Soccer & Design

Competition. Stress. Pressure. Excitement.

Those words pretty much summarize what can be, ideally, a good situation vis-à-vis a product development program. Often it is the first three. Ideally the fourth is in there, as well. Otherwise, it is pretty much a feeling of unrelenting highly caffeinated tedium.

Those words were used by U.S. Women’s Soccer (ussoccer.com) coach Pia Sundhage during a press conference before the final game with the Japanese team. She described the environment that the women exist in on the field. Then she busted out with a brief rendition of Paul Simon’s “59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy),” a tune from 1966 with that unfortunate final phrase (it didn’t seem appropriate even in 1966). But the real message that she probably wanted her players to get is not that she is not a particularly accomplished songstress, but the opening lyric: “Slow down, you move too fast.” No, she probably wasn’t suggesting that the players run at a decreased pace. Rather, that it’s important to not let the competition, stress, pressure and excitement become so overwhelming that performance suffers.

And this is something that ought to be taken into consideration by designers, engineers and managers as they work on programs. Otherwise, those factors can become overwhelming, and if that occurs, then odds are exceedingly good that the outcome will be far less than that desired.

The whole method of how work is done is something that came up during a conversation with Anne Asensio, vice president Design & Brand Experience, Dassault Systemes (3ds.com), a conversation that was pretty much like a soccer game in its organized but dynamically changing vectors. Asensio came to the software company after heading up advanced design at General Motors. She’d been at Renault prior to that. And while she might be considered a “car designer,” given the bulk of her experience, she insists that she’s interested in “design,” not “car design” exclusively. (In fact, during one of the divagations, she suggested that rather than automotive designers asking “What car should we design?”—or more likely, “How should we design this particular four-door, midsize sedan that we’ve been assigned?”—they should actually ask a bigger question: “What kind of mobility should people have?” (“Don’t ask the people,” Asensio said: “They won’t know.” There needs to be design leadership, or what she called “design-driven innovation.”)

Asensio said that one of the things she’s most keen on in her work right now is “developing a platform for people to understand each other.” This necessitates a means by which people can “share, collaborate, and work together.” She is a believer in “collaborative intelligence.” This isn’t simply a case of designers talking with designers, but of the whole field of those who are involved in going from concept to product, from idea to artifact. Anything less is insufficient and what will be realized will not be entirely the real goal.

Which brings us back to soccer. As good as she is, forward Abby Wambach can’t win a game by herself. As important as she is, goalkeeper Hope Solo isn’t the only person who is responsible for defense. And on it goes, through the roster. There must be coordination. They must, in Asensio’s phrase, “share, collaborate, and work together.” The team would not have advanced as far as it did had there not been this coordination of efforts.

Similarly, this is what product development teams must do. They’re called “teams” for a reason, and while people are, naturally, keen on identifying with their peer group (e.g., “I’m a designer.” “I’m in engineering.”), they need to understand one another in order to accomplish what none of them can do individually. Otherwise it is stress, pressure, and feeling decidedly not groovy.