The Gap between Current and Future Strategic Design Education
How does the current strategic design education equip designers or creative leaders to meet the baseline of a strategic designer? How effective is it? Idris Mootee questioned the traditional academics in both business and design schools which were limited to delivering interdisciplinary knowledge to students, in his book published in 2013. He believed industries needed synthesists who were capable of not only emotional but also analytical skills. However, current education fails to empower students for future employment in this way. Mootee pointed out that the shortcoming was that education disconnects from real-world practices. Thus, creating design thinking companies seems like a better way to integrate design thinking and business strategies for solving big problems (Mootee, 2013).
Yet, it is still too early to lay a judgment. The role of a strategic designer was not as identifiable as a graphic designer nor as common as an analyst. Likewise, strategic design education is still at an early stage in development as it has only been established and expanded globally in recent years. As we can see, many small steps and groundwork have been made. Business schools such as Columbia and Yale integrated cross-disciplinary research and teaching before Mootee published his book. The New School introduced the Master of Science degree in Strategic Design and Management, followed by The University of Sydney, which provided a major in Strategic Design in the Master of Design in 2019.
Moreover, thought leaders in this field have placed several milestones in this field who dedicated their years of research and work experiences to textbooks for strategic design education. Such as Natalie W. Nixon, Idris Mootee, Jeanne Liedtka, Martin Tomitsch, Douglas Davis, Giulia Calabretta and more. These world-leading institutions and educators continuously learn from students' and employers' feedback for future iterations of strategic design curricula.
To find about more: I have explored more about the role of a Strategic Designer in my recent research project: The Future of Strategic Design Education. 