Christine Mau - Designing a Career in Design Thinking
10/18/21 • 49 min
Design and strategy are not mutually exclusive. In fact, strategy should be fuelling and influencing design. This is what Christine Mau outlines in her strong portfolio as Senior Director of Global Design at Kimberly Clark where she handled projects for Kleenex, Huggies, and Kotex. She currently sits as Vice President of Brand Strategy at Medline Healthcare Solutions.
We discuss:
● Her career trajectory and how she went from running a small illustration company to being tapped to work for Kimberly Clark
● The growth she experienced within Kimberly Clark handling everything from packaging work to branding that led to forecasting, creating campaigns, design thinking, and innovation
● How she followed her curiosity to grow through the many roles she took on
● Three things she looks for in a career
● The success of her Kotex black packaging campaign
● Her pivot from a design branding focus to healthcare and strategy
● What Medline is and how she brought her wealth of expertise to help them zoom out from their products to zero in on their customers’ pain points
● Her advice of taking every opportunity to give value despite not having the title yet
● Not being boxed by labels and allowing your other skills to open doors you never thought to knock on in the first place
● Her definition of design thinking, why rapid prototyping is effective, and what it means to “test to learn” VS “test to validate”
● Her experience of being asked if a Designer can be a Strategist
● Her venn diagram of parts that make up good design in her standards
● Challenges she faced in her career, needing nudges to assert herself at the start, and building confidence
● The importance of surrounding yourself with a community where you build a network of learning and knowledge exchange
● How she stays inspired by traveling and trying new things
● Her personal manifesto on always doing your best and asking yourself where you want to be in five years
Mentioned in this epsiode:
Michele Ronsen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-ronsen-0a55233
To connect with Christine, head on over to her channels:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinemau
Website: https://www.christinemau.com/
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
VISIT MY WEBSITE:
http://www.philipvandusen.com
JOIN THE BRAND•MUSE NEWSLETTER:
http://www.philipvandusen.com/muse
JOIN THE BRAND DESIGN MASTERS FACEBOOK GROUP:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/branddesignmasters/
SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
http://www.youtube.com/c/PhilipVanDusen
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER:
https://twitter.com/philipvandusen
FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST:
https://www.pinterest.com/philipvandusen
LIKE MY AGENCY ON FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/verhaalbranddesign
Bring Your Own Laptop - Adobe Training with Daniel Scott
https://www.byol.me/philip
InVideo
https://bdmpodcast.com/invideo
Discount Code: “PHILIP50”
Tubebuddy
https://wwwtubebuddy.com/philipvandusen
____________________________
The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends and marketing.
Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs and companies on how to build successful brands for themselves and for the clients and customers they serve.
Design and strategy are not mutually exclusive. In fact, strategy should be fuelling and influencing design. This is what Christine Mau outlines in her strong portfolio as Senior Director of Global Design at Kimberly Clark where she handled projects for Kleenex, Huggies, and Kotex. She currently sits as Vice President of Brand Strategy at Medline Healthcare Solutions.
We discuss:
● Her career trajectory and how she went from running a small illustration company to being tapped to work for Kimberly Clark
● The growth she experienced within Kimberly Clark handling everything from packaging work to branding that led to forecasting, creating campaigns, design thinking, and innovation
● How she followed her curiosity to grow through the many roles she took on
● Three things she looks for in a career
● The success of her Kotex black packaging campaign
● Her pivot from a design branding focus to healthcare and strategy
● What Medline is and how she brought her wealth of expertise to help them zoom out from their products to zero in on their customers’ pain points
● Her advice of taking every opportunity to give value despite not having the title yet
● Not being boxed by labels and allowing your other skills to open doors you never thought to knock on in the first place
● Her definition of design thinking, why rapid prototyping is effective, and what it means to “test to learn” VS “test to validate”
● Her experience of being asked if a Designer can be a Strategist
● Her venn diagram of parts that make up good design in her standards
● Challenges she faced in her career, needing nudges to assert herself at the start, and building confidence
● The importance of surrounding yourself with a community where you build a network of learning and knowledge exchange
● How she stays inspired by traveling and trying new things
● Her personal manifesto on always doing your best and asking yourself where you want to be in five years
Mentioned in this epsiode:
Michele Ronsen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-ronsen-0a55233
To connect with Christine, head on over to her channels:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinemau
Website: https://www.christinemau.com/
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
VISIT MY WEBSITE:
http://www.philipvandusen.com
JOIN THE BRAND•MUSE NEWSLETTER:
http://www.philipvandusen.com/muse
JOIN THE BRAND DESIGN MASTERS FACEBOOK GROUP:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/branddesignmasters/
SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
http://www.youtube.com/c/PhilipVanDusen
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER:
https://twitter.com/philipvandusen
FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST:
https://www.pinterest.com/philipvandusen
LIKE MY AGENCY ON FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/verhaalbranddesign
Bring Your Own Laptop - Adobe Training with Daniel Scott
https://www.byol.me/philip
InVideo
https://bdmpodcast.com/invideo
Discount Code: “PHILIP50”
Tubebuddy
https://wwwtubebuddy.com/philipvandusen
____________________________
The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends and marketing.
Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs and companies on how to build successful brands for themselves and for the clients and customers they serve.
Previous Episode
Philip VanDusen - How to Grow Your Email List
Building and maintaining a strong email list ensures that you own marketing real estate where you can engage an audience who is waiting to hear from you because they actually chose to sign up and subscribe to your content.
Sharing tips on how to build and grow your email list, I talk about:
● Nurturing engagement with a warm audience part of an email list VS starting from scratch with cold marketing efforts
● Recommendations on email subscription services
● Best practices on how to get people to sign up
● Steps to take to ensure your emails don’t go to spam
● Using content to lure people in, the kinds of assets you can offer, and where to place them on your website
● Producing evergreen content that drives traffic and captures emails even while you sleep
● The success of using my Brand Design Masters Facebook group as a watering hole to get more people to sign up
● Why website pop-ups work even if people seem to hate them
● More strategies to grow your email list like securing partnerships and interviews
● Catering to your audience’s preferences by offering different lead magnets while still capitalizing on your strengths as a creative pro
Mentioned in this episode:
My Brand Design Masters Guild: www.philipvandusen.com/mastermind
Active Campaign Automation Software: https://www.activecampaign.com/
ConvertKit Marketing Platform: https://convertkit.com/
Mailchimp Marketing Platform: https://mailchimp.com/
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
VISIT MY WEBSITE:
http://www.philipvandusen.com
JOIN THE BRAND•MUSE NEWSLETTER:
http://www.philipvandusen.com/muse
JOIN THE BRAND DESIGN MASTERS FACEBOOK GROUP:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/branddesignmasters/
SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
http://www.youtube.com/c/PhilipVanDusen
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER:
https://twitter.com/philipvandusen
FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST:
https://www.pinterest.com/philipvandusen
LIKE MY AGENCY ON FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/verhaalbranddesign
Bring Your Own Laptop - Adobe Training with Daniel Scott
https://www.byol.me/philip
InVideo
https://bdmpodcast.com/invideo
Discount Code: “PHILIP50”
Tubebuddy
https://wwwtubebuddy.com/philipvandusen
____________________________
The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends and marketing.
Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs and companies on how to build successful brands for themselves and for the clients and customers they serve.
Next Episode
Philip VanDusen - 7 Things They Don't Teach You in Design School
Do you think your design degree prepared you enough to survive in this creative economy? Can you confidently say that you have all the tools and knowledge you need to thrive as a creative professional?
In this episode, I talk about 7 things they don’t (but really should!) teach you in design school.
1. Time Management
● They don’t teach how to manage your time working, being accountable to a schedule, and how to have good work/life balance.
● My advice: Use time management apps to organize your day and work on your schedule because if it doesn’t get scheduled, it doesn’t get done.
2. Financial Stuff
● There are no lessons on how to do pricing so you’re profitable, how to manage your finances, or even maintain a budget for your operational expenses.
● My advice: Do budget projections so you know what targets need to be hit and maximize available tools to get your finances organized.
3. How to Get a Job
● It’s frustrating how they don’t cover interview skills, types of design jobs out there, and the nuances between different creative professions.
● My advice: Work on your communication and presentation skills because your work will not speak for itself.
4. How to Market and Position Yourself
● Students aren’t taught how to sell themselves internally for a job promotion or externally in order to be equipped to build their own agency.
● My advice: Zero in on your strengths and come up with solid positioning that makes you marketable on social media for future roles and projects.
5. Navigating Corporate and Agency Life
● There are important soft skills like negotiating and navigating office politics that aren’t covered at all which leave students unable to figure out the best moves to advance their career.
● My advice: Position yourself in a way that you’re always ripe for growth and learn how to manage up so you communicate with superiors as effectively as you communicate with junior colleagues.
6. How to Find Clients
● This is the #1 question I get asked and also the area where I think design schools have failed their students the most.
● My advice: Follow the examples of more seasoned creative professionals who share their process online, look up business development practices, and learn how to leverage your networks for referrals.
7. How to Build Partnerships or Networks
● There are no lessons on the importance of building strong partnerships and networks when these are a goldmine for clients and projects.
● My advice: Build partnerships and networks everywhere, even outside the design department because networks turn into referrals and that’s exactly how you’ll land your next client.
It doesn’t matter if you just graduated or you’ve been out of school for a while. These are stuff they don’t teach and stuff you’re not prepared for but really need to know to survive in this creative economy. So it’s incumbent upon you to achieve a level of knowledge on these non-negotiable skills.
Mentioned in this episode:
My Brand Design Masters Facebook group: https://web.facebook.com/groups/branddesignmasters
My Brand Design Masters Guild: www.philipvandusen.com/mastermind
Basecamp Project Management: https://basecamp.com/
Calendly Scheduling Software: https://calendly.com/
Freshbooks Accounting Software: https://www.freshbooks.com/
Google Calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/r
Hubspot CRM Platform: https://www.hubspot.com/
LegalZoom: https://www.legalzoom.com/
Linkedin learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/
Quickbooks Accounting Software: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/
Skillshare Online Learning Platform: https://www.skillshare.com/
Toggl Time Tracker: https://toggl.com/track/
Trello Project Management: https://trello.com/
Zero Financial Management App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zero/id1147308193
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
VISIT MY WEBSITE:http://www.philipvandusen.com
JOIN THE BRAND•MUSE NEWSLETTER:
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