As usual the minute the summer break starts, all the students fly off in a hurry, but already a few weeks into their holiday they start missing DMI. After the twelfth ‘school sick’ student approached me asking for book recommendations (yes, they actually want to read books in their free time! :) ) we decided to set up a summer book list. This list has a recommendation for each DMI year, a few selected guest writers recommending their favourites and a few other good books. If you know any other titles that are must-reads for future Design Managers, please leave a comment, we’re always on the lookout for new, interesting books!

Pick your year, pick your book

First years – freshies get the classics

First off, welcome to the DMI family! It is all going to be a fun, exciting but also overwhelming journey and you will definitely have a few “oh-my-god-what-am-I-doing-here” moments. This book has been recommended so many times it is almost cliché, but honestly the best read before, during and after your studies is Kathryn Best’s Design Management: Managing Design Strategy, Process and Implementation. Whether you need an overview of what Design Management is, want to find out more about a Design Manager’s skillset or just need a bit of reassurance that you’re studying the right subject, once you start flipping through the pages everything will make sense again. Cases studies, process descriptions, interviews with leading professionals and questions for discussion will not only give you an impression of our broad professional field, but also help you form your own opinion on how Design and Management are interlinked and how design adds value to business.

Second years – saddle up for the ride

In the second year things start to get serious, suddenly you’re expected to know everything and being a newbie isn’t a valid excuse anymore. Before you know it you’ll be knees deep in the New Product Development project. The Delft Design Guide: Design Strategies an Methods is a practical, well-designed toolkit book with an overview of 70+ design methods that can be used within the design process. Each method is illustrated over a double-page spread with the most important information as well as recommendations for further reading. This book will give you the head start you need and let you focus about the important stuff in the project like letting your creative juices flow. As Norbert Roozenberg says in the foreword: “In the realm of the minds a method is comparable to a crutch; the true thinker walks freely”

Third years – ready to take on the world

You’ve got one more semester left to enjoy to the fullest before you start writing your BA thesis, so make the most of it while you still can! Finally you now have the skill-set to really get stuff done and you get to work on exciting projects like setting up design strategies, business development - and innovation plans. The one book that shouldn’t leave your side is 10 Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs. It is set up as a periodic system of innovation and gives a clearly structured overview on the different types and has case studies that illustrate each type well. Due to it’s simplicity it can be a bit superficial at times, but paired with 101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization and The Art of Innovation you’ll be able to tackle the third year with no problems whatsoever.

DMI Guest Writer Recommendations

“I’ll take the opportunity to recommend one of my all time favourites for keeping creative people sane: Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace. Read this whenever the corporate dementors are trying to suck your soul!” - Andreas Erbe, design thinker, SCRUM master, founder of launchlabs and presumably Harry Potter fan.

„Creating the Perfect Design Brief is a quick and simple, but insightful and invaluable read. I actually bought this book some years ago – some time during my studies, but I didn’t really started reading it until recently (looked pretty boring to me). The reason I gave this book another look was because I had to write a design brief for a project we did at work, but somehow struggled a bit. So I picked it up from my bookshelf and started reading… The book gave me an overview on the whole design process in an agency – even though I’ve worked in one for over 1.5 years. The book title reads „creating the perfect design brief“ and – in my opinion – it’s a bit misleading, since Phillips covers a lot more than just how to write the perfect brief. It also acts as a guide to project management philosophy for design projects. This great read tells us a lot about how to lead designers, deal with clients and handle a design project – a MUST for every potential Design Manager (in an agency or corporation). - Olivier Weiss, DMI alumni, Strategic Consultant at vetica, Canada lover and sunflower seed chewer.

“Design Management reads, for the summer? You mean other than my blog? The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation by Marty Neumeier, a great book and a light read - perfect for a summer at the pool.“ - Jan-Erik Baars, Head of the DMI Programme, partygoer, blogger and cycler.

"Reimagine by Tom Peters is a passionately 'angry' (to use the author's term) exploration of business and management in the early 21st century. It was written in 2003 when a lot of developments were coming to the forefront and everyone was scrambling to understand the impact of these new realities. Peters' text offers managers of all varieties advice on thriving in a world where ‘departments’ become ‘Professional Service Firms’ and the marketplace is driven less by ‘products and services’ and more by ‘experiences and solutions’. In our era of constant fluctuation and change, Reimagine provides Design Managers with a wonderful context for their work and a strong foundation upon which to build as we move into the future. "– Anastasia Linn, DMI freshie, service design-loving, Mandarin-speaking Greco-American with an unidentifiable accent.

Other good reads

Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation - Tim Brown

Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All - Tom Kelley and Dave Kelley

Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers - Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie 

Service Design: From Insight to Implementation - Andy Polaine

This is Service Design Thinking: Basics, Tools, Cases - Marc Stickdorn

Design Thinking: Integrating Innovation, Customer Experience, and Brand Value - Thomas Lockwood

Building Design Strategy: Using Design to Achieve Key Business Objectives Paperback –  Thomas Lockwood 

Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers - Alexander Osterwalder

Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy Hardcover – Dev Patnaik 

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future – Daniel H. Pink 

Metaskills: Five Talents for the Robotic Age Hardcover – Marty Neumeier

CAD Monkeys, Dinosaur Babies, and T-Shaped People: Inside the World of Design Thinking and How It Can Spark Creativity and Innovation - Warren Berger 

A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business –  Hartmut Esslinger 

26th September 2014, GMT/UTC + 01:00, Germany

Amongst mankind’s great achievements you will find great inventions like the wheel, the boat or the water closet. Not hard to imagine where civilisation would be without these… Most of these inventions are by now taken for granted: we don’t even bother to imagine how the world would be without them.