Portrait de Stratos : Matthieu Gerard Goddet [Promo 2002 ]

“Today, my main job is to design our design team !” 
Matthieu GG – design manager at MITAC Digital corporation

After 16 years as product designer based in Taiwan, Matthieu leads now the Product Design Team (ID/UI/GUI/UE). Matthieu is in charge of consumer electronics product development. In private, Matthieu develop a passion & lifestyle for endurance sport with long distance triathlon and trail running. ! Such appropriate activity to breath fresh air experiencing this Covid-19 period!

Strate Alumni : As a junior designer, what was your mindset and how did you start your career?

Matthieu Gerard-Goddet: Of course, my wish was to save the world starting design studies. And after 5 years of studies and my graduation in product design, I was trying to do my best. I was facing the reality of the market. Quickly, I realized I was not always able to deliver the right answer to my design brief. Was it a matter “my” design language identity, or, was it considering the economic situation (post 9-11 attack!), I don’t know! But I do remember a trying period didn’t match at that time. Finding a position as a junior designer in France was not an easy tack at all! But I kept looking for opportunities around, Europe, Asia, …

SA : Can you detail your career in a few words?
MGG : As mentioned, finding a position as junior designer in Europe was not an easy task in 2002. Unfortunately, it was a few months after 9.1.1. attack! We all do remember the difficult economic situation.
Asia taught me my job. Starting here in a design agency, I discovered the competitive domain of Consumer electronics. I am still designing products for this wide and connected industry. In this agency I designed products for local brands and also for the US market such as Logitech and others worldwide brands. After 3 years, I shifted to Mitac corporation, the company I still work for. At Mitac we design products for outdoor activities like running, racing, and so on, …

 S.A. : Can you detail the stakes you are facing today?
MGG: My task daily is to be efficient to deliver good design output. I have to do that on decent deadlines in order to improve the best economic market share to the company. Myself in the office, my main concern is my people. Daily, my work team is my main purpose. As design manager of the team I must ensure the health for all of them. Even more challenged with the Covid-19 virus conditions, I make sure working conditions and communication will be possible with other departments such as user research, usability design, GUI, PCB-hardware engineering design, manufacturing production, …

S.A. : What covid-19 virus changed in your life?
MGG: Mask is mandatory, everywhere in Taiwan. Even if we had no Lock down period in spring 2020, we are tracked with our cell phone. One more example to constrain behavior, is in the elevator. We will find 2-foot-steps indicated on the floor! So, no more than 2 people every time shall get up-&-down! Luckily, in Taiwan, we have very few positive cases registered. Is Asian culture used to that way of life, I think so. Maybe because “Art de vivre'' here rhymes with functionality behavior.

S.A. : Are you willing to employ designers from abroad?

MGG: For sure, yes. That’s my wish. But the reality might be different, for some employment measures sometimes! Anyway. Former design colleagues came to work from Europe, US and other Asian regions. It was always a great experience to work with all of them. One success story I do remember was with a lady coming from Check Republic for her internship. We have to understand that living in Asia for a lady, keeps challenging regarding health and so on, …. But she did really well. After one year experience here she went back home and luckily got a decent position, right away! Then, please, apply. It will be a pleasure to interact and find you a place to work with! 

S.A. : What do you remember of your learning at Strate-school-of-design, (Paris) and how do you manage to apply in your daily work?
MGG: Learning how to sketch or to express my ideas visually. Today, the person/designer who can gather meeting’s flow using sketches makes my day! Some quick and rough sketches will always help the tight project deadlines we have!
Second point I learnt at Strate (school of design, Paris) was in a marketing lesson with the trainer called Nicky Garcia: “quel est votre critère proiritaire ?” – “Which one is your main key criteria of your concept/product”. In the office, I am daily focusing on that goal : What is the main function or what is the USP (unique selling point)?
Third point was the flexibility of the facilities. Big corridors separating class rooms with no doors in between. Such an intelligent space management to snick knowledge around, …
There were about 40 students in the batch. We were separated into two streams (product design department and mobility design department called transportation at that time), …

S.A. : -What would you advise to the current design students? What are the stakes of a design manager?
MGG: Please folks, keep humble. Keep on sketching. And use the right medium to showcase your know-how, your ideas and your life approach. And keep smiling every morning in your life \o/

S.A. : Do we use the correct meaning of design VS ‘styling’ in French language?
MGG: Hair cut is about stylish activity here. (laughs) But design means study. “concevoir/ conception” in French! By the way, I do remember a daily question we all had between classmates: “Hey, Dude, what is your design concept for your project today?”

S.A. : What to do to build a Strong designer’s community mindset?
MGG: To build such a community mindset we must have to start to work together on a startup mojo for sure. During studies at Strate-Paris, I do remember working alone on my own students’ projects. Anyway, exploring ideas that way might have helped my thinking but also each other, I suppose, …

Please, find some more details about Matthieu on his portfolio:

 https://www.behance.net/TeamUpWithMaxiu.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthieu-gerard-goddet-69ba80/