Can you imagine meeting with a group of executives and talking about the role that love - yes, LOVE ❤️ - plays in shaping the design of innovative products and services?

I bet the mere thought makes you a little anxious.

Pictures of snickering suited faces, accusations of time wasting, and a brown cardboard box come to mind for me.

So, for that meeting to go well, what would need to happen?

In episode 98 of #BraveUX, I spoke with Mauro Porcini, PepsiCo’s Chief Design Officer.

Mauro’s latest book, “The Human Side of Innovation: The Power of People In Love with People”, was recently released and I asked him what gave him the the right to talk about things like love around the board room table.

He told me:

💬 “I can afford to talk about certain topics today because of the track-record of successful projects that I landed in the world and for the business value, the financial value that I was able to create for these companies… If I was… right away talking about love and kindness, people would have rolled their eyes and been like ‘Okay, he’s a nice guy for sure but we don’t really need this shit!”

For the past 20 years - ten at PepsiCo and ten at 3M - Mauro has been diligently demonstrating the value of design.

Reflecting on why he’s been successful as a design leader, Mauro told me:

💬 “First of all build proof points, as fast as possible. That really needs to be one of the main goals that you set for yourself. Show value, show value in all possible ways! That is financial value, tangible value. One of the criteria should be how tangible and visible is the value that I’m building to the company and prioritising that. Because the more tangible, the more they’re going to invest in you and what you’re teaching.”

And it’s Mauro’s ability to continually stack these proof points that have made his perspective on design’s role in business hard to ignore.

But Mauro is quick to point out that he didn’t wake up one day and start crowing from the rooftops about empathy and kindness.

Over the years, he’s been methodical in communicating the link between the successes of his design org to the positive human-centred qualities that have enabled them.

💬 “From the very beginning you start to hint that idea. You start to share it. But at the beginning it’s slow… a few fragments of the vision, proof points and then more fragments and then more proof points.”

I feel Mauro’s story is a good example of how your position in an organisation might give you the right to speak, yet it’s your track record of success that gives people the willingness to listen to you.

👉 Thinking about your own success, what is it that you’ve done that’s made people receptive to hearing, perhaps even adopting, a more human-centred perspective?

Watch the video for Mauro’s full take and share your thoughts in the comments below 👇.

#DesignLeadership #UX #UXDesign #ProductDesign #Innovation #DesignInnovation #PepsiCo

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Watch the full interview:
👉    • Brave UX: Mauro Porcini - The Human S...  

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Who is Mauro Porcini?

Mauro is a Senior Vice President and the-first-ever Chief Design Officer of PepsiCo , the largest food and beverage company in North America and second largest in the world 🧃. At PepsiCo, Mauro and his team of 300 designers have been on a decade-long mission to infuse the corporation with a human-centred culture 🧬.

Before joining PepsiCo in 2012, Mauro invested 10 years at 3M, building out the business’ global design function 🗒. Something he appears to have been quite successful at, as he also became the company’s first-ever Chief Design Officer 🥇, with the CFO of The Wall Street Journal referring to him as, “… the man putting 3M on the design map.”

Mauro’s second book, “The Human Side of Innovation: The Power of People in Love with People” has just been published 📘. It is described as “… a manifesto for a genuine, authentic, and deeply humanistic approach to innovation, one that aims to create personal and social value first…” 💜.

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Find Mauro here:

LinkedIn:   / mauroporcini  
Twitter: https://bit.ly/42tANlE
Website: https://bit.ly/42up32b

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Hosted by Brendan Jarvis:

LinkedIn:   / brendanjarvis  
Website: https://thespaceinbetween.co.nz/
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