#40 | Janaki Kumar | Driving business transformation

“There’s a lot of great realisation in the design industry around the ethics of design. We know the power of design, but how do we use our power for good?” In Episode 40, we talk with Janaki Kumar, Head of Design of Commercial Bank at JPMorgan Chase, and co-instructor at Stanford’s LEAD course on Customer Experience Design, and has previously led the Design and Co-Innovation Center at SAP, helping businesses transform through design. Janaki discusses her experience working in corporate organisations, and the intersection of design and business; how to bring design to the table and how to work with other stakeholders to grow the value of design. Through her 17 years at SAP, Janaki and her team at SAP came to the conclusion that there are four stages in organisational readiness for design. When established multinational organisations start to see new start-ups with new design and technologies entering their industry and taking market share, these large corporations begin to realise they need to evolve and bring in designers to support this. In doing so, designers should be patient with themselves and with the organisation, as it can take time for organisations to fully accept these new designs and processes. Janaki also discusses where she sees design heading – how the design community itself needs to evolve in order to take on new opportunities. The role of the designer is evolving – instead of being given a clear design brief, designers are now being brought in to a project during the early stages to develop the design brief alongside the organisation. What does this mean for the designer and how do they add value? Thanks for your time Ben and IxDA Milan and Interaction20 where the episode was recorded for the support!