Week 9: Core Characteristics, Ethics and Theory
- Tramaine Berry
- Jul 28, 2021
- 8 min read
Updated: Sep 27, 2023
Objectives
Research and analyse core characteristics, ethics and theory of entrepreneurship;
Communicate, in your opinion, the key characteristics of an entrepreneur today;
Discuss the pros and cons of how risk, failure and innovation is built into a model for business success, and what the impact of different cultural insights is in regard to opportunity and potential;
Manage your independent learning effectively.
RESEARCH //
What is the difference between design entrepreneurship movement 3.0 and Design Entrepreneurship?
Design entrepreship is not design. It involves designers not waiting for the client to bring them the problem, instead the designer is defining the problem themselves and develop their solution in a business venture.
It also isn't business creation - it's a way to change our society.
Entrepreneurship
It is presented as a third factor next to Design and Innovation.
Risk that goes beyond normal businesses. It reminds me of how the first module talked about start-ups being able to take more creative risks because they had nothing to lose compared to an end-up.
A person who sets up a business, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit. Does it need to be a profit? What about Corp B companies?
Creating something bigger than yourself (going beyond personal concerns and direct personal gain)
Design Entrepreneurship Movement 3.0
William Morris was an early pioneer of design entrepreneurism
1920s- The Bauhaus was pioneering design entrepreneurship ion an interdisciplinary level.
It talked about how a backstory that influences the design project. There needs to be an emotional attachment. It's your why! However, Sophie Hawkins usually pays freelancers to take over the design side of her projects because she gets too emotionally attached.
Definition: The C-K theory is a brillant theory to think about innovation. Moving from the Concepts space to Knowledge space. Innovation starts in the C-space as an idea with lots of uncertainty, but it needs to enter the K-space in order to get adopted and to work. This reminds me of how last module talked about the need to collaborate with specialists in order to inform the success of a project.
Skills required for this c-k theory is:
Trust
Urgency
Empathy
Mutual Understanding
Creating a common language
framing
proof creation
Other organisational theories include boundary objects, perspective taking and making, changing conversations, intervention theory. These frameworks will help practitioners to become more aware of what is happening and design ways to move things forward, avoid pitfall and become more successful.
Benefits:
Compared to other design theories, this one isn't based around something that already exists, which means you have to search for the problem. s Anil Dash pointed out on Wired.com,
This diagram focuses on the idea that a non-existing object (a concept) can have multiple concepts formed when we apply what we already know to it. The video makes this clear by asking 'what do we know about this object?' (K), which is expanded through association (K) to create more concepts.
On the left is the C-space, which has formed concepts based on visual associations from the K-space. The K-space helps visualise an abstract concept into the real world.
What makes a design entrepreneur?
Problem solving
Yves Behar thinks designers could be great entrepreneurs because they "are uniquely suited at solving problems on multiple dimensions without losing sight of the big opportunity to wow the customer."
The key trade of both designers and entrepreneurs is therefore problem solving. Both in being obsessed with a problem (note, there's a difference between being obsessed with a specific problem and entrepreneurship, as Anil Dash pointed out on Wired.com) -- and in how to solve
Pushing entrepreneurship on people that live only for designing interfaces, products, or logos is therefore not a good use our time. If someone just loves to design for design's sake, or is focusing on just that when designing a product, then maybe he or she shouldn't start a company. Don't only live for design, live for the problem solving process.
The different forms of problem solving
The 'why' of the business that solves a specific problem. The business is the product.
The trial and error that comes with running a business.
The Designer As Entrepreneur: The Barriers
Risk mindset
We have an emotional attachment to risks when they are inside our head compared to when they are written down - they are less threatning.
Lack of Knowledge
Am I good enough mindset - fear of messing up
Fear of success - being able to maintain standards
Finance
Connections
Lack of experience with people
Trend of Designers entering the Start-up culture
Concept 1: Different forms of problem solving
Backstory
To be an entrepreneur today is about having a powerful backstory - to have a 'why' that solves a specific problem. Not only does this drive motivation to create a business, it can also attract a network of collaborators and customers. In that sense, it's also connecting communities.
Solving local problems
Need from Fieldwork tries to tie up the idea of citizenship before being a designer in all his projects, which allows him to look at local public spaces and find ways to improve them.
Responding to current climates
Offscreen is a magazine business that looks at today's role of technology and attempts to counterbalance the fast-paced lifestyles.
Being able to connect with people during Covid, and making businesses remote to fit with current situations. Has Covid changed the way entrepreneurship's are run or created? https://ethos-magazine.com/think-local/
Competitors - Sony case study.
As the case study from John Paul Dejoria shows, it is important to put money on the side just in case investments don't work out.
Designing a working system
Managing people comes with trial and error, so it's important to create a structure that works for you and your employees.
Based on the case study from Ustwo, it is important to surface the values in the business because you have less time to manage individuals as the business grows.
Empathy
Concept 2: Connections
Asking for help
One thing I can relate to Neef Reham (from Fieldwork) was the need to recognise when to ask for help. John Paul Dejoria, a co-founder of Paul Mitchell hair products and the Patron Spirits Company, was homeless and his friend offered him a place for him to stay - he is now a successful entrepreneur. He bootstrapped at the start of his business to secure funding. Another rule in this story is to not 'count your chickens too soon' as DeJoria became homeless again after spending all his funds just before an investor pulled out of the deal. Back to square one again, he bootstrapped but changed the way he would handle his money.
Collaborating / Partnerships
Media Exposure for your business and gaining valuable assets to grow.
Interdisciplinary
Knowing people from different industries allows you to gain insight and inform your business or projects.
Work experience
Need from Fieldwork wanted to create his own job after graduating, so there has been a lot of time learning how to grow a business rather than learning from working for other studios. Additionally, he wasn't to able to start off with a network, which means it was harder to reach clients. However, he also says he has a group of friends that have started off their own businesses, making it a network of people he can/ could have contacted for advise.
Community
Creating a backstory that connects with people
Look at how businesses are starting to become community based - not just in a marketing sense but also in the business structure. Sinx's business was created from the network they already had.
Sophie Hawkins' sales come from her network of people that know her as a freelance tailor. She also markets her clothing by wearing them, so people would ask her where she got them from.
Creating something bigger than yourself (going beyond personal concerns and direct personal gain)
Concept 3: Empathy
Customer discovery
Understand customers
Customer Empathy Map
WORKSHOP CHALLENGE //
I would like to show the different stages of problem solving. The Why / Backstory The solution to a local, personal or global problem.
Working System Finding a structure that enables you to manage employees efficiently, and being able to communicate with a diverse range of people; the workplace is becoming more equal.
Responding to current climates
Economic/ Political (including the pandemic)
Technological advances
Consumer trends / Feedback
Competitors
Concepts on Problem solving
Adapting
An unstable level (wavy) - Leveler - Surfing or Sailing
My idea builds on the idea of problem solving throughout your business. So I want to create animation of a reptile camouflaging itself each time a word in the background changes. These words will be a range of barriers from Political situations to organising employers.
Maybe the lizard could shed its skin over- time (the background would show different seasons). And the end result could have a pile of skins with words on them (different types of problems in a business).
Once the word (problem) goes behind the lizard, the lizard will camouflage and change the word (problem) into another word (solution).
Over coming barriers
A series of episodes
Gaming levels - I think of Hong Kong and how the main character jumps over the barrels and climbs ladders to get to the next level.
Tetris- a puzzle that makes you act in the moment. Colours act as the categories for a situation (brand identity, managing employees, and responding to climates), each shape (represents a solution) with the same colour need to fit together to disappear. If they don't the business goes into liquidation.
Solutions to problems
Kitchen cleaner labels - helps create a smoother system.
Taking the idea of building a system literally - bricks with words (solutions) on them. Maybe play with the idea of the '3 little pigs and the wolf' testing out what can withstand problematic elements.
Absorbing
OOO a similar idea to this could be based around absorbing problems like a sponge, so that could be interesting to see cut out sponge-like words being inflated with water.
Or what about letter-formed earthquake buildings absorbing different levels of shock. Shock absorbers. Maybe compare different businesses and how resilient they are when it comes to changing climates - each building would represent a business and the animation would indicate the time each one has collapsed. More research would be needed on the causes of problems and date. On the other hand, this wouldn't highlight what design entrepreneurism is about because it is only highlighting what causes them to fail.
Final Concept
At the moment my animation only shows one example of how the lizard adapts to problems, which will be expanded to more entrepreneurial problems if I have time. The first draft is a bit unclear in its messaging, so I need to have a section where it shows what each element symbolises.
Lizard = Entrepreneur
Branch = Business
Leaf = Problem to business
Additionally, I would also add more frames to the animation for smoother transformations.
REFLECTION //
Through my research, I had found that the main characteristic to being a design entrepreneur is through problem solving, and I started enquiring about the different forms of problem solving and the different barriers that comes with running a business.
After writing out the type of problems I want to focus on, I found that a backstory isn't a problem, so I changed it to brand identity because this is more than just figuring out the backstory- its getting the brand guidelines right and making sure it communicates well with audience.
If I had more time, I would have liked to see where my absorption concept took me because this sounds like a very abstract path. On the other hand, design entrepreneurship isn't just about being able to 'absorb' problems, it's about the transformation process, so I think I went with the right concept in the end.
REFERENCES //
Research
Definition of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship, the missing link between design and innovation. Dennis Hambeukers, Feb 2021. Design Leadership Notebook. https://medium.com/design-leadership-notebook/entrepreneurship-the-missing-link-between-design-and-innovation-575723ea6024
Design Entrepreneur 3.0, 2011. Steven Heller. http://cfp13.johncaserta.info/uploads/heller.pdf
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