Creating a creativity-centred design and research team culture in the age of optimisation

When I lived in Seattle, I played bass in a band. On my old portfolio site, I had an entire section devoted to this band. I did this because, well I didn't have a lot of industry experience to show, but also because a lot of the skills needed to play in a band are the same skills that make for a great designer. You have to organise a group of people towards a goal. You have to collaborate and create an output together that everyone is aligned on. You have to think through branding and monetisation strategies. But you also want to all have fun and create cool things together. God I miss that.

Since switching into research from design, I feel like I've missed a little bit of that style of collaboration and community that exists within design teams. Researchers culture is often built off the back of academia, which can bring baggage. Academia is a pressure-cooker with a lot of stress, imposter-syndrome, and competitiveness. Researchers can often come off like pedantic buzz-kills.

As I get further into my research career, I find myself pining for the days of being in a design studio or design agency. Perhaps the change I'm seeing isn't all to blame on research culture. I've experienced some awesome research team cultures. Maybe it's an industry shift. TBD. But either way, I want to make an impact on the culture of the community I'm part of right now. Building a creative open culture is no easy feat. It's so easy for it to go awry, and so hard to bring back. Like many places, my current workplace is suffering from post-Covid, post-layoff culture shock. People don't trust eachother. They're not connected, and no bringing them back to the office is not the solution. This moment of semi-ptsd will naturally pass in the industry.

I want to be part of creating the next wave of creativity-centred design and research. The local maximum of optimisation and minor-growth focused initiatives will pass and they'll need new big ideas again. Designers and researchers will be looking for the places where they can be part of a creative culture and be allowed to think big and create cool things again. To extend the band metaphor slightly past it's usefulness, this time around, I'm no longer the bass player in this design industry. I'm the band manager. Moving recently from being an IC Researcher to a Research Manager. I haven't felt excited like this in a while. Now it's my turn to spot talent and create cohesive groups of people that can bring to life big ideas.