Adopting a Strategic Design Mindset

From Fashion Design to Strategic Design

Wayfinding

As a young entrepreneur with a degree in fashion design, and some momentum around an outerwear business that I founded in 2011, I realized somewhere along the way that I had gotten it wrong.

It was a harsh transition, from being one of the few friends who was "so lucky to know what she wanted to do with her life," to being very confused, and heavily invested in a future that did not fit. I couldn't figure out how to keep the parts that I loved, while moving away from the parts that were dragging me down, mentally and emotionally.

To try and make sense of the situation, I started talking about it with my peers and learned I wasn't alone. Some questions that came up through these conversations: what was the meaning behind fashion––luxury fashion in particular? Can fashion be sustainable, or is sustainability fundamentally against its nature? How can sustainability be expressed in both environmental responsibility and longevity?

The biggest learning from these question was not in finding an answer, but in accepting their complexity. And the challenge of diving into that complexity was irresistible. This was my first clue.

As a young person in the industry with little influence, no answers, and a lack of confidence in a process to get there, I started looking outside of the industry for other ways of doing things.

Fundamental and paradigm shifts don't happen over night, which fueled a drive to gain a deep understanding of the larger systemic forces at play that could influence these shifts. Through this pursuit, I started developing a strategic design mindset and practice without realizing what I was working towards.

The right book at the right time

Reading Roger Martin's book, The Design of Business, was a turning point for me. It was like a radio dial tuned me into a new direction. There was a whole world in which my skills and interests came together.

Entrepreneurship is about business design, and there are opportunities for design of business throughout companies and organizations everywhere. Fashion was (is) in dire need of new business design and new systems. This book provided an entry to building a vocabulary and process for complex challenges.

Strategic Design is Wayfinding

Finding a way into this field through a series of adventures, and misadventures, might provide some insight into how to contextualize it and how to approach it for yourself. The field of strategic design is very much about wayfinding. Often, the complexity of challenges require solutions that do not exist or have not ever been tried in a new context. It feels appropriate to have arrived here through a through a parallel practice in life.

To be a wayfinder is to be a designer. Both are mindsets that allow for systems thinking and sensemaking. If we trust that the process is about discovery, we can observe the things we did not know, while acknowledging and releasing our mental models. We begin with asking questions, tapping into community, and, to drive these actions, an insatiable curiosity.

This piece is part of a collection on the field of Strategic Design.

Read the first in the collection, Making Sense of Strategic Design, here