Meet Design for People alumnus Petto Cantarutti
Where do you work at the moment? What is your role and what are your tasks?
I work at EGGS design. I’m currently based in Stavanger, but we have offices in Oslo, Trondheim, Bergen, Copenhagen and recently we’ve opened one in Stockholm. I'm currently working as a Service Designer, which is interconnected with the Design for People Master’s programme that I completed at Design School Kolding. I’ve been involved in projects within different companies and fields like Laerdal (health - innovation), SUS (health), Equinor, AkerBP (energy), Nordic Unmanned (transport - innovation) and others. My tasks have been varied, but mainly related to user understanding and process innovation.
What role has the Design for People Master’s programme played in getting you where you are today?
The Design for People Master’s programme helped me to understand the need to involve people from the very beginning and the importance of facilitation in general. It was also a place where I discovered to exploit my sketching skills. I received great support to learn how to implement them in the different projects. These are qualities I apply almost daily in my work.
In your experience, what role can designers play and what value can they bring to organizations that maybe don’t traditionally employ designers?
I believe we are in a world full of global offers where users have become more and more complex. In this context, user understanding is essential to create useful, meaningful, and innovative opportunities. At the same time, in our eagerness to look for global solutions, we have lost sight of the “local” and an understanding of the “individual” creating too many one-fits-all solutions that can’t be implemented. And this is why our roles as designers is key. We need to help companies to focus into the specific targets by facilitating with co-creative tools and processes.
How would you explain your gains and learnings from your education at Design School Kolding to non-designers?
That’s a tough one! It doesn’t sound all that attractive, but I’ve mostly learnt to ask questions. To ask questions when there’s something I don’t know but also when I think I know. This comes, I guess, from learning to really believe people hold the answers, and we as designers are the ones who should help them to express these answers. If not, we would simply ask questions just to fill up a template.
Do you have any advice to give to someone undertaking this educational path?
To take every minute to use the facilities, to poke the teachers, to sneak into your peers' projects, and to not be afraid of making mistakes… All in all, my advice to anyone that joins Design School Kolding is to go there and ask as many questions as you can – and have fun.
