Summary
Nathan, a designer with a background in car and interaction design, reflects on the evolving relationship between design and business cultures, especially in the San Francisco Bay area. He highlights the historic divide where business focuses on optimization, certainty, and quantitative metrics while design thrives in ambiguity, imagination, and qualitative value. Nathan emphasizes the importance of broadening the concept of value beyond financial measures to include emotional, identity, and meaningful value, which are often invisible in traditional business accounting but critical in today’s product and service innovation. He uses the example of Facebook’s Instagram acquisition, where most value was 'goodwill' rooted in relationships and experiences, not reflected in the balance sheet. Nathan stresses that value exchange only happens in relationships built through experiences, which are overlooked by business tools. He also discusses organizational innovation cultures and how HR and leadership must adapt to support the design-business convergence. Tools like the Business Model Canvas help but new integrated accounting methods are needed. Nathan encourages designers to lead this cultural and linguistic shift to collaborate effectively, rather than wait for business peers to meet them halfway.
Key Insights
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Design and business cultures have historically different languages, values, and problem-solving approaches, causing a divide in collaboration.
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Business focuses on optimization, certainty, and quantitative value, while design thrives in ambiguity, creativity, and qualitative value.
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Traditional business metrics capture only financial and performance value, leaving emotional, identity, and meaningful value unaccounted.
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Value is only exchanged through relationships, which are built and maintained over a sequence of experiences.
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Emotional value lasts briefly, identity value is deeper, and meaningful value relates to worldview, making it the most durable and significant.
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The $1.01 billion difference in Facebook’s purchase of Instagram was mainly goodwill, representing intangible value from relationships and design.
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Different innovation cultures exist within organizations; understanding and working with your organization’s culture is critical for success.
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HR often lacks understanding of new skills or roles, which can block hiring the right talent essential for design-led innovation.
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Current business tools like Six Sigma and financial accounting are excellent for quantifiable metrics but inadequate for qualitative and design-driven value.
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Designers must proactively drive new conversations and develop shared language and tools to bridge the cultural divide with business.
Notable Quotes
"I hate the term creatives because it implies no one else in the organization is creative, and that’s just not true."
"Business people thrive in certainty; designers habitually thrive in ambiguity."
"You wouldn’t use design thinking to optimize your inventory — you use Six Sigma."
"Value only gets exchanged in the context of a relationship; without relationship, there's no value exchanged."
"The business tools focus on the measurable $86 million, but miss the $1.01 billion in goodwill Facebook paid for Instagram."
"Emotions last between 30 and 120 seconds, so identity and meaning are deeper levels of connection with users."
"If you hear someone say 'people won’t pay more,' look at their watch or car; everyone pays more for value beyond price."
"Organizational innovation cultures vary, and some companies succeed by buying innovation rather than building it internally."
"HR is the gateway to new hires, but without understanding design and innovation, they can unintentionally block talent."
"We need to shift from quantitative versus qualitative to quantitative and qualitative, merging the two worlds."
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