Intersection 18 — Conference Highlights
Below is my summary of highlights from the Intersection 18 conference held in the truly lovely Czech Republic capital of Prague in early September 2018.
The Intersection conference series began in 2014 by Milan Guenther and the EDA (Enterprise Design Associates), as a kind of interactive, community embodiment of the book Intersection, taking place at various European capitals each year [indeed, they’re soon going to run out of capitals ;-) — next year’s will be held in Lisbon!]. It is an event dedicated to issues around strategic enterprise design.
What does that mean? Milan admits there’s a certain “awkwardness” when trying to explain at a cocktail party. It encompasses everything from “brands to organizations” but he highlights the systems approach to enterprises and the need to render intent for the ambitious endeavor of scaling customer-centric innovation with transformative impact, both deeply and broadly. It’s really hard work, indeed… But what’s actually harder is defining what is “good enterprise design”, given the complexity and ambiguity of such a terrain. And therein lies the need for this conference and the conversations!
Disclaimer: I attended this event with a “bias” of sorts, as one of the organizers of an annual event called Enterprise UX in the US — now four years running, and we’re planning our fifth iteration for San Francisco in June 2019. Our conference tackles issues of scale, complexity, organizational schemes, process dynamics, as it relates to enterprise software (apps, tools, services) and beyond.
So, my point of view going in was a blend of curiosity, intrigue, and opportunity. The topics seem so closely related to what we discuss at Enterprise UX; what are the thematic overlaps, what’s the nature of the discussions, the issues that are top of mind to European speakers & attendees? And, how could we possibly collaborate for future events, given the tantalizingly close overlaps? Hmm…
TL/DR; Executive Summary
This professional event for enterprise design leaders (principals, directors, etc.) was themed “scaling ambitious endeavors”, structured across two days among four “modes” of engagement: Keynotes (at the start and end of the day for both days), Talks & Workshops (running simultaneously), Coffee Breaks, and (naturally, being in Prague), Beer / Happy Hour :-) The talks ranged from theoretical (like anarchy as cultural model) to practical case studies (ski resort, govt agencies, agriculture processor). Common issues centered on business process models, org schemes to maximize information flows, enabling Agile with true customer focus, and building design-supportive relationships across teams. There was quite a bit about visualizing relationships (mapping & diagramming) to untangle the wicked ambiguity of enterprise contexts. While there were no grand resolutions, there was considerable advice and frameworks/models to offer useful language and methods. There was, in the end, a sense of a tribe or community, whether your background is business or design-oriented. A collective vibe was felt!
Main Highlights
The venue: The Royal Theater is a very cool, memorable space that’s a far cry from your typical boring hotel ballroom. Instead, this was held in a fashionable cabaret style theater, complete with comfy chairs and couches — and even a full live bar in the back serving up freshly made espresso on-demand! The venue was also quite easily accessible by walk or transit, nearby various bars and cafes too. It was a bit dark with a constant nightclub feel, so going out for fresh air (and seeing some daylight!) was necessary during the breaks, after a string of talks ;-)
Attendees & speakers: Everyone I met and heard was someone concerned with the challenges of enterprise design: strategy, process, culture — no pixel pushers here! Everyone was quite senior in their roles, with considerable experience and contending with fairly heavy issues per enterprise design. It was interesting to note (from my POV, at least) a clustering of two predominant types of folks: those from strongly business process analysis, architecture world…and those from a more interaction/service/UX design world. I don’t mean that in an adversarial sense, but more like complements from different sides, addressing overlapping or similar issues to designing enterprises that serve customer goals via design methods.
Moderator (emcee): It was a real delight and strong addition to the program to have a single person dedicated as the sole moderator or emcee who provided a unifying stage presence over the course of the two days, guiding the audience along. Guro Røberg did a wonderful job — she’s clearly experienced at this, and knows how to engage the crowd and keep things moving smoothly, whether early in the morning or near the end, when folks are ready to hit the bar! It’s not easy at all, having some personal experience with co-hosting (while running around doing other conference things). I hope Intersection keeps up this practice going forward! (And we at Enterprise UX in SF might explore this option too ;-) Stay tuned…
Golden Nuggets
When I attend design conferences and then reflect afterwards or draft my notes for public consumption, I like to focus on what I call the “golden nuggets” — what are those few valuable bits of information or utility from the wide array of talks? Instead of writing up an exhaustive summation of everything — which can be tedious or ineffective — I find that whatever sticks with you in your mind a few days afterwards, particularly on the long flight home, that those are the really important bits (for myself, at least) that resonated. So it is in that spirit I’d like to share the top golden nuggets I took away from this event in Prague, in no particular order:
1 — Design Leadership Framework: http://2018.intersectionconf.com/sessions/design-leadership/
By Katharina Weber
Katharina presented a very well researched, thoroughly analyzed framework for articulating and assessing one’s design leadership within organizations, encompassing multiple levels (Company, Strategy, Team, Product, and Personal). It can be a powerful means of shaping design organizational improvements and setting expectations with non-design peers in other orgs about what exactly design leadership means, in terms of roles and responsibilities, thus fostering greater teamwork and understanding.
2 — Enterprise Maps to Navigate Complexity: http://2018.intersectionconf.com/sessions/enterprise-maps-to-navigate-complexity/
By Annika Klyver and Cecilia Norden (slides here on Slideshare)
Annika and Cecilia jointly presented on a visual modeling framework for assessing and really layering on the functional breakdown of an organization, the departmental pieces, the value creation streams and ultimately the overall lifecycle of products or services. By doing so you’re unpacking the complexity at different levels. It’s a really fantastic way to de-construct and re-perceive how organizational elements interact with each other, and gives new meaning to the snarky phrase, “umm, your org structure is showing” upon looking at a website or mobile app.
Note: there is a short workshop coming up by the speakers, if you want to learn more about this mapping methodology: http://www.irm.se/the-milky-enterprise-design-way/
3 — Ski Resort Case Study: http://2018.intersectionconf.com/sessions/design-led-change/
By Laurence Body and Sylvie Daumal
This was a thoroughly practical case study of tackling the complexities of service and information flows for a ski resort, with the various private entities and governmental aspects as well. What struck me was the down-to-earth simplicity of their design-driven lessons, so quite fundamental and sensible, especially to non-designers who may have contrasting views (i.e., biased assumptions ;-) They advocated for jointly visiting the site, doing stakeholder interviews, having stakeholders perform tasks too so they feel involved and truly contributing to the discovery process, to yield “just enough observation” of the site conditions and user journeys. It was altogether a highly collaborative approach to navigating such tremendous complexity.
4 — Growing HCD for Australian Govt: http://2018.intersectionconf.com/sessions/hcd-queensland/
By Iain Barker and Karina Smith of Meld Studio
Perhaps one of my favorites of all, Iain and Karina took a meta approach to the challenge of cultivating good human-centered design sense for a government agency — literally taking a design-led approach to creating a design approach. It’s often the case that a team has had many fits and starts with various design approaches but needs something that is a custom fit — hence, empathy and scenario analysis, etc. As the speakers say, it’s about mindsets, not methods. And striving to harmonize what works, not finding “the one that rules” all situations and problems. A vital point about the “Trojan horse” approach of trying to evolve culture via small projects — culture is tricky and fragile.
5 — Corporate Innovation: http://2018.intersectionconf.com/sessions/corporate-innovation/
By Holger Eggert
Another favorite if only for the performative aspect — a presentation that began and interweaved with live, fun musical performances! Holger addressed the often thorny issue of innovation and design-driven attempts in corporate structures, with some fun whimsical interludes that punctuated his points. The main issue is enabling innovation to be everyone’s responsibility, building a process that scales across dept/orgs, and find that optimal mix of velocity (speed) and organizational maturity. And never forget Holger’s Law: You can’t go faster than you’re learning! Very crucial :-)
6 — Anarchy to Deal with Chaos: http://2018.intersectionconf.com/sessions/anarchy-chaos/
By Jiri Fabian
With a title like that, it’s bound to provoke and challenge commonly held beliefs about organizations! Jiri went through some ideas from anarchist philosophy, but it was really about re-thinking power structures and influence relationships, suggesting other ways to re-structure orgs to maximize comms across teams, efficiency of tasks, empowerment of individuals, etc. It’s really about promoting trust and agility for decisions to be made. I love this saying: “It’s good enough for now, and safe enough to try” (versus the most perfect choice that everyone agrees to support). It’s about goading on more action, less paralyzing debate and tedious circles of discussion.
7 —Unified digital workplace / information model: http://2018.intersectionconf.com/sessions/meta-meet/
by Filip Callewaert
I loved how Filip went very deep into new ways of thinking about information — as creative action, as a structuring process, as a frame for collective understanding and culture/identity for a better workplace (i.e., cross-departmental collaborations). And this notion of “working out loud” or #WOL which apparently is a thing! It’s certainly how I like to work, being very transparent and open with non-design peers in other silos or orgs, to enable greater teamwork, both virtually and locally.
And one more thing… I want to especially note a certain cluster of talks that embodied a similar connective thread of how to bring agility, organizational discipline, and process effectiveness into enterprises so as to really focus on customer benefits. That’s clearly an emerging, necessary imperative now at companies that are undergoing “digital transformation” (that is, becoming like a true software-oriented company, away from previous legacy origins in other domains that are decidedly non-digital).
These are ongoing battles that demand cultural shifts and behavior changes — not easy at all. But through effective storytelling like Dr Raj Ramesh’s whiteboard drawing videos, or seeing multiple visual interpretations of an organization, like Sasha Aganova’s concept of a “self managed org”, that can stimulate epiphanies that lead to better collaboration and collective action for customer delight.
Nagging questions that remain…
For me, I still wonder about a certain set of questions that perhaps have no definite solution, but must be addressed in various ways as each person tackles various contexts:
- How do you incentivize positive customer-driven change?
- How do you begin to discuss matters of change and innovation with executives who are risk averse?
- The blurring boundaries of ownership: who owns business process design and the service or experience outcomes? How will they be measured and tracked? By whom?
In the end, I truly enjoyed and valued the Intersection 18 conference and look forward to next year’s event; and possibly, maybe some way to tie things together with Enterprise UX! Stay tuned…
