Cisco poaches Orange head of product design

Technology giant Cisco has poached Orange’s director of product design Clive Grinyer as its first director of customer experience.

Working within Internet Business Solutions Group, the global strategic consulting arm of Cisco, part of his newly formed role will be to influence some of the world’s biggest companies about how design can improve customer experience, says Grinyer.

The position was created after Cisco, whose IBSG clients include Global Fortune 500 companies such as Ford and Nationwide, recognised that technology is lacking a design focus, Grinyer explains.

Grinyer says that he is looking forward to introducing design vision at an early stage in the creative process.

He will join IBSG on 7 May and will be based at its Middlesex offices, heading its European team. He will be a member of Rick Hutley’s innovations group.

At Orange, Grinyer developed a range of handsets and a design language used across mobile and Web products.

He was also director of design and innovation at the Design Council from 2001 to 2003, head of product design at Tag McLaren Audio European from 1999 to 2001, and design director for Samsung Electronics from 1994 to 1998.

Cisco and Orange were unavailable for comment.