The business of web design is filled with all sorts of characters and personalities. Some of those personalities are strong or weak. This post gets theoretical to propose an idea on how I came to understand the who of web design.
I consult for companies. And within these companies there are many people. There are all sorts of people. The challenge for me is categorizing people on the org chart to better leverage strengths and mitigate weaknesses for their benefit.
How? Well, I thought to myself what types of people do I deal with? Do they have similarities or are they completely different to each other from a business perspective?
While it is true we are all different and wonderfully created and the values from business to business are as individual as a fingerprint, there is overlap in the types of people I deal with.
My ideas about this and using a classification system to help org businesses is mine alone and you certainly do not have to agree. I think though if you try this when you are consulting or try this within your own org it may very well help you leverage the positive over the negative forces in your business.
The Rules
Here’s the theory. Every business person has 2 sides to whatever degree. The sides are 1. Thinker and 2. Tinker. The varying degrees will be Big and Little. Those are my ground rules for this theory of sorts. So every person is a Thinker and a Tinker, but to what degree?
Types of Persons Defined
- Big Thinker
My first person is a Thinker to a Big degree. Big Thinker is a person that can master high level ideas and is intellectually flexible. He or she is a person that can see horizon issues and master the eagle eye view of a business. This person is a visionary. - Little Thinker
My second person is a person not concerned with strategy or concepts leading towards goals and is not flexible, but has a definite supporting role. - Big Tinker
This person has a mastership of implementation and subject matter expertise that is admirable within the org. - Little Tinker
The last type of person does not know how to implement granular tasks and rather than an expert plays a supporting role.
So to review and as an example, I have a client that is a Big Thinker and a Big Tinker. He is not only able to create strategy and visioneer, but is also able to get granular or down to the code level to implement exactly what it is he would like to accomplish. This type of person is the most rare while the Little Thinker and Little Tinker the most common personality type.
We can’t be perfect or good at everything, this post can help businesses identify who should do what and why. This also is not a judgement on the value of any persons. It’s an imperfect effort to classify business folks for our mutual benefit.
Now the key is getting the Bigs and Littles working at the right time and place, but that’s another post.
Simon is a Product Designer and Front End Dev with over 20 years of experience. He started as a graphic designer and illustrator coding his first website in 1996. He has worked with brands like Publix, Microsoft, and Discovery Channel.
