In-house reimagined.

The process of being a top-notch in-house design department is never ending. The same is certainly true for outside design firms but it’s the pressure of proximity and attitude that makes it more difficult for in-housers.

Working for the same company, where clients have access to you any time they want, is not the easiest environment for fostering brilliant work. One reason is it makes dumping rush jobs on you easier, generally speaking. I call it “drive-by” design. But it’s not just about working unproductively-close.

It’s also about wanting an identity or personality that’s all your own. I’ve worked for both agencies and in-house and there’s something special about working in a space that’s “yours”. But that’s difficult to do in most corporations. But it’s worth fighting for if you can.

The second half of the equation is attitude, or better yet, gratitude. Business units and in-house design departments tend to take each other for granted. But in this scenario, the design department loses because most business units can “go outside” to get work done. Unfortunately, the work falls mostly on us. So what’s an inhouser to do?

Marty Neumeier‘s article, The Power of In-house, part 1: Unleashing Design offers up some words of wisdom:

As the drumbeat of innovation grows louder, corporate leaders are feeling the need for stronger internal design. But before a company can even think about building an in-house design capability, it will need to address the problem that has plagued in-house designers since the days of the cave painters. This can be reduced to seven letters: R—E—S—P—E—C—T. As soon as the department is established, its value starts to depreciate. Within months the new group is inundated with low-level tasks and excluded from high-level conversations.

What’s the cure for vanishing value? To reimagine the internal design department as an independent studio. Since respect comes from a combination of performance and proactivity, mimicking a successful design studio can trigger the same level of respect usually reserved for external firms.

How? Instead of expecting work to come in automatically, the internal team can adopt a more Darwinistic model by acquiring skills that rival those of external firms. It can develop its own engagement processes, seek interesting problems to solve, and make “pitches” to internal “clients.” Like an external firm, it can prove its competence through performance metrics and design competitions. It can even institute a charge-back system to attach a dollar value to the work it does.

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