Yahoo!’s Design Team Fired
The entire Yahoo Design Innovation Team, aka yHaus, has been laid off, according to an article from portfolio.com. Wow, this is a sign.
Obviously, Yahoo! has been in the spotlight since Microsoft started their hostile takeover saga a few weeks ago. But this latest move is a major strike against them as a brand. This is the era of design savvy; companies can no longer make a functional product alone, style and form have to be one. The fact that Yahoo! is cutting their design team shows their focus on design only reaches so high within the company — a fundamental flaw in the 21st century economy. This is further proof that Yahoo! is pretty much dead as a brand. They’ve lost their cool.
It’s also bad news for the design industry in general. Everyone is predicting a bumpy economic road ahead, but no one has predicted how this will affect the design industry. (a recent article from DesignWeek tries to tell senior creative professionals what to do, but doesn’t draw any solid conclusions.) Will we see in-house design groups getting slimmed down and cut loose? Will we see investments in design shrivel to nothing in an effort to pinch pennies? I fear so.
But this again shows that the 20th century mindset is still lingering in our boardrooms. Instead of viewing design as an expense or frivolous decoration, companies should view it an integral part of their product development and overall brand strategy. I predict that those companies who hold their design teams close during the tough times will weather the storms to comes and it’s they who will earn new customers and preserve their reputation in spite of the changing economy. In other words, design is an asset, keep hold of it, fools.
This from me, an amateur economist. I make it up as I go along, but then again, so do the other pundits. That’s the secret they don’t tell you on CNBC.
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// 21 February 2008, 12:14
I agree with you regarding design teams: companies who “weather the storm” by keeping their designers will reap long-term customer loyalty. It’s one cost that’s hard to justify when looking at the bottom line because it’s often not tangible; however, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell you that aesthetically appealing design enhances a brand’s image, a website’s ease-of-navigation, etc.
Regarding Yahoo! Why in the world would Microsoft want to buy Yahoo!? I agree with you – the brand is “dead.”
Thanks for the interesting content on your site.