Episode 145 of The Informed Life podcast featured a conversation with Greg Petroff. Greg is a renowned executive design leader. He’s built and led design teams for companies like GE, Google, Compass, and Cisco. In this conversation, we discussed the evolving role of design in business and how designers can stay relevant in today’s dynamic environment.

Greg described himself as a “possibilitarian,”

a term that isn’t a real word, but if it were a real word, it would describe a point of view about looking at problems and recognizing that there are ways to solve them and that we should create the future we want. And we may have many issues that are sitting in front of us, but, if we’re creative — and we use design as a methodology of looking at the world — we can come to a future that’s actually something that we like.

What is special about design as a methodology? Greg called out two characterstics:

  1. Abductive thinking, “the ability to generate multiple ideas and keep them alive for a period of time.”
  2. Juxtaposing seemingly unrelated things to create new possibilities.

These are superpowers that designers bring to companies. But it’s currently a tough market, and I wanted to hear Greg’s thoughts on what’s going on. He called out several factors that are changing conditions for designers in the enterprise:

  1. Changing market conditions are putting pressure on companies to focus on profits over growth — i.e., they need to understand what they’re getting from their investments in design.
  2. The impact of AI, especially as companies shift their investments toward AI efforts.
  3. Progress in design tools, which change what Greg called “the materiality of how software is built.”

They add up to a shifting environment. But there’s hope. As Greg put it,

I think we’re in this sort of seismic moment where we have to figure that stuff out. And once we do figure that stuff out, I think that unleashes all kinds of opportunities for net new things to happen in very different ways.

Taking advantage of these opportunities will require that designers learn new skills an adopt new mindsets. Greg suggested three specific things designers can do to prepare for the future. Check out the show to hear what they are.

The Informed Life episode 145: Greg Petroff on the State of Design