A Good Strategy is like a Good Movie

Design Leadership
Oct 22, 2008
6 Comments









The title of this quick post came up in a recent discussion I had with a business partner. After further reflection, I find this very true. It is applicable to all forms of strategy including design. So let me reword this:

A good design strategy is like a good movie. A beautiful sum of parts that come together under great direction.

Who do we have? The actor, the script writer, the sound guys, the casting crew, support crew, and let us also not forget the director.

Who do you want to be? I suggest the director if you want to really make a change.

It is how and the way it all comes together, the various still images and sound, that makes a movie great. Miss a part or segment (for example by censoring) it seems to all fall apart.

Similarly, everyone in your development team has a role to play. More importantly, no one is above anyone else nor should anyone be excluded. Sometimes as designers we forget eh?




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    • Comments

    sssj
    Oct 23, 08 – 3:14 am

    Hmmmm. I agree. A good movie tells a great story and captivates its audience – much like a good design strategy. Great metaphor… I’ll have to remember this one. Interesting post DT! ^^

    p.s I have been really slack with the 100 pushups… I think I need to start again! Good on you for keeping at it.

    Michael
    Oct 23, 08 – 4:07 am

    Interesting concept, but I think a good movie is more like a good execution than good strategy. When you talk about sum of parts as actors, sound guys, and support, that sounds like marketers, designers, and engineers. Those are people executing pieces of the plan, but not the plan itself. The plan itself comes from the director, so I like this piece of your analogy the most.

    Since strategy is typically defined as long-term thinking, then wouldn’t a good strategy be more like a good *franchise of movies?

    tom
    Oct 24, 08 – 9:34 am

    i think that the designer more than the director would many times be the script writer… i mean, the script writer is the one who “designs” the film, its story.

    JIm Rait
    Oct 24, 08 – 8:37 pm

    Making a movie has a divergent-convergent exploration field putting together the concept, actors, technical, sound camera people and writing a good story of how the film will be made before financiers open the starting gate … then execution becomes important….. but that fuzzy front end needs excellent design of the ‘pack’ to attract those resources in the first palce… like all great projects

    DT
    Oct 27, 08 – 9:44 pm

    @sssj, Hang in there with the Push ups. I am taking a injury break as I hurt my wrist. Thanks for your feedback!

    @Michael, thanks for stopping by and leaving your comments. A franchise of movies makes sense, perhaps a Strategy on a higher level? We must not forget Strategic plays comes on many levels.

    @tom, thanks for your comment. Actually Tom, I see that you are looking at Design as how many designers do, as content creation. That bit is the problem why many designers to look further than their sketch pad or CAD program. I hope if you can dwell more here you can see Design can be so much more than that?

    @Jim, Very True. Thanks for the good feedback as usual.

    tom
    Nov 07, 08 – 2:03 am

    you’re right, DT. thanks


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