Articles: Design Entrepreneurship

 Designers make great entrepreneurs, they just don’t know it yet | WIRED

An interesting article on the low ratio of designers as start-up founders. 

The key trade of both designers and entrepreneurs is…problem solving

 

“thinking like a designer means being better suited for the open-ended ambiguous problems that epitomise the startup journey and having the skills needed to iterate towards product-market fit.” You’re excited to apply the design mindset to rethinking organisational structure, go-to-market strategy, and the many other challenges that inevitably get thrown your way”

 

‘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. I’d say the same for people who just love to code or just love to sell.

But if what they really love is the process around designing — around solving problems they are passionate about — then they are well-suited for entrepreneurship.

Many designers don’t even know they want to go out for entrepreneurship or that it’s a possibility.

For some this lack of awareness or exposure is the fault of education. For too long, designers have been trained to be agents: working at the will of someone else’s vision. …..schools, with occasional exception, sprinkle rather than embed entrepreneurship into their programs.’

Steve Jobs pointed out that “Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.”

 

Actually, it goes a level deeper. Design is not just about how it works, it’s about the process of how you get it to work. And that’s what founding a company, what entrepreneurship is all about.


7 Creative Leaders Answer: What is a Design Entrepreneur? | HOW


Entrepreneurs, don’t give up your day jobs (yet) | WIRED

Why you shouldn’t quite your day job until you’re established.


Entrepreneurship in Design by kathryn H. Anthony; Design Intelligence

  • ‘opportunity recognition and resource acquisition that leads to the creation of something new’ 
  • Her class course objectives are:
    • Understand the value of entrepreneurship in architecture and the design professions to society.
    • Identify and critically analyze major issues in entrepreneurship.
    • Become familiar with some of the leading figures in entrepreneurship at the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Illinois; social entrepreneurs whose work has impacted the built environment world-wide; environment and behavior design consultants; and diverse designers in nearby metropolitan areas.
    • Understand how these individuals have benefited from entrepreneurial knowledge and skills.
    • See how their future career can be enhanced by acquiring some basic entrepreneurial knowledge and skills. 
    • Gain some hands-on experience proposing future ventures for creative entrepreneurship and for non-profit organizations.
    • Present prospective ventures in a way that communicates effectively for future prospective clients.
  • Materials
    • Book: Innovate Like Edison by Michael Gelb and Sarah Miller Caldicott
      • Thomas Edison’s five basic competencies
        • solution-centered mindset
        • kaleidoscopic thinking
        • full-spectrum engagement
        • mastermind collaboration
        • super-value creation
    • Book: Patterns of Entrepreneurship Management
    • Book: The One Page Business Plan
    • Book: Design Like You Give a Damn by Architecture of Humanity
    • Book: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
  • Course assignments:
    1. Seminar presentation on a design entrepreneur: Students identify and interview a design entrepreneur and present information about him/her to class using innovative technology.
    2. Seminar presentation based on Horan’s One Page Business Plan for Non-Profit Organizations: Students produce an innovative venture for a nonprofit organization or produce an innovative for-profit entrepreneurial effort based on what they learned from the course.
    3. Google assignment: Based on what they learned from a class visit to Google, students design an office for their own entrepreneurial venture to spark the highest possible levels of creativity.
    4. and more mentioned in article