next door- right? A process in Germany is different than a process in Italy, which is pretty much door. So, I was really conscious and actually appreciative of that and it really, you know, helped me learn how to navigate and manage business and leadership across the globe.
Taylor Martin: Yeah. I can see that totally. But in terms of design and design experiences, I can see that, you know, from that being like the center stage of businesses success these days, it seems… Can you give us your unique prospective on how valuable design is for companies that you guys work with?
Jay Peters: Yeah, so, you know, great that design is in its heyday right now thanks to the Apples, the Dysons, and even maybe the Teslas, which you can say design is certainly a part of the mix. But I think in broad terms, most organizations still are not truly familiar with what we say the total value that design can bring, right? Most people think of design as the outcome, the artifact, the product, the services, maybe the experience, but there is so much more that design can bring. So, that’s part of our value proposition, if we will, is to kind of come in and inform and educate the organizations around that. So, design can do a lot to drive value. It can do a lot for the bottom line, right? Profits. It can help sell more of the same or sell the same for money, but it can also decrease costs- decrease production and marketing costs. Everybody… Businesses are in business to make money and keep the lights on. It is about the bottom line, but design can help there. But also, around innovation. Driving innovation, what we say is outside-in innovation, so truly consumer-led innovation. Design can help bring more opportunities to the market, deliver those opportunities faster, deliver IP, which creates sustainable, competitive advantage. Design can do a lot for brand. We see that more and more again with the Apples and maybe the IKEAs of the world, but design can do a lot for brand awareness, brand affinity, brand loyalty, brand recommendations. And then also design can do a lot for, you know, what we call more of the softer side of things- culture, right? Companies want to be more creative, more innovative. Yes, you need processes, tools, and resources, but you also need that cultural element that design can do a lot of things there and I always kid around that it’s not about coming in and parking a bus in the lobby and throwing some beanbags around. It really is a change of mindset; what it takes to be creative and using what is- and I quote here- you know, the design thinking approach to problem solving.
[5:56] Taylor Martin: Yeah, I mean, I can see a lot of companies coming to you guys for a whole host of things. But when you guys come into a company, they have a design department in there. They’ve been moving in one direction for so long and maybe there’s a disruptor in their field or maybe they just want to… They realize there’s more opportunities out there or they want to expand. They want to go into a different market. There’s so just many different things that companies are doing these days and shaking things up. What are some of the most sought-after requests that clients are coming to you guys? What are like some of the big ones that they are calling you for?
Jay Peters: So, I can give some examples, and I’ll do that here in a second. But in general, I think, you know, very generically speaking in management consultancy terms, it’s about driving efficiency and effectiveness, right? You know, we have a certain amount of resources. We have expectations. How can we do that faster, better, quicker, cheaper, etc? So, that’s usually in general and then a lot of clients have a challenge or an opportunity but often what we see with some due diligence is not always what they think is needed to help move the needle, right?
Taylor Martin: So, what you’re saying is that a lot of clients have a discovery period with you?
Jay Peters: Not always, but if we can do the due diligence then sometimes, we find out that the opportunities may be not where they think it lies. For example, a lot of times, you know, we get a lot of calls. We do a lot of process architecture, right? Building design processes or refining those. A lot of times, they think, “hey, we need a new process. Our process is broken; it doesn’t work.” And they come in, and we say, “actually, you have a pretty good process. It needs a little bit of tweaking, but the real issue is communication and awareness and training. So, let’s not reinvent the wheel. Let’s not, you know, throw out the baby with the bathwater. Let’s fix the small things. And the bigger issue, again, is not fixing a broken process, it’s fixing a communication gap. It’s fixing an awareness gap or maybe a competency gap, right? The people that are deployed to do this are not at the right level or integrated enough, etc.
Taylor Martin: So, having said that, what are some of the biggest mistakes or challenges design departments are actually making these days?
Jay Peters: So, I think some of the mistakes that they are making, again, is making a misdiagnosis of what the real issue is. And we see a lot of times… And it may be what we call as a luxury problem, but a lot of times when it comes to design innovation, which is kind of in its heyday now, is they kind of throw money at the problem, if you will, right? We need to be more creative, more innovative. We need more resources. And we hirer on staff, right? We get a bunch of designers. We need a UX designer. We need a behavior designer. All this stuff, which is great, but it is not well-orchestrated. There is no real true integration in the organization. Its not managed and led well, right? It’s kind of, again, throwing money at the problem. And, you know, we have seen this time and time again, and I know, for example, there is a big Fintech in the Bay Area, who is kind of playing catch up with the competitors. And they went from 20 UX designers- user experience designs- which are really digital designs with this label. They went from 20 to 200 designers within like a 2-year span, Like, that’s crazy insane, right?! Hiring. Hiring. Hiring. But there was real no true alignment or integration or real purpose for that. And eventually, as with all business, the CFO kind of came in and said, “whoa. There’s a lot of head count. There’s a lot of expense going in. What’s coming out?” And design couldn’t quantify, couldn’t validate that, right? So, we talk about return on investments and when design can’t prove return on investments then, sorry to say, the chopping block kind of comes out. And in that particular case, I mean, they went from 20 to 200 back down to about 20ish because it was too much too soon. And it was really again a lack of true integration and leadership and alignment. So, we see this time and time again, right? That’s the luxury side of things. On the flip side of that, what we see a lot of times is they’re not positioned well enough to grow because they can’t prove the ROI. They do need resources, but they can’t make the strong business case. And as we know in business, one of the hardest things anybody can do, or try to do, is to increase head count, right? Everybody would love to have more resources, right? Pick any function. We would like to have more people. So, design is no different, but design still historically struggles with, you know, business case in proving ROI of why they need to have additional resources, departments, etc.
[10:14] Taylor Martin: Right. So, you know, a company might have the money for it, and they might, you know, increase the headcount, like you mentioned. But that may not solve the problem. Or somebody else might have the opposite and not have the funding to have a larger headcount, and they may or may not be in the right direction either. But, you know, you talked earlier about the communicational struggles they might be having. What about like people being in silos and things like that? How do you see that, you know, shakin’ out when you come into a design department and kind of get a lay of the land?
Jay Peters: Yeah, so, unfortunately, I think, the proverbial silos is still really true today. I think a lot of companies talk about multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary approaches, but it’s kind of lip service, right? They maybe have a workshop or a meeting. They put people together and then they go back to their silos, which is sometimes in different buildings. But sometimes they’re sitting in different countries all together, right? And they’re really disconnected. So, our approach is truly to install and imbed what we would call a multidisciplinary approach, which is what we call a Core Team. So, we have some clients and it does take some time, right? It doesn’t happen overnight, where we’ve changed the approach of development. And development is for all products, solutions, experiences, and we install Core Teams. And the Core Team is compromised of a design lead, typically a manager or director or design, a business lead, which is usually someone from marketing or brand, and a technical lead from R&D. So, those three people work together in a Core Team and they are responsible from the very beginning of accepting and signing off on a brief to delivering that to the marketplace and beyond commercialization, right? So, of course, they bring specialties to the table, and they are kind of responsible for their domain, but they work together. And they share responsibilities, and they share communication in transparency. And this really helps to create a way of working that is truly multidisciplinary from start to finish.
Taylor Martin: Yeah, I was just going to say- start to finish. I mean, that’s what they are covering. It comes in the door and when it goes out the door. Those three people are observing, watching, managing everything as it goes. That’s pretty cool. Okay. You guys come in. You speak to executives. You get up to speed on what they’re wanting out of their design department; maybe they’re not getting what they want. What are your next steps? They bring you in. They download, you know, what we want, what’s not happening, and all that stuff. Like, walk us through that process, would you?
Jay Peters: So, we’re a small company. We also have kind of the luxury to find the clients, right? We want it to be mutually-fitting.
Taylor Martin: Always.
Jay Peters: We’re not for everyone because we’re demanding of our clients, right? We don’t work for any clients; we work with them, right? So, truly a design approach, right? Collaborative. Iterative. All those things that are kind of true to the design profession. So, a lot of people are busy, and they need help. And they expect to get the answers, and we have the answers with them together, so we have to foster that. When we potentially engage with a client, there is a very famous engagement model, but we got to make sure we have all the pieces in place, if you will, to move forward, right? So, yes, there needs a to be a budget, right? But there needs to be a true need to start. A lot of times we work with clients that are market leaders, right? And so why change things? “We’re doing great. We’re the number one market leader.” Now, that’s different of course if there’s a burning platform and sales are sinking, and the competitors have done something. But there needs to be also the capacity to start. And taking some concrete first steps. So, they do call us and engage. There are some steps there. But we like to start small, right? We like to find some quick wins. Prove some value back to the organization and go from there. And I think that is important for anything that design is doing, especially if it’s a little bit more less mature on a maturity model, is to prove results, right? The old saying is not eating an elephant at one time but small bites, right? So, if we really want to drive change in an organization and kind of move the oil tanker, we gotta start doing some small things to make progress in that fashion.
Taylor Martin: Yeah, I love the fact that you’re going to come in and you’re going to show the value you can bring and the changes you’re going to make. Because you know, just coming into a company and then making these huge, flippin’ changes that are not delivering what they are wanting… You know, I think that’s like the fear clients have. So, coming in and doing some small wins, like you said, that’s genius from my point of view. What about change management? What happens when you have… if you want to bring in, you know, a management change, or you might have a different management team coming in, and they’re the ones that bring you and so it’s like new on top of new. I mean, have you ever been in situations like that?
Jay Peters: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, change is hard. And change is not quick, especially these long legacy companies that have been in business for decades and maybe centuries, right? And they’re very comfortable with how things are the way they are. So, again, starting small, creating some quick wins. But for us, it’s really about communication, transparency, collaboration and, again, maybe very generic terms. But you know, bringing people into those projects and process, even though design maybe as far removed from them, bringing them in as a sounding board, as a sparring partner. So, what we look for is to find those champions that will really be a voice across the organization for design and, just as importantly, find those people that maybe are resistors and then find out how to, you know, manage those individuals to get them to be more convinced and open to have design; essentially help them, right? Because it’s not us and them; it’s we as an organization, and we need to be more successful. And if design can help them, then all the more reason to kind of collaborate. But it’s not easy to change things overnight, so, especially when it comes to cultures, so forth.
[15:43] Taylor Martin: Yeah. I can only imagine, especially, you know, international companies with so many different points of culture from different point of presence where their business, you know, lies or their product, you know, resides. Earlier, you and I were talking about, you know, companies that were purpose driven. And I know PARK has a “design” for humanity process that you instill into companies. Can you explain that to us, kind of expand on that?
Jay Peters: Sure. So, design for humanity is our new, kind of, positioning in what, you know, others would relate to maybe sustainability or corporate social responsibility, etc., etc., or as you advocate, Taylor, which I love, is the triple bottom line, right?
Taylor Martin: You got it!
Jay Peters: Of course, again, you know, we gotta make profit. We all gotta pay the bills, and that’s kind of a given. But beyond that, what we see is, hopefully not a trend but the new kind of norm going forward, is companies need to be more purpose-driven, right? The purpose, again, is not to make money. That’s, let say is a necessary given, and it’s really about doing good, right? Doing good or not doing harm for the environment, right? So, again, sustainability, right? The whole life cycle management circularity. Are we sourcing the right materials? Are we looking at end of life cycle? Is it just throw it in the trash and be done? Because everything that is designed ends up somewhere in the world with some repercussions, and we need to change that to more positive. So, sustainability and environmental, but also the social side of things, right? Are we creating, you know, job opportunities? Are we creating job opportunities in our country or are we exploiting overseas labor in factories that have, you know, maybe not the best conditions? So, being very conscious of that that. And we see some, of course, the first movers in that area that are making setting the norms, and others are following because (a) they have to from a market position, and they’re losing sales or brand or (2) just because, hopefully, that this is the new norm and kind of, you know, there is an awakening that we need to look at the repercussions of what we’re putting out there.
Taylor Martin: You know, I remember reading something about Unilever’s new CEO and what he was trying to do. And Unilever is such an enormous organization that when companies of that size are just speaking about this and making changes, not only do their changes have huge ramifications for pushing sustainability forward and being better for people and planet and all that. But I think it’s also like you said, you know? It’s a leadership position and others will follow because they have to. I mean, that’s the competition. People are going to expect that of companies. Wouldn’t you agree?
Jay Peters: Absolutely. And Unilever is a good example, and we have been fortunate enough to be partners with Unilever for almost the past decade. And, you know, for example, they have the former CEO and had a sustainable living plan. Cynically speaking, you know, most CEOs come in and they all have more or less the same mandate, which is we are going to double the revenue in ‘x’ amount of years, right? Okay. That’s what we are going to do. But, at that point, the former CEO said, “we’re going to double the revenue, but we’re also going to half our environmental footprint.” Now, that is quite a task for Unilever, who has over 1 billion products consumed per day. But this fell on design, right? Okay, “here’s the corporate mandate. Double the revenue but half the environmental footprint. Now you guys are smart. You’re designers. Figure it out.” So, what do we do there? So, again, looking at lifecycle management, looking at materials. And also, the social side of things, right? So, this is an example of, you know, really an opportunity for design to drive and deliver value on the corporate mandate or the triple bottom line.
Taylor Martin: I always kind of see design from my prospective as kind of the wrapper. You know, we take the problems. You know, people say design is a… We provide solutions with design. It’s true, but I think, you know, from my prospective, what we do is we wrap the solution beautiful so people can really understand the dynamics of it because usually it’s not just a simple, you know, black and white one sentence; it’s complex. In something like what you guys do, I think you guys take it to whole another level when it comes to product design because not only the marketing that goes behind it but the product itself, the packaging, the user involvement, you know, experience with that product. And then we add in all the part about the sustainability of it and the equability that it has on the planet as a whole for the people and everything. That just seems to be something that is, I wouldn’t say overwhelming, but there’s a lot of components to it. And I remember the first time I ever heard of a chief sustainability officer. I was like, “what?! Oh, my God. We have that?” Because I thought… That was new to me, like, 20 years ago or something. And I though, “oh, wow! Leadership is definitely taking this seriously, and they’re opening up a position on the C-suite level, and really pushing that forward.” I thought that was great! But let me go back here because I want to try make sure that we follow this process along. When it comes to implementation… You know, you guys are brought in. You assess the company, the design department. You hear from the executives about what they want and where they want their company to be and go, and all the changes they want to have made. How hard is it to make those changes you see needed and to make sure it gets on the right track but then it has to stay on the right track? How does that work out?
[20:57[ Jay Peters: Yeah, so, it’s a little bit cliché or maybe obvious but one of the things we need is both top-down and bottom-up support, right? So, we are external partners. We’re not in there day-in and day-out. We can only come in and advocate and integrate and imbed, you know, whatever those processes and tools and roadmaps, etc. So, it really is, again, about that cultural, kind of, change management to get those internal players in place that will drive that success forward. One of the things also that we really specialize is in strategy, visions, and roadmaps, right? So, you talk about how do you stay on track? Well, you know, we do a lot of visions, right? What is the ideal vision of the future design of organization, right? Is it just product design? Experience design? Branding across all touch points, right? That’s kind of the why… The why the business cares and where we’re gonna go. But how are we gonna get there? So, we have roadmap built out. You know, typically it’s three to five years, right? Because large organizations; things don’t happen overnight. And their roadmap is like a roadmap. It’s something to access and evaluate as you go through this change management program. Are we on track? If so, great. Thumbs up. But if we’re not, okay. You know, cause for a concern. How do we pivot? How to refine to make sure that we’re on track. I said earlier about ROI, and we’re in business. And one of the things that we want to make sure is that we deliver strong ROI to our clients. The last thing we want to do is, you know, hand something over and then find out later that it wasn’t successful because whatever. And it went in a drawer and another consultancy came in and they don’t understand us. So, it really is about roadmap. And for us, it’s about continuous involvement, right? We don’t want to have long-term relationships for the clients because it’s a good business strategy, that’s because that’s what’s needed for success. And often it’s a typical engagement model where in the beginning maybe we’re very involved. We’re hands on, rolling up the sleeves, doing a lot of work. But eventually we kind of, you know, taper off, but we never truly disappear or, ideally, because then we just kind of play a coaching, supporting, sparring role. Kind of like the doctor, right? We just come in once in a while for a health checkup. “How are things going? Oh. Everything is healthy? Great. Oh, That’s not going so well. Let’s investigate. Let’s find out.” Because everything, more or less, can be fixed and, you know, the sooner the better because if you can catch it soon enough, with some tweaking and refining, it can be fixed. Otherwise, if it’s too late then you kind of gotta maybe, you know, step back and lose a lot of time, energy, and maybe investments to get things back on track.
Taylor Martin: What about, you know, following up with like internal education or training to maybe elevate some designers or some creatives or even management. I mean, what do you do in those instances?
Jay Peters: Yeah, so, that’s interesting. So, we talked about PARK, which is our foundation. We have been in business for over two decades, specialized specifically in this area- design management, design leadership. But about 10 years ago, we started a new venture. A spinoff company, if you will, called Grow, and that’s our training and education entity. And so, we are, most of the time, working with our clients in PARK, you know, helping them to solve really complex challenges. But when we’re not doing that, we come into our training and academy program, and we teach others what we do so they can do it for themselves. Now that started with a demand from one of our long-term clients, being LEGO, which we helped them develop the LEGO Design Academy. But we brought it to the market because we know very well that most all companies have this challenge, right? The designers aren’t historically trained in leadership and management. They’re typically thrown in the deep end and it’s sink or swim, you know, learning by doing and sometimes by failure. So, we help other professional designers. And I use designers in quotes here as well because it really is development professionals. Anybody who’s responsible for developing and delivering new solutions, products, services, and experiences to the market. So, we help, kind of, you know, level them up and expedite that learning curve in management and leadership of design. Because it is proven time and time again, it’s not the budget; it’s really about the management and leadership. But we’re doing more and more training and what’s interesting for us is, again, the core was for the design and development community, but now we’re doing a lot of training for overall organization, so for the non-designers. So, we’re coming in giving them education around- we put together a large problem now- user experience, right? We got a client who everything is about the user experience, right? That’s their kind of mandate. But what does that mean? Because everybody has a different interpretation, right? So, we come in and we really educate and inform and equip them with what they need to understand but drive user experience in that organization and in that industry.
Taylor Martin: That’s awesome! I mean, sounds like you guys got it covered. So, if somebody needs heavy lifting, they bring you in. If they need, you know, just someone to come in and help train them to be better at what they’re doing then they have that option as well, right?
Jay Peters: Yeah.
[25:49] Taylor Martin: That’s awesome. So, tell us a little bit about, like, some examples of some of the clients you’ve worked with and, like, some of the results that you can tell us about.
Jay Peters: So, we’re fortunate to work with major market leaders across all categories because everybody needs design to deliver whatever it is that comes out the door. And a couple of maybe more known, or maybe not so known examples, are a couple of clients we’ve been fortunate enough to have long-term relationships for over 10+ years. So, one of those is LEGO. I think everybody knows LEGO. Most people love LEGO. Love the brand. But not many people are familiar with the story. The long story short is 2004 LEGO was nearly bankrupt and out of business, losing close to 1 million euro per day. And actually, design was part of the problem. Design was king of the castle back then, and they would create new components on a whim that would cost a good investment for the company- up to half million dollars- so, we developed a program back then called Design for Business. And essentially, as the words are connected, everything design did, moving forward, had to deliver value for business, right? And it was about streamlining operational efficiencies, ways of working, processes and tools, and also having dedicated organizations. So, we developed and integrated, dedicated front-end organization, back then called Concept Lab, that was looking for new play experiences, new opportunities, really just kind of, you know, getting the machine back up right and running. And, at that time, LEGO was back to the core, right? So, it was all about this brick and systematic creativity. So, we developed the Design for Business program that was retired some years ago because it was a success, and design kind of got its way back right. LEGO has grown organically over the past decade by almost 20% every year, which is unheard of.
Taylor Martin: So, can you get more specific about, like, what were the changes that were made, just so we can have some context to it?
Jay Peters: Sure. So, some of the changes that were made is that we basically developed and implemented streamline ways of working. So, there was, for example, an innovation guide that was used across all departments, all functions, that were not sitting in the same silos that we talked about earlier. And so, when they were going to develop a new play experience, they looked at this innovation profile and said, “okay. Where is that we want to drive and deliver innovation?,” whether it’s on the business side of things, the product and packaging, but also process and communication. And as I said earlier, you know, or what we talked about later is the Core Teams. You know, this was, again, a way for them all to be on the same page, speaking the same language, and driving for innovation opportunities and finding gaps. And then a bunch of stuff that’s just more operational, you know, having tools and processes that are available to all designers. So, they are being able to work more efficient, more effective, and not kind of stray aside. LEGO has gone through this growth, and they have been hiring designers like crazy. So, when they hire a designer, it’s not reinventing the wheel but kind of coming in and being able to do things the LEGO way.
Taylor Martin: You mentioned another company as well?
Jay Peters: Yeah. So, we’ve also been fortunate enough to work with GlaxoSmithKline. Long story short there. Ten years ago, there was no design in GSK. There was no design at all. It was marketed towards working with external agencies to execute the packaging, the brand experiences. So, then we helped the design director, who is now global VP, develop a design vision, which is the future organization. Okay, what can design do and how does that look like? What are the people, the organization architecture, the job descriptions, roles, responsibilities, etc. But long story short, the new CEO at that time had a vision, and the design vision came into help support that corporate vision, which was to become the first fast-moving healthcare company that didn’t exist. And we developed a roadmap, a vision, and all the tools to support something called Design Connection. So, again, design was just a logo on a box. There was no real understanding of it. And with the vision of the design director to create integrated, holistic brand experiences, we helped them to design and deliver across all the touch points. And one of the first products that went through that kind of transformation, if you will, is the brand Sensodyne. And long story short, that brand, after lots of time with development and time on market had doubled in sales. It had gone from 500 million to become the first billion-dollar brand in that portfolio. So, when we talk about design value and having KPIs and, again, you know, sales is of course one of the heaviest ones. This helped to create awareness and traction of the organization, so people were aware of what design could do, and this created a more pull versus push in that organization where people were then coming to design, saying “Oh, my god! I saw what happened with the other brands and categories. How can you help me with my brand and my category to deliver more value and go through a transformation?”
Taylor Martin: So that success story kind of launched a whole bunch of other ones, spawning from that. That’s great! So, before we finish, because we’ve covered a lot of ground, and we’ve gone, you know, over a little bit here in time. So, I wanted to talk about what would be your best advice? Because I know you’ve been in the trenches in so many different types of companies. What advise could you give our listeners with their design departments? What’s the best advise you could give them on them moving forward and helping their businesses succeed.
[30:31] Jay Peters: Yeah, so, I mean, it’s a big statement, and it’s hard to kind to pigeonhole it, so I would say, you know, advise is really what is truly the core challenge or opportunity? And, again, is that really defined right? So, is it an operational challenge, right? It’s about efficiency effectiveness, processes and tools, or is it about resources, right? You don’t have the right competencies in place. The right people. Maybe they weren’t recruited the right way. Because we see this time and time again. Designers are recruited. They read their job description but then they end up doing something else, that’s maybe not a core competency. Is it often the positioning challenge, right? Design is often still kind of- I hate to say- but more downstream as a supplier. And kind of the decoration station and not really integrated into processes or a strategic player in that organization, right? So, there’s so many different factors, and it really is, you know, what is the core challenge or opportunity. As I said also, where is the low-hanging fruit, right? If you really want to become a strategic partner, what are the quick wins, right? Is it showing some efficiency in processes? Is it having the right amount of resources, whether that’s internal or external, right? Using some freelancers or contractors, etc. So, it's hard to say, but I would say if there’s any advice it’s start small, you know, really make sure that it is the way forward. A lot of people are always benchmarking, which is great, right? They look outside and, okay, who’s doing other things well? We do a lot of training and education in design excellence. And it’s always good to, you know, bring that in, whether that’s a benchmark of a good example or maybe the not good example, you know, like the Kodaks and Nokias of the world, that, you know, design was also part of that where they just kind of went down quick. So, it helps to bring that in, but eventually what we want to do is have the own internal case study, right? That’s them. That’s nice. That’s not us, so what? So, building those case studies inside with, again, quick wins and showing what design can do for that organization.
Taylor Martin: Well, I think that’s great advice. I mean, first off, you know, really make sure you’re defining your problem, your situation, or where you need to go or what’s broken. What needs to be fixed? Make sure that’s right. And then two going for the small wins. I think that’s great because having a small win for the team, you know, even is going to help increase their motivation and their ability to say “yes,” you know, bring them together- more team spirited- and start moving everything, hopefully in the direction that you want it to be. So, I think that’s great advice. That’s great advice. Tell us a little bit more about how listeners can follow PARK or you or get on any social media platforms that you guys are.
Jay Peters: Yeah, absolutely. So, the best way to follow PARK and probably look into our other services is to go online at empowering.design. That is the URL that will show you PARK and Grow and our Raymond design leadership retreat. Me, personally, I’m pretty much only on LinkedIn. I kind of always kid that tweeting for the birds. I don’t know who has time to be on Twitter and all these other platforms. So, I’m on LinkedIn. I use that pretty heavily as my social media channel. And then also I just, personally, a long time wish for me, I also just recently launched by own podcast, specializing in design leadership, so folks that are interested to learn a little bit more about design leadership can check that out at thedesignleadershippodcast.com.
Taylor Martin: That’s fantastic! Congratulations, man. That’s great! I love that.
Jay Peters: Thank you.
Taylor Martin: Well, thank you for being on today’s show and, you know, showering us with all this information. I was always surprised and impressed that your niche within a niche within a niche, when you and I first spoke, I was like, “what? You do this? Really?!” I was, like, “I didn’t know somebody actually did that!” So, it’s been a pleasure getting to know you, your company, and what you guys do. And I wish you guys all the more success, especially, you know, with your design for humanity and what you guys are doing today. So, thank you for being on today’s show. I really do appreciate it, Jay. Thanks!
Jay Peters: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much, Taylor. I appreciate the opportunity.
Taylor Martin: You bet. Over and out, everybody!
Female Voice: Thanks for tuning into the Triple Bottom Line. Your host, Taylor Martin, is founder and Chief Creative of Design Positive, a strategic branding and accessibility agency. Interested in being interviewing on our podcast? Then visit designpositive.co and fill out our contact form. If you enjoyed today’s podcast, we would appreciate a review on Apple podcasts or whatever provider you are logging in from. This podcast is prepared by Design Positive and is not associated with any other entity. We look forward to having you back for another installment of the Triple Bottom Line.
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