Do You Matter? How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company

by Robert Brunner and Stewart Emery with Russ Hall

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In September of last year, we had Adam Nielsen on the show for a recommended book list, where we talked about books we liked and were looking forward to. After the recording was done, I checked my email and saw Robert Brunner had just released his first book. Great, a guy we had on our previous podcast, that changed my way of thinking, was once again telling me I was wrong and should try harder. I should have picked his book. I ordered it just minutes later, and when it arrived, it sat on the shelf with the others waiting to be read. It sat there for two months at least. Then, I started reading it. Just a few pages, maybe a chapter at most – a week or more between readings. Three chapters in and I started to think this book wasn’t written for me, but for some big CEO to tell them how design can change their business. Not for how I should be changing my business. Not for how I should be thinking about design.

He talks about designing a new grill. Not to just design a better grill, but to design the grilling experience. Take a step back – you realize the issue isn’t with how the grill works, it’s that the person running it has his back to the other people. The grill isn’t the problem, the experience is. The cook is not engaged in the dialog. The problem is that the hood gets in the way of the experience.

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