The Bob Gill Principle
Why defining the problem is the most important step in enrollment marketing.
While working in admissions at Parsons School of Design as the Assistant Director of Information and Management Services, I took two years of evening graphic design classes. We had access to many excellent professors and adjuncts, and Bob Gill taught two of those classes.
It was amazing to watch him prove his point over and over again, in a way you could tell he’d done a million times before meeting us. But what stuck with me is what worked for him. The idea of being disciplined around defining the problem before designing any solution was key to finding the right solution.
About Bob Gill
Born in New York in 1931, he began his career freelancing for prominent publications like Esquire, Fortune, and Glamour before moving to London in 1960. There, he co-founded the legendary design agency Fletcher/Forbes/Gill, which eventually evolved into the globally recognized firm Pentagram. His philosophy is that design is not merely about making things look pretty, but rather about clearly defining and solving a specific communication problem.
Bob Gill was an iconic American graphic designer, illustrator, and educator whose work fundamentally changed the way we approach visual and communication problem-solving. He taught at prestigious institutions such as the School of Visual Arts and the Parsons School of Design. As shared in his official biographical profile at Pentagram, his influence on the design world remains foundational to modern creative problem-solving.
Here is a list of notable books written or co-authored by Bob Gill:
Define the Real Problem
The legendary designer Bob Gill operated on a simple premise: unless you spend the time to define the right problem, you will never design the right solution. His practical discipline actually mirrors what design researchers call "Problem Framing." As MIT professor Donald Schön noted in his foundational 1983 research on expert practitioners, The Reflective Practitioner, beginners immediately try to solve a given problem, whereas experts pause to "set" the problem first. If you don't question the initial premise, you limit your room for a solution.
Build Intentional Workflows
Sometimes the most effective fix is simply to remove a confusing step from your current workflow rather than add another tool. When you have clear, centralized ownership over the user journey, you force your team to think critically about the student experience. As SimpsonScarborough's 2025 martech benchmarks note, when a single team coordinates the digital strategy, departments "stop competing for control" and the user journey becomes faster, smoother, and smarter.
The most important lesson I learned from Bob Gill is that identifying the right questions to ask leads you to the real challenge you need to solve. Not what someone told you, or your first instinct. And having that clarity helps you find a variety of solutions that could work. Before you head first into solutions, try this framework popularized by a 2012 Harvard Business Review article. Force everyone in the room to answer one fundamental question: "What specific problem are we actually trying to solve here?"
Share Your Thoughts, Let's Connect!
Defining the real problem before jumping to a solution has completely reshaped my approach to higher ed marketing. If you've had a similar "aha" moment or learned a foundational lesson from a mentor like Bob Gill, I'm all ears. Connect with me on LinkedIn to share your experience.
Read More
The following pieces of research, web pages, and organizational data were used to create this article, providing transparency and allowing you to explore the findings further:
EAB. "Adult Learner Recruitment: New Strategies to Curate and Cultivate Your Enrollment Funnel." Washington, DC: EAB, November 2024.
EAB. "Growing Amidst the Great Opt-Out: State of the Sector for Small and Regional Universities." 2022.
Harvard Business Review. Spradlin, Dwayne. "Are You Solving the Right Problem?" 90, no. 9 (September 2012): 84-93. https://hbr.org/2012/09/are-you-solving-the-right-problem.
Pentagram. "Bob Gill." Accessed August 27, 2026. https://www.pentagram.com/about/bob-gill.
Schön, Donald A. The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York: Basic Books, 1983.
SimpsonScarborough. "Website & Marketing Technology: The State of Higher Education (2025 Edition)." Alexandria, VA: SimpsonScarborough, 2025.
Borrow My Notes
I’ve collected observations and reflections on marketing, communications, and recruitment for more than 20 years. That archive inspired me to share these insights through this blog. Here are my own thoughts from the collection that helped shape this article:
"Unless you spend the time to define the right problem, you will never design the right solution."
“The institutions gaining traction in this space aren’t just passively gathering data; they’re creating space for accurate, relevant data to inform decisions.”