01/13/23
Introduction:  Eric Bogner to Paul Diehl 

15 years in 30 minutes or less - Let's go!

15+ Years of Agency Experience

Since 2012 I have been the director of industrial design at: 

NiCE is one of the top holistic design agencies in the country. Working on the biggest brands by volume in the world. NiCE's POD is our history of working in beauty and prestige. The success of the agency is rooted in bringing that sense of prestige to mass brands in a range of categories. It has provided me with the unique experience of working in Industrial Design, Strategy, and Brand Creation in a way that many of my contemporaries haven't. I want to bring this experience to more categories. Ultimately helping create more meaningful design.

Design for Brands.

I help our clients find their way through the ambiguity of maintaining and developing billion-dollar brands by leveraging my experience in:

- Holistic Brand Design
- Brand & Benefit Expression
- Brand Innovation
-Story Lead Concepts
- BPS Creation
-Problem Mapping
-Jobs To Be Done
- Consumer Journey
-Consumer Insight Generation
-Leveraging Multi-Disciplinary Teams

Love starts with a great story.

The story is led by the core of the brand promise and what makes that meaningful to consumers.

What is the basic human need the brand is delivering on?
How does this manifest in people's lives?
What are the Jobs to be Done in those moments? 

Story on its own isn't enough. Being an Industrial Designer the ability to see how a story can be extrapolated to a physical solution is the key to creating a holistic strategy for the brand.

How We Find Stories.

-Brand Heritage
-Inspirational Desing Consumer
-Day in the life timelines
- Consumer interviews
-Shop alongs
-Consumer In-home interviews
- Consumer Journey Maps

New Brand Development. 

Working with and leading multidisciplinary teams to develop the world of the consumer and the brand. 

-Inspirational Design Consumer
-Day in the life - world building 
- Consumer interviews
- Insight development 
- Concept Space Development
- Holistic 2D & 3D Design
- Consumer Concept Testing
- Brand 2D & 3D Vision
- Toolbox development  

Collaboration. 

The attitude of working with the client, not for the client has been a keystone of my years in leadership as the ID Director. There is a range of ways and tools we use to achieve this. 

Mural
Building in realtime together
Proactively anticipating issues and opportunities 
Designer availability to the client
Client empathy
Helping to build the brief

Leadership. 

With 8 years as Industrial Design Director, I've had the opportunity to learn many valuable lessons.  

-Transparency
- Provide opportunities for growth
-Spending time with each member of the team
- Setting clear expectations
-Providing clear constructive feedback
- Pushing each member to be their best
- Creating a proactive expectation in the team
-Leading by example - We are in this together
-Muti-Disciplinary teams

Future Vision. 

My experience has progressed from go-to-shelf initiatives to mapping and setting a vision for brands. This can include creating a VBL that helps secure the brand's future.
It can also be much more broad helping the business to see around corners to find inflection points to attempt to identify the future.

Visualize Everything. 

- Help the client see and understand the complexity
- Ambiguity starts to clear with visuals to talk through
-See the brand from a 1000ft view
-Complexity Map Show the problem
- Use a Mural to show everything at once
- Show the process - What are the deliverables when?
-Visualize time - Planing the project with the client.

Relationships. 

I've had the unique experience of working closely with large brands over many years. Tide, Downy, Mr. Clean just to name a few. This has given me 2 opportunities. 

- I have empathy for the client. What they deal with. 
- I've had the opportunity to learn how to maintain strong relationships. Building trust and faith.

What's Next?

I want to bring these skills to new categories and clients. 
I'm passionate about the future and how technology plays a role in making the world a better place. 
I want to use my skills in understanding the consumer to help make technology more human
I want to create new levels of holistic brand expression. Experiences people love.

 Thinker - Makers - Doers.

Inspired By.

Humanizing. 

I'm passionate and fascinated about bringing humanity to technology. Creating a world where it's not obtrusive but adapted to our lives in a way that is emotionally meaningful.

Storytime Enhanced does just that. It takes an emotional moment and uses technology to amplify it, not replace it. It makes technology a part of a much richer experience. A participant rather than a replacement.

World Building. 

I'm inspired by the range of consumer/ passenger jobs to be done for the hyperloop.  Certainly, there are all the known interactions with transportation.

The introduction of the new technology of travel poses its own set of jobs to be done.

Thank you.

Great to meet you! Happy to answer any questions.