Today, I immersed myself in the design meetup scene once again – and returned feeling cautiously optimistic.
Events that I used to enjoy very much have not recovered to the same extent as before following the Covid-related slump in Berlin and many other cities (Damian's Berlin Product Designers Meetup, which always sells out quickly, is rather the exception here).
However, I have also noticed recently that such events often reflect developments in our industry: the gold rush atmosphere of the last 15 years has given way to a little more realism. This is particularly evident in the fact that juniors are finding it harder to find good jobs, ‘design thinking’ is no longer being thrown at everything, and even designers (!) are no longer always optimistic about the future.
But what I took away from today is cautious optimism:
- It is clear that the tech industry (like so many sectors of the economy) has recently experienced a phase of market consolidation. Budgets for innovation do not have it easy in economically challenging times.
- The line-ups of companies, business models (e.g. of start-ups) and the structure of the tech industry may change in some respects, but the fact remains that value creation in products today happens more than ever through user experience design.
- At the same time, almost as many designers from companies as from agencies now attend such meetups. Design as a means of value creation and methodology for (product) innovation has long since arrived at the big tables. Companies that still struggle with digitalisation or do not see innovation as a continuous part of their work (keyword: design ladder) will have a hard time.
More than ever, it is up to us agencies to be more innovative, methodically better and faster than large and small companies could be on their own – and to take our customers with us.
As someone who has never fully understood the gloomy mood of recent years, I can now say more than ever: I am looking forward to the time ahead. I look forward to the further development of my discipline, to the exciting methodological challenges that lie ahead and, above all, to all the great products that we will continue to develop with our clients in the future.
It's nice to get out again. Let's shape the future together! 🚀