Perhaps this is not the right question, but it is one that comes up more and more often for me/my studio. Look at it this way: the design profession grew out of production — someone to plan how the things that were being produced would look and work. The profession has certainly changed over time, but designers are still essentially asked to create products of some sort: logos, books, packages, web sites, and so on. Implementation.

However, in my experience, it is frequently the case that the things we are asked to produce (and produce well at that!) are the wrong things to accomplish our clients’ goals. What could help avoid this result? Strategy.

For example: What good is my service of designing and supervising the printing of a beautiful direct mail piece when my client’s audience is far more likely to respond to an email blast? Seems like wasted effort and money. Wasted implementation.

I suspect it is extremely commonplace for us designer-types to respond to the client’s request for a new logo by simply providing a new logo instead of asking, “Do you really need a new logo?” Or at least “Why do you want a new logo?” followed by an extensive evaluation of the client’s products and services, goals and audience to determine if this plan is indeed a wise one.

So why don’t we designers just employ a little strategy and make the right things?

Well, most of us got into the profession exactly because we like implementation. We love stuff and we love to be involved in making it. Even if we can’t exactly produce the physical thing ourselves, we are happy to work with manufacturers who can.

And this isn’t a bad thing — in fact, for years it has been what has differentiated designers from nondesigners: that the things we designers made were of a better quality than the things we didn’t make. Simply looking at a company like Apple will reveal that this is still an important factor.

The other factor that keeps us from being far more strategic than we are right now is that it isn’t easy to be a good strategist. Just because I want to have a good strategy does not mean I will. It’s like wanting to be wise: just because I want it, or even work toward it, doesn’t mean I can attain wisdom. Some people get it and some don’t.

So what’s a good strategy for me to get good strategy? Heh. Do like me and focus back on implementation.

Ok, so maybe I’m kidding a little bit, but many a serious thing is said in jest. I have seen first hand that good strategists are not a dime a dozen. There’s very few of them in our own fair city, for example. And I have experience with my own shortcomings in my ability to provide a good plan for my business partners now and again.

So I ask this:

1. Is my assessment of the importance of strategy to design accurate?

2. If it is, how does one get better at it?