What design managers do
Each organisation and sector is different, but there are two key starting points that inform the best ways forward: is there an immediate problem to solve, or is there a future opportunity to explore?
// Clarify strategic business opportunities and plans
// Define the buyers and end-user perspectives
// Evaluate the use of design and creativity to-date
// Identify opportunities for improvement and innovation
// Drive new design-led research and internal thinking
// Prioritise and commission the right design projects
// Generate effective design briefs
// Appoint the right designers
Managing design today
We work with decision makers, implementing design process to support results. Taking a practical approach to understanding your business objectives. Keeping things simple and customer-led. Understanding where you are today, what has and hasn't worked before, and what you need success to look like. We'll get you on track with the right projects, at the right time, with the right designers. There are common themes where design is not delivering – no clear written brief; no strategic review of all the options before a solution was decided; the designers involved were the first one that came along; decisions were made on the cheapest price; little understanding of the process, how long it would take or what exactly would be involved. These problems are about the way projects are (or are not) prepared, communicated and measured – this is Design Management.
// Design audit of the current situation
// Competitor analysis and mapping
// Implement a structured design process
// Write design project briefs
// Source the right design agencies
// Embed best practice
Designing future potential
We work with leaders, visualising new product and service concepts based on future scenarios. Taking a design-led approach to navigating the implications of economic, environmental and social change. Keeping things creative, curious, empathic and exploratory. Co-creating, visualising and rapid prototyping. We'll get you articulating future possibilities in ways that support innovation and change. This approach applies design thinking in the bigger global and system-level context. Improving lives, generating value, solving the complex challenges of the 21st Century. Design connects business needs with customer and stakeholder expectations. Creating meaning in a volatile world where competition is coming from new directions. When the future presents change and disruption in ways that don’t match with business today, it can seem implausible. We can attempt fixes to make it go away, or we can take a step back and let new realities unfold.
// Design Thinking workshops for teams // Creative concepts and storyboarding // Applying Sustainable Development Goals // Speculative futures design scenarios // Capitalising on marginalised target markets