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Designers, what are you fighting for?
Are you fighting for design? Or are you fighting for your designs?
If you’re fighting for design, you’re in the wrong place. Go where you’re valued. More specifically, go where design is valued. But if you’re fighting for your designs, congratulations! You’re in a place where you get to argue the merits of your work rather than the merits of your profession.
The right fight
Maybe you think you shouldn’t have to defend your work. Maybe you think that having to fight for your ideas means you’re not valued. Maybe you think having your recommendations overruled occasionally is a sign of disrespect. That’s flawed thinking.
Ask any designer who’s worked in a place where design isn’t valued. They’d kill to have a conversation about their work rather than wondering why they were excluded from another strategy meeting. You don’t get a free pass on your work just because your title includes the word designer. Designing is just one step in the process. Defending your work, and arguing its merits—that’s a critical skill to hone and one that will define the arc of your career if you’re a strategic designer.
Professionals of every stripe have to prove the merits of their work, and they don’t always get their way. That’s just how interdisciplinary, cross-functional teams operate. Focus on winning the important fights. Be willing to let the rest go.
Hang on tightly, let go lightly.
This doesn’t end well
If, however, the misunderstanding is systemic—if most of your time is spent fighting for your profession and not your work—it’s time to pack up and head for higher ground. If you don’t, you’ll spend your time fighting for basics like resources, budget, and time. Your professional existence will be a precarious and depressing one. Your portfolio, not to mention your skills, will grow stagnant. Having to convince peers, stakeholders, or clients that your work matters is exhausting. And, to be honest, mostly futile.
Many years ago, in my design consultancy days, our agency was hired by a company whose mid-level managers were worried they were headed in the wrong direction. At the time, our client’s site was…
