Favorite Roles

A) Perspective for early projects. Giving Jerry an hour or two with project teams early in a project or proposal is very useful. He's good at reframing, sharing useful history quickly, having design opinions and recommending people and media to know. Earlier is generally better.

B) Strategy development. The world is going through traumatic changes, from jobs lost to automation, to cost-free global communications and superempowered individuals. The hardest changes to notice are the social ones, not the technological ones. Jerry helps organizations find opportunities in the cloudy future and shape themselves to fulfill them.

C) Design from Trust. Today's institutions are designed from mistrust of the average person. In order to function efficiently and scale to serve large numbers, they trap us in lock-step and eventually have to coerce us to stay in line. Organizations around the world are proving that not only is trust cheaper than control, it is also more effective -- and more connecting. People in relationship are happier.

D) Director of Philosophy. Patagonia has one, clearly a pioneering title in a company that stands apart. Yet in an era of active, big questions (will software eat all jobs? do facts matter? is the IoT a boon or danger? how do we reinstate trust?) design firms have a special responsibility. Intent never seemed to matter before. Now it does. A DoP post might be a 30% time position. It could involve 1:1 coaching, workshops, talks and -- if you liked the role and its benefits -- a more visible role in business development.