Adam Zeiner
@dezein
a persistently curious generalist (parading as a strategic designer, facilitator, and organizer) attempting to wrangle complexity
Adam Zeiner
dezein.info
Knowledge Work and
...we’ve been trained to think of organizations as homogenous and mechanistic, with a clear set of rules, a command-and-control structure, and the ability to leverage hierarchy to get things done quickly by issuing top-down directives to reallocate resources to meet objectives.
Aric Wood • The Organization as a Machine: An Outdated Concept - XPLANE | Organizational Change Management Consulting
Design organizations are increasingly expected to contribute to product strategy, but these structures support little more than product delivery. If the team is asked to develop a vision for the future product experience 2-3 years out, how do they get it done?
Peter Merholz • Creative and Strategic Leadership in Design Orgs—Super-Senior ICs and the Shadow Strategy Team (3rd in a series on Emerging Shape of Design Orgs), Peter Merholz
And though it's useful to be able to tell them apart, design is about strategic and tactical work happening together. At the heart of many stubborn design projects and unimpressive outcomes are people coming in with an incompatible mental models; overplaying strategy or tactics, and neglecting the other.
Mehmet Aydın Baytaş • Strategy and Tactics in Design
Content Ecosystem Mapping Articles and Resources
Scott Kubie • Visualize Your Digital Strategy with a Content Ecosystem Map
In building my own boundary objects and enabling others to do the same, I have become increasingly infatuated with Etienne Wenger’s work on communities of practice and the characteristics that enable particular artefacts to act as boundary objects
Luke Craven • #29: On boundary objects
The new ecosystem design will need to start with the customer’s view and deliver on the agreed-upon value proposition and experience. To achieve this, organizations can consider three domains: consumers, sectors and partners, and products and services. Design has a central role to play in each.
Istvan Rab • A design-led approach to embracing an ecosystem strategy
This explains a good deal of what works and doesn't work for teams, especially when it comes to their mission. For highly capable knowledge-work teams (marketing teams, software teams, research team, etc.), low-leverage missions tend to be uninspiring.