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Superusers: Design Technology Specialists and the Future of Practice
Design technology is changing both architectural practice and the role of the architect and related design professionals. With new technologies and work processes appearing every week, how can practitioners be expected to stay on top and thrive? In a word, Superusers.
Superusers: Design Technology Specialists and the Future of Practice will help you identify who they are, the value they provide, and how you can attract and retain them, and become one; what career opportunities they have, what obstacles they face, and how to lead them. Written by Randy Deutsch, a well-known expert in the field, this is the first-ever guide to help current and future design professionals to succeed in the accelerating new world of work and technology.
Providing proven, practical advice, the book features:
Unique, actionable insights from design technology leaders in practice worldwide
The impacts of emerging technology trends such as generative design, automation, AI, and machine learning on practice
Profiles of those who provide 20% of the effort but achieve 80% of the results, and how they do it
What will help firms get from where they are today to where they need to be, to survive and thrive in the new world of design and construction.
Revealing the dramatic impact of technology on current and future practice, Superusers shows what it means to be an architect in the 21st century. Essential reading for students and professionals, the book helps you plan for and navigate a fast-moving, uncertain future with confidence.
Superusers: Design Technology Specialists and the Future of Practice will help you identify who they are, the value they provide, and how you can attract and retain them, and become one; what career opportunities they have, what obstacles they face, and how to lead them. Written by Randy Deutsch, a well-known expert in the field, this is the first-ever guide to help current and future design professionals to succeed in the accelerating new world of work and technology.
Providing proven, practical advice, the book features:
Unique, actionable insights from design technology leaders in practice worldwide
The impacts of emerging technology trends such as generative design, automation, AI, and machine learning on practice
Profiles of those who provide 20% of the effort but achieve 80% of the results, and how they do it
What will help firms get from where they are today to where they need to be, to survive and thrive in the new world of design and construction.
Revealing the dramatic impact of technology on current and future practice, Superusers shows what it means to be an architect in the 21st century. Essential reading for students and professionals, the book helps you plan for and navigate a fast-moving, uncertain future with confidence.
220 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 22, 2019
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48 people want to read
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September 15, 2021
Introduction
Having recently read "Superusers" by Randy Deutsch i tried to summarise the book infused with what I have learned and seen working in design/technology sector.
Nowadays if you want to succeed in any sector, you need to be a technology infused company. There are no pure architecture firms in the industry who are trendsetters, they are all tech-savvy. This book gives a direction how architecture and design professions might look like in 2030.
There are two options, either we let the industry be disrupted from the outside or we need to identify the right people in our sector to lead or design technology vision and direction. The design technologist may have a very unique vision very different from where the sector itself is heading. These people who can help us lead are defined as superusers - they are design technology experts who provide 20% of the effort and achieve 80% of the results.
What the book is about can be best described in the authors words - "Superusers is about design technologists and who they need to become to lead teams and firms."
Who are superusers?
Super-users are design technology specialists who use their mindset, soft skills and technological-savvy thinking to create a vision for the future for the design profession
Another good term is though-leader. In terms of skillset they can design, communicate, research and be a tool agnostic. Key thing to know about the super-users is that they may be technology-savvy but their biggest value is their mindset, attitude and emotional intelligence. Combining soft-skills with the technology skills and vision for future brings an unbeatable combination
"The mindset of the design technologist is “I’m going to integrate these new technologies into standard practice to elevate practitioners so that the definition of practice is dynamic.”
Career paths for design technology professionals
Big focus of the book was about how the modern design technologist may fit in the traditional not-so-fast-changing company hierarchies. What is their role, what is their career route, what can the attain? Quote from the book - "These are the individuals who are misunderstood, undervalued, hard to find, and once found, hard to keep – and keep happy – hard to promote, and hard to fit into the organisation, with its traditional titles, roles, and paths to promotion. This book addresses how successful firms today are addressing these concerns to remarkable results." However - the book gives practical guides and real life examples on how to leverage these people and use them in either specialist or leadership roles. In following to paragraphs some ideas from the book how to utilise design technologists in leadership/specialist roles
Design technologists as leaders
In the book there are many strong arguments for why design technologists can and should become leaders in the design profession. There are design technologist with ambition to become leaders. The design technology leader of the future needs to know enough of the technology to understand whether it can be dangerous, in a good way. When technology is identified that could be useful then the next question should be to find someone to collaborate with - the design technologist who would be really interested in the nitty-gritty of the details. Combining design technology leaders with design technology specialists who share the common vision is the unbeatable combination.
"The best technologists should be making decisions, integrating technology thorough design and delivery, not acting as consultants. So, until we have those people – the technologists who become design leaders – in design leadership, in direct contact with the owner, helping to plan out the project’s schedule and staffing approach, technology is always going to be sidelined."
This speaks to me strongly because since design and technology cannot be viewed anymore as separate functions then also they cannot be separated on leadership level when it comes to skills. Technology skills need to be infused with leadership. In my view this will be the big shift, people with technologist backgrounds leading design teams. This is the way forward.
"BIM manager should equal project manager. Team managers need to be design technologists. Design directors need to understand the technology. It is a whole new business model and structure. "
Design technologists as specialists
Super-users with aspirations for being in a more technical role are as one recommendation suggested best used in a 50/50 split between project work and overhead work - so basically in doing general development work that can be used in more projects. Why this is effective is because the most creative solutions come when facing real problems in real projects. But at the same time these users need to have the time and flexibility available to later work on adjusting this solution that came in one project to work in more than one place.
Future of the profession
Bold prediction from the author- "In less than 20 years we will not be modelling in the traditional sense anymore.
The book brings out Amaras' law - we tend to overestimate the effect of technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run. Will design automation, ML, AI put architects out of jobs in 20-30 years? Answer is most likely yes and no. A big chunk of what we are doing today will be done by computers by then, but that means that we can spend our time doing more productive work or perhaps even having more time off work at all.
Simply put as said in the book, the best architects and engineers build their own tools - that is the design professions new reality. Design and technology are nor and should not be separate entities. "People really think designing is super-sacred and is like something apart from technology. It’s all a little silly." We should not look design and technology as separate. And we must never forget what design and architecture is about. It is about creating functional, livable, affordable, safe, sustainable design. It is not about using the most fancy tools or doing high efficiency productive design. But these two sum up and have cumulative benefits.
"The drive to make the process better, easier, and more efficient is an important aspiration, something we should work on, but it is not the goal. Making great projects is the goal and often the path there is not always efficient."
What this speaks to me is that even though design and technology integration is a natural synergy then we should not forget what the goal of design companies are, it is still making great projects and great design. However using proper technology can add business value and value to customers.
The one thing i am personally 100% sure is that technology will change every aspect of design in the next decades. It is certain that the design companies who come out as winners will find ways to fade out tedious manual work such as manual creation of drawings. In these companies designers and engineers will have more time for more creative and higher value-adding activities. How the road there will be, i am not sure but i am highly confident that design technology specialists have a big part to play in this, and this book is a fantastic source of inspiration for design directors, leaders, specialists.
Having recently read "Superusers" by Randy Deutsch i tried to summarise the book infused with what I have learned and seen working in design/technology sector.
Nowadays if you want to succeed in any sector, you need to be a technology infused company. There are no pure architecture firms in the industry who are trendsetters, they are all tech-savvy. This book gives a direction how architecture and design professions might look like in 2030.
There are two options, either we let the industry be disrupted from the outside or we need to identify the right people in our sector to lead or design technology vision and direction. The design technologist may have a very unique vision very different from where the sector itself is heading. These people who can help us lead are defined as superusers - they are design technology experts who provide 20% of the effort and achieve 80% of the results.
What the book is about can be best described in the authors words - "Superusers is about design technologists and who they need to become to lead teams and firms."
Who are superusers?
Super-users are design technology specialists who use their mindset, soft skills and technological-savvy thinking to create a vision for the future for the design profession
Another good term is though-leader. In terms of skillset they can design, communicate, research and be a tool agnostic. Key thing to know about the super-users is that they may be technology-savvy but their biggest value is their mindset, attitude and emotional intelligence. Combining soft-skills with the technology skills and vision for future brings an unbeatable combination
"The mindset of the design technologist is “I’m going to integrate these new technologies into standard practice to elevate practitioners so that the definition of practice is dynamic.”
Career paths for design technology professionals
Big focus of the book was about how the modern design technologist may fit in the traditional not-so-fast-changing company hierarchies. What is their role, what is their career route, what can the attain? Quote from the book - "These are the individuals who are misunderstood, undervalued, hard to find, and once found, hard to keep – and keep happy – hard to promote, and hard to fit into the organisation, with its traditional titles, roles, and paths to promotion. This book addresses how successful firms today are addressing these concerns to remarkable results." However - the book gives practical guides and real life examples on how to leverage these people and use them in either specialist or leadership roles. In following to paragraphs some ideas from the book how to utilise design technologists in leadership/specialist roles
Design technologists as leaders
In the book there are many strong arguments for why design technologists can and should become leaders in the design profession. There are design technologist with ambition to become leaders. The design technology leader of the future needs to know enough of the technology to understand whether it can be dangerous, in a good way. When technology is identified that could be useful then the next question should be to find someone to collaborate with - the design technologist who would be really interested in the nitty-gritty of the details. Combining design technology leaders with design technology specialists who share the common vision is the unbeatable combination.
"The best technologists should be making decisions, integrating technology thorough design and delivery, not acting as consultants. So, until we have those people – the technologists who become design leaders – in design leadership, in direct contact with the owner, helping to plan out the project’s schedule and staffing approach, technology is always going to be sidelined."
This speaks to me strongly because since design and technology cannot be viewed anymore as separate functions then also they cannot be separated on leadership level when it comes to skills. Technology skills need to be infused with leadership. In my view this will be the big shift, people with technologist backgrounds leading design teams. This is the way forward.
"BIM manager should equal project manager. Team managers need to be design technologists. Design directors need to understand the technology. It is a whole new business model and structure. "
Design technologists as specialists
Super-users with aspirations for being in a more technical role are as one recommendation suggested best used in a 50/50 split between project work and overhead work - so basically in doing general development work that can be used in more projects. Why this is effective is because the most creative solutions come when facing real problems in real projects. But at the same time these users need to have the time and flexibility available to later work on adjusting this solution that came in one project to work in more than one place.
Future of the profession
Bold prediction from the author- "In less than 20 years we will not be modelling in the traditional sense anymore.
The book brings out Amaras' law - we tend to overestimate the effect of technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run. Will design automation, ML, AI put architects out of jobs in 20-30 years? Answer is most likely yes and no. A big chunk of what we are doing today will be done by computers by then, but that means that we can spend our time doing more productive work or perhaps even having more time off work at all.
Simply put as said in the book, the best architects and engineers build their own tools - that is the design professions new reality. Design and technology are nor and should not be separate entities. "People really think designing is super-sacred and is like something apart from technology. It’s all a little silly." We should not look design and technology as separate. And we must never forget what design and architecture is about. It is about creating functional, livable, affordable, safe, sustainable design. It is not about using the most fancy tools or doing high efficiency productive design. But these two sum up and have cumulative benefits.
"The drive to make the process better, easier, and more efficient is an important aspiration, something we should work on, but it is not the goal. Making great projects is the goal and often the path there is not always efficient."
What this speaks to me is that even though design and technology integration is a natural synergy then we should not forget what the goal of design companies are, it is still making great projects and great design. However using proper technology can add business value and value to customers.
The one thing i am personally 100% sure is that technology will change every aspect of design in the next decades. It is certain that the design companies who come out as winners will find ways to fade out tedious manual work such as manual creation of drawings. In these companies designers and engineers will have more time for more creative and higher value-adding activities. How the road there will be, i am not sure but i am highly confident that design technology specialists have a big part to play in this, and this book is a fantastic source of inspiration for design directors, leaders, specialists.
December 19, 2019
Superusers helps guide us through the quickly evolving technological developments of the architectural industry by identifying the key behaviors and characteristics of those individuals who will be key in redefining the architectural industry. While many may worry about being replaced by ever increasing automation of the design process, the author Randy Deutsch argues that with the right minded individuals, the ever evolving technology can be highly beneficial. By this, I mean that we can leverage technology to spend our time focused not on mundane repetitive tasks, but on the tasks that add value towards the exploration of building design such as thought. Superusers paves the path toward the future of the industry, and helps us identify, recruit, and retain those individuals who will lead this march.
October 25, 2024
DNF’d at half of the book.
This book was written just because the author had something very minimal to add to the design discussion of the contemporary age. The book is composed of interviews of people that the author deems are superusers. I think they are just middle aged people that were at the best place at the right time and knew how to use the circumstances to their advantage. At some point there was an interview under AI subheading that the interviewee himself told what they did cannot be called AI.
Anyways, this is a book I gave many chances to, but as an avid reader, I just couldn’t continue to humiliate my mind.
This book was written just because the author had something very minimal to add to the design discussion of the contemporary age. The book is composed of interviews of people that the author deems are superusers. I think they are just middle aged people that were at the best place at the right time and knew how to use the circumstances to their advantage. At some point there was an interview under AI subheading that the interviewee himself told what they did cannot be called AI.
Anyways, this is a book I gave many chances to, but as an avid reader, I just couldn’t continue to humiliate my mind.
January 15, 2020
If you are passionate about the future of the design and construction industry, you have to read this book. Randy very effectively defines what a superuser is, the role they (superusers) are currently playing in the industry, and how the industry ought to be planning how to utilize the talents, skills, and passions of superusers in the future!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews