Design Thinking & What Have the Romans Done For Us?

All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? — Reg, Life of Brian

There are many achievements in Roman architecture, engineering, philosophy, art, literature to acknowledge and study. Taking the Roman Legion’s approach to problem solving and iterative design as a model for our contemporary Design Thinking practice is not one of them.

The Roman army began as a citizen defensive force and evolved to a well trained professional fighting corps swearing to faithfully execute all that the emperor commanded, be loyal to their fellow soldiers and never desert the service.

Most of their efforts were to expand and maintain a brutal and exploitative empire whose economy evolved from a self-sufficient agrarian base to an extensive complex economy. The Roman empire was dependent upon the resources from its far flung empire such as wheat from Egypt, slaves and taxes from all provinces.

Let’s be honest to the motivation behind the work outlined in Design Thinking and Relentless Innovation: The Legacy of the Roman Legion. (a great article outlining nifty innovations! ).
The relentless innovation of the Roman Legion was in service of a rapacious, trade focused expansive hegemony driving for economic and political dominance. Another innovation, not mentioned in the above article, is how the Roman Legion evolved a Persian method of mass execution, crucifixion, into an effective and efficient means of social control.

One of the failures of contemporary Design Thinking is mushy consideration of business or political goals. Our focus on “the problem” is usually near term: registration, renewal, upgrades, payments etc. Rarely do we consider to what end. We want to create a better experience, improve the experience, consider the holistic experience yet we fail to include the goals and ambitions our work supports, expands and maintains. This isn’t the mission statement, it’s the business model. The clearer we are on the political and economic goals of our clients and employers the more strategic our work can be and the more honest we can be on what our work is supporting.