A day in the life of the design team at Kadence

At Kadence we believe insights must be communicated clearly in order to generate maximum impact. We also believe that demonstrating the value of these insights, and embedding them across stakeholder groups, is vital. With this in mind, we pride ourselves on producing design output that is easily and effectively shared across organizations to inform, add value and drive critical business decisions.

But the designers at Kadence are not only responsible for creating diverse outputs at the end of research studies to embed insights within businesses, they also produce stimulus and workshop collateral, and visualize concepts and products for testing.

The global design team works closely with teams across the Kadence group to tell powerful visual stories, and includes design talent covering digital and print mediums, as well as video production and animation.

We asked our designers in Singapore, Jakarta and London to tell us about a typical day in their roles at Kadence, so let’s go ahead and meet the global design team.

Meet the design team

From left to right, Myra Lafrelle (Singapore), Widyo Prakoso (Indonesia) and Katrin Scheibert (UK).

What kind of work are you responsible for at Kadence?

Katrin
“I’m responsible for all things design and video at Kadence UK, but I also work with the global marketing and design teams across the Kadence group. The design outputs and disciplines I work across vary from project to project – one day I could be visualizing concepts or products for testing, other days I might be creating an infographic or digital report summarizing the data and findings at the end of a study, or I might be producing video content to bring a segmentation to life. Recently I have been exploring augmented reality and how this can be used for visualizing and testing products in qualitative and quantitative studies, which I think is really exciting and has a lot of potential across a variety of sectors.”

Myra
“I lead the execution of a wide array of dedicated outputs including infographics, videos and interactive whitepapers. I work closely with the insight team to create content that brings to life an idea, solves a problem, or relieves a pain point in an innovative way. Essentially, I translate consumer and business insights into absorbable and engaging data visualizations and marketing initiatives.”

Widyo
“I create visually engaging, innovative and functional design outputs that typically include infographics, reports and product mock-ups. These outputs are produced for clients, for marketing initiatives and also for internal use here at Kadence Indonesia. Most recently, I completed the design of an online community platform that we use for local research here in Indonesia.”

Why do clients typically look to include design and video as part of their research projects?

Katrin
“The design and video outputs we typically produce for clients at the end of studies are used in a variety of ways – both internally within their businesses and externally in a more public facing capacity – but often our clients work with us to produce digestible, actionable and visually engaging outputs to inform and drive decision making within their businesses. In some cases, we also work with our clients to produce outputs that are used for marketing purposes.

Design outputs that are produced at the start or during the early stages of a study typically include producing stimulus for testing – this mainly includes visualizing concepts and products, which are then revised and refined based on the results from the study. These visuals are then used by our clients’ internal teams for further development.”

Myra
“The key thing that our clients are looking for is to be able to communicate insights effectively. The right data visualizations and messaging can help explain insights so they are more easily understood and interpreted correctly. A clearly communicated insight creates a strong message that is hard to ignore, preparing the pathway for action to occur. If an insight isn’t understood, the chances of affecting change are limited.”

What does a typical day look like for a designer at Kadence?

Widyo
“There’s no such thing as a typical day as a designer. Some days I may be focusing on animation, video and sound editing, others I might be producing an infographic for clients or marketing purposes. I make time to stay up to date with the latest design trends and developments in the creative world, so that I am continuously learning.”

How do you determine which design outputs to produce?

Katrin
“The purpose of an output and the preferred communication channels within a business are the main factors that will drive the format or type of output we produce for a client. For a recent segmentation study, we developed various pieces of collateral for a series of personas – this included digital and print outputs that all served different purposes. We developed printed materials in the form of hand-outs and posters for internal workshop sessions, as well as short, animated videos and interactive PDFs that could easily be shared with internal teams via email and an intranet platform.”

Myra
“The output is very much dependent on the type of research study. Data from quantitative studies can be crafted into infographics that tell a compelling visual story, or if we’re filming interviews or running an online community where video content is being generated by respondents, then this can lend itself to producing a video that brings the findings to life using this footage.”

What are your top tips for clients looking to land insights within a business?

Katrin
“Keep it short, visual and to the point – consider how much time relevant teams and individuals may have to engage with a topic (or study) and how much detail they may find useful, and tailor the format and length of your output to fit this. Using visuals to tell part of the story, or communicate key insights, can be really helpful for this and keep the core messages top of mind.

In some cases, it can also be beneficial to produce short visual ‘teasers’ that clearly and succinctly communicate key points and direct the relevant team members to more detailed reports or outputs. For example, a short video summarizing the key insights from a study can be easily shared across local and global teams and can help drive interest and engagement around a topic or study.”

Myra
“My top tip would be to remind clients of the importance of taking the time into articulate insights correctly before converting them into visuals. We approach insight like peeling an onion, going deeper and deeper to draw out drivers, motivations and values. This provides a wealth of information, which we then sift through, identifying the key points for inclusion in the design output.”

Where do you go, or what do you do when you need creative inspiration?

Katrin
“I think that inspiration can sometimes be found in the most unlikely places. I often find inspiration when I’m shopping for groceries – the abundance of new, innovative products and brands competing for our attention on the shelves of supermarkets can be really fascinating.”

Widyo
“One of the best sources of inspiration for me is my colleagues. I find that “ngobrol” (chit chat) with the team after receiving a new brief or a client meeting can be a booster to creativity and generating ideas.”

Myra
“I draw creative enlightenment from random places, things and scenarios within my surroundings: moments of inspiration I’ve coined design inspos.”

Finally, tell us what the best part of the job is for you?

Myra
“Creating something that did not previously exist is really exhilarating. Solving people’s problems is also very rewarding for me. When you’re starting a new project, you’re trying to solve a new problem for a specific client. From research to interviews to kick off meetings, we take a number of steps to make sure we’re solving the right problem. Then, once we’ve nailed it down, I get to start brainstorming all of the billion ways of solving that problem, until I find the magic one. That’s always something exciting to look forward.

Another thing I love is learning new tips and tricks and finding new tools every single day. Trends change, new tech is created, new languages are written, tools are enhanced, tools disappear, you definitely have to enjoy being a lifelong learner in this profession.”

Katrin
“The best part of my job is working across such varied projects and outputs at Kadence. I’ve been able to continuously develop my skills and knowledge in new areas, from UX and dashboards to commercial agriculture and animal health. We’re also lucky to have such diverse teams across the Kadence group – I’m constantly learning from others and there’s always the sense that we’re working towards delivering the best possible outputs.”