Why Great Design Isn't Enough to Win Work | Tim Perry

What if the last 5% of craft you are chasing is the part your clients will never notice? In this episode of Why Design, Tim Perry shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: once you have cleared the quality bar, commercial skills make the biggest difference to your success. He has seen it from both sides, from designing the Fairy Liquid bottle to running design strategy at Nokia and growing a packaging consultancy to around 100 people. Rather than stay on the tools, Tim chose to learn how to bring work in. That decision led to promotions, a partnership, the sale of the business, and the training he now runs for designers who find themselves facing clients without ever being taught how. This conversation isn't about sales tricks. It's about the side of design that decides who gets the work. This is a condensed re-cut of our 2025 conversation, recorded live at Blue Garage in Lewisham. Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn 🎯 Why chasing the last 5% of craft rarely moves the needle with clients 📊 What a LinkedIn poll of designers revealed about what clients actually notice 🧴 How designing the Fairy Liquid bottle meant shaving fractions of a cent at huge scale 🪟 Why taking the products off the shelves got clients buying strategy 🤝 How bringing in work took Tim from designer to running the consultancy ✋ What one firm no taught Tim about negotiating with clients Memorable Quotes “I've yet to meet anybody who likes being sold to, right? Nobody likes it.” “My design education had not prepared me for this side of business at all.” “We had plastic bottles on glass shelves with spotlight shining on them like they were museum pieces.” “people will keep on asking and asking and asking until they hear a firm no.” “It's actually augmenting that with commercial skills.” Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @why.design_ on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 🔗 Explore TP Consulting 🔗 Connect with Tim Perry About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com This episode is sponsored by Vax and TTi Floorcare. Kodu, is running the hiring. Recruiting for Vax for more than ten years, placing over fifty people including a VP of Engineering and a Head of Design. We know how they build. Right now they’re rebuilding their UK engineering and innovation function from the ground up: advanced development, design engineering and industrial design, all at once. We haven’t seen them move at this pace in a decade of working with them. Mentioned in this episode: VAX