Kathryn Best PDF [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

Prologue Introduction

Context What is Design Management? Why is Design Management Important? Design Management Timeline

PART ONE

Managing the Design Strategy KNOWLEDGE Identifying Opportunities for Design Understanding the Audience and Market Interpreting Client and Customer Needs Auditing the Use of Design Establishing the Design Strategy Promoting and Selling the Design Strategy Planning for Long-term Growth

PRACTICE Case Study: The Argus®3 Thermal-Imaging Camera Case Study: Camper Interview: Dr. Chris H. Luebkeman, Arup Group Interview: Keiko Uchida, Keiko Uchida Collection

KEY SKILLS Managing Client Relations Guiding Design Decisions Developing Good Working Relationships Verbal Communication Key Skills Exercises

PART TWO

Managing the Design Process

KNOWLEDGE Giving Form to Business Strategy Increasing Awareness with Design Expressing the Brand through Design Initiating Design Projects Design Methods Design Processes Competitive Advantage through Design

PRACTICE Case Study: Kajima Design Europe for JVC Case Study: The Honda Zoomer Interview: Fabio Issao, Mandalah Conscious Innovation Interview: Chloe Martin and Rosie Frost, The Innovation Collective

KEY SKILLS Managing Creative Teams Facilitating the Design Process Developing Collaborative Cultures Visual Communication Key Skills Exercises

PART THREE

Managing the Design Implementation KNOWLEDGE The Project Management Process Project Management in Practice Social and Environmental Responsibilities Design Policies, Procedures and Guidelines Translating Global Design into Local Design Measuring the Success of Design Reviewing and Revising the Design Strategy

PRACTICE Case Study: Sprunk-Jansen and Ping-Pong Design Case Study: The Silken Group Interview: Brian Gillespie, Continuum Interview: Colette Liebenberg, Colette Liebenberg Design

KEY SKILLS Management and Leadership Leadership and Advocating Design Written Communication Key Skills Exercises

Appendix 18 Views on Design Management Further Resources Glossary Additional Credits Acknowledgements

PROLOGUE

Introduction Design management is about the management of design. In its most basic sense, design management is about managing design projects; projects paid for by a client, a business or an organization, and carried out by a designer, a design team or a design consultancy. For some, this is where design management stops, but for others, it is more than just a form of project management. Design management as an approach has a myriad of other uses. Design describes both the process of making things (designing), and the product of this process (a design). Design plays a key role in shaping the world and generating new products, systems and services in response to numerous market conditions and user needs. According to a recent Intellectual Property Office (IPO) report, there are 315,000 designers working in the United Kingdom alone, and another 590,000 working in design-related employment. Can design be used to add more value to business? What roles can design play in society and politics? Designers are often labeled as ‘creatives’, but they are just as likely to employ analytical skills when faced with a problem. Similarly, public and private sector managers tend to be quite analytical, but they are just as likely to adopt a creative approach when seeking a business solution. Designers and managers both exhibit the ability to be analytical and creative, but in different ways, using different tools, and with different outcomes. The stereotypes of designers and managers overlysimplifies the complexity of design management (and of people), and this book extends beyond these simple generalizations. Design is intrinsically linked to business, in a way that can both add and create value for organizations and the wider context as a whole. Beyond the superficialities of the style and aesthetics debate, and beyond the simplistic view of designers and managers, there are opportunities for individuals at various stages of their career, working in a wide range of organizations, and at different project stages, to promote and utilize the value of design. Design management is not a clearly defined vocation, career path or academic subject area; no two ‘design managers’ will have the same background, training or experience in how they got to the position of being the decision-maker about the management of design. Design management can be a strategic leadership role, one that requires explaining, inspiring, persuading and demonstrating how design can positively contribute to an organization in many different ways. It can also be a tactical managerial role, where the focus is on delivering a specific project, task or outcome. The aim of this book is to promote a clearer understanding of design’s role in business and the broader context, and the importance of design as a way of creating value in any organization. The book is a guide for students of design, design management, marketing, media communications and business studies, and for anyone involved in the management of design and creativity. The book begins with a contextual overview of design management, which is followed by three

‘parts’. These parts fully explore the management of the design strategy, process and implementation respectively. Part One: Managing the Design Strategy looks at the first stage of design management, where design projects and initiatives are conceived. The focus of this stage is on identifying and creating the conditions in which design projects and ideas can be proposed, commissioned and promoted. At this stage, design management engages design thinking in an organization’s strategy, identifying the opportunities for design, interpreting the needs of its customers, and looking at how design contributes to the overall business. Once an organization has made the decision to invoke a design strategy, design management deals with the establishment and promotion of it, securing the support and commitment of the stakeholders in the business, and planning for long-term growth – not just immediate and short-term gains. Part One investigates the skills required in managing client relations and guiding design decisions, building relationships, and developing the necessary verbal communications skills to achieve the effective exchange of ideas and information. This stage is about how those responsible for the management of design can inspire design thinking, projects and possibilities. Part Two: Managing the Design Process looks at the second stage of design management, where design projects and agendas are developed. The focus of this stage is on demonstrating how strategy can be made visible and tangible through design. At this point, design management is about how design can be used to craft the presence and experience of an organization, and in doing so influence how the organization and its brand are expressed and perceived. To help identify the management challenges that will be faced when initiating design projects, models from a range of design-related processes and disciplines are provided. Theoretical models can never provide an instant solution, as they are abstract representations of real-life situations, and no single model will fit all solutions. These models are intended as starting points from which to develop project-specific approaches, ones which enable an organization to explore competitive advantage through design. Part Two investigates the skills that are required to effectively manage creative teams, facilitate the design process, lead designers, develop a culture of collaboration and develop solid visual communication skills in order to make thoughts and ideas presentable. This stage is about how those responsible for the management of design can lead design agendas, projects and processes. Part Three: Managing the Design Implementation looks at the stage of design management where design projects and outcomes are delivered. The focus of this stage is the process and practice of managing projects, including the decision-making involved in specifying design materials, working relationships and ethical responsibilities. Once a design project has been completed, the delivery of it can entail further stages of design management, such as developing design guidelines and manuals, the maintenance and evolution of the design, and translating design solutions for the global context. Evaluating the success of the design project allows positive feedback to inform and promote the

effective use of design. Part Three investigates the skills required when managing creative projects, such as leading and advocating design project successes, developing good written communication skills and understanding the differences between the management and the leadership of design agendas. This stage is about how those responsible for the management of design can manage design agendas, projects and people.

CONTEXT The role of design, and its management, in business, society, culture and the environment has a rich and active history. This section of the book provides an introduction to some of the key debates and definitions of design management, and reasons behind their importance today. It also provides an overview of the background and origins of design management in the form of a timeline.

CONTEXT

What is Design Management? There is no single, universally agreed definition of the term ‘design management’, just as there is no single agreed definition of ‘design’, or in fact of ‘business’. When looking at the nature of ‘design’, the word itself is both a noun (an outcome), and a verb (an activity). The outcome of a design project can be seen in the products, services, interiors, buildings and digital media that we come into contact with daily. The management of these design projects is only one aspect of design management. The activity of designing is a people-centered, problem-solving process, which also needs to be managed and therefore is another facet of design management. The term ‘business’, when used in the context of design and business, can become a container for all kinds of non-design activities such as marketing, finance, strategic planning and operational activities. In the area of design management a wide variety of perspectives exist that reflect the rich array of individuals, professions and contexts involved, such as academia, the public or private sectors, business and industry, the design profession, public services and governmental bodies. Indeed, the lack of consensus on both the scope and substance of the design management discipline has ensured ongoing, rich debate about its continual evolution. Topalian has stated that within an organization, design management consists of managing all aspects of design at two different levels: the corporate level and the project level. Topalian also believes that ‘design management development needs to broaden the participants’ experience of design problems and the range of project and corporate circumstances within which they have to be solved’ (2003). Gorb has defined design management as ‘the effective deployment by line managers of the design resource available to the organization in the pursuance of its corporate objectives’ (1990). This definition suggests that the subject is therefore directly concerned with the organizational place of design, and with the identification of those design disciplines that are relevant to the resolution of key management issues, as well as what training managers need to use design effectively. Hollins describes design management as ‘the organization of the processes for developing new products and services’ (2002), and for Cooper and Press, being a design manager is about ‘the response of individuals to the needs of their business and the contribution they can make to enable design to be used effectively’ (1995). For Raymond Turner, design management success in business is not so much about practices, as about attitudes and behavior (2013). As a job description, the design manager has the role of managing design. What exactly this entails will vary from organization to organization, and the person responsible for managing design might be called a ‘brand manager’, a ‘project manager’, an ‘account director’, a ‘design consultant’ or an ‘advertising planner’. The important aspects of managing design, irrespective of the job title, are about understanding the strategic goals of an organization and how design can play a part, and

effectively putting in place the ways and means, the tools and methods, the teams and planning requirements and the passion and enthusiasm, to achieve these goals as successful outcomes. There is growing awareness within many organizations that design is a valuable means to achieve strategic goals and objectives. There is also an increasing desire to understand the design tools (the methods and ways of thinking that the design process brings), and the design planning and implementation, which effective project management of design brings. More recently, design is being valued as an enabler of innovation and collaborative (as well as competitive) advantage.

Whirlpool is the world’s leading manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances. Whirlpool introduced their revolutionary new clothes revitalizer in response to five of the latest emerging trends identified by an expert panel of international style leaders from the world of fashion and interior design. Understanding the impact of these trends on consumer needs and Whirlpool’s own business objectives drove the design of ‘prêt-à-porter’, a fast, easy and practical way to keep clothes smelling fresh and looking great. Image courtesy of Whirlpool Corporation.

The W. W. Stool, designed in 1992 by Philippe Starck for a Wim Wenders film, is produced in a small series by Vitra. The stool ignores functional constraints, allowing Starck’s imagination to have full reign. It is more like a sculpture, which can be used as a stool or standing support, rather than an item of purely functional furniture. Image courtesy of Vitra, (photograph: Hans Hansen).

The Heart Cone Chair (1959), from the Verner Panton-designed collection at Vitra. For all its extravagance, it is a comfortable club chair for everyday use. Image courtesy of Vitra, (photograph: Marc Eggimann).

Table 1: The Key Categories of Design

‘Design management is rooted in the shift from a hierarchical model of management to a flat and flexible organizational model, which encourages individual initiative, independence and risk taking. Designers feel at ease with the new, more informal model of management. The new model is based on concepts like customer-driven management, project-based management, and total quality management, which all deal with design.’ Brigitte Borja de Mozota.

QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION: Is it possible, or desirable, to create a single, standard definition of design management that can be applied to all areas of design, business and society?

Understanding the context in which design operates helps design managers to identify opportunities for new creative projects, processes and enterprises, and plan for the resources needed. It also helps other decision-makers understand what they need to contribute, and how these projects support their goals. Inside an organization, design typically exists as an in-house team working alongside or embedded within other functional business units. Design can also exist outside the organization as a consultancy or agency.

Moleskine produce the legendary notebooks popularized by many famous artists and writers including Henri Matisse and Ernest Hemingway. Planning a new generation of products for a new generation of consumers means that Moleskine can build on their successful traditions, and continue to develop and launch new ranges. Typically, when launching new product ranges, many companies, including Moleskine, involve a number of decision-making representatives from areas such as design, marketing, distribution and sales. Image courtesy of Moleskine.

CONTEXT

Why is Design Management Important? The economic importance of design, and its use as a communication and strategic business tool, has reinforced the status of design management and placed the true potential of design high up on organizational agendas. Equally, design is aiding the development and innovation of social, environmental, technological and cultural processes within enterprises of all kinds. For students, the changing roles and challenges of design mean there are new demands made on those wanting to build careers in design and the creative industries. Design is inextricably linked to the way in which society, the environment and business interact, and as a result today’s organizations are approaching design in a more ‘managed’ way. In order to have a successful, long-term career in design, it is necessary to understand how and where design sits within a wider context, and how the true potential of design can be engaged and professionally managed as a tool for innovation and change. Within an organization, design can affect management on many different levels and in many different ways. Design can be active on strategic, tactical or operational levels, in setting long-term goals and in day-to-day decision-making. Design is a function, a resource and a way of thinking within organizations and one that can be active in the strategic thinking, the development processes and, crucially, the implementation of projects, systems and services; the ways in which an organization connects and collaborates with its customers and stakeholders. By becoming more in tune with the commercial pressures of industry, and by understanding how to use design more effectively, graduates will be at a distinct advantage in making professional design contributions, whether they are forming a start-up or joining a commercial business enterprise, the public sector, or a non-profit organization. In the wider context, there is an ongoing shift from industrial economies to knowledge economies and creative economies, from manufacturing-based processes to information-based and idea-based processes, and from international trade agreements and restrictions to increasingly competitive market challenges from emerging and expanding economies worldwide. In terms of design, this impact is apparent in the evolution of design debates: from ‘style and aesthetics’ to a means of improving products, services, innovation processes and operational efficiencies. The focus of design is now on improving customer services and experiences, and creating better efficiencies and waste reduction strategies in both the private and public sectors. It is inevitable that how design is managed in this shifting context will also change. The practice of design management is evident across a range of disciplines such as product and service design, fashion, architecture, media, entertainment, advertising, digital media and games design. In addition, how design is perceived and utilized in the realms of business, engineering, technology and the creative disciplines varies enormously, and so, different approaches to how design is managed are required in each context. Within an organization, design management is present in the brand communications, the product and

service designs, the corporate buildings and retail environments, and the digital interfaces and advertising campaigns of each enterprise. Externally, design management can respond to the growing pressure for organizations to address government legislation, regulations, policies and politics, and changing attitudes around the world to the management of local and global resources as well as people. All of these internal and external demands, from organizational goals and customer requirements to social and environmental responsibilities, need to be taken into account in the management of design, and all of these aspects need to be managed in order to maximize the time, money and resources that an organization invests in design in order to present itself favorably to both current and potential consumer markets.

Design is active at three levels in any organization: strategic, tactical and operational. At the strategic level, the overall policies, missions and agendas are defined – and it is to these agendas that design must connect. At the tactical level, the teams, processes and systems of specific business units or functions come into play. At the operational level, design manifests itself in the physical and tangible products, services and experiences – the implementation of projects and processes the customer can actually ‘touch’. Source: Adapted from Sean Blair, ProMeet.

Managers of design often have to transcend roles and adapt to different situations. The design leader sets the vision for how design could be used within an organization, selling the vision to, and gaining buy-in from, key stakeholders and decision-makers. The design manager ensures the design processes, procedures and internal functions are adding value to the organization, through a defined design team or through the internal resourcing of design thinking into and across a range of business units and projects. The designer helps unlock the potential of a proposal, and crafts and delivers the solution, to brief, on time and within budget, to satisfy client and customer needs. Source: Mike Crump, Honour Branding Ltd.

‘Worldwide, many countries are beginning to address the challenge of a world that is becoming vastly more competitive. Technology that is not carried through into improved systems or successful products is an opportunity wasted; enterprise that fails to be sufficiently creative is simply pouring more energy into prolonging yesterday’s ideas. Creativity, properly employed, carefully evaluated, skillfully managed and soundly implemented, is a key to future business success and national prosperity.’ Sir George Cox. According to Powell (2004), the importance of design management is growing in four fundamental ways: 1. As businesses of all kinds deepen their understanding of the role of design in innovation, they will look to design management as a powerful resource for innovations that will effectively differentiate

their business and build sustainable competitive advantages. 2. As people continue to find increasing choices in the marketplace, and become more determined to improve the quality of their lives, they will demand more of what only the effective management of design can provide in good design. 3. The shift in attitude from design management to managing for design will unleash the potential of design. 4. The increasingly important role design will play in building a bridge between the fundamental economic and cultural aspects of individual nations and the world will open doors for design to make a key contribution to healthy, balanced societies worldwide. Clearly, there is growing recognition of the potential benefits of design management. However, it is also emerging as a driving force in social policy and environmental regulations, and in educational and government initiatives. An independent report sponsored by Capita, the Design Council and the AHRC calls for a greater use of design thinking in building and delivering public services, to ensure they are made both more responsive to users’ needs and more cost effective (2013). The Cox Review of Creativity in Business was commissioned by the British Government in 2005 to investigate ways in which creative skills might be exploited more fully, and described the valuable connection that exists between creativity, innovation and design. Creativity: is the generation of new ideas. Either new ways of looking at existing problems, or the discovery of new opportunities. Innovation: is the exploitation of new ideas. It is the process that carries a concept through to new products, services, or ways of operating the business. Design: is what links creativity and innovation. It shapes ideas so that they become practical and attractive propositions for users or customers. Design has become a critical and strategic function and methodology in today’s evolving organizations, and the need for the knowledge, the ability and the skills to lead, plan and manage for design is becoming more important.

Table 2: Design Statistics in the UK

QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION: What other emerging trends can be identified in order to begin to think about the role of design in business, society, technology, the environment and politics in the future?

Design can help not only to achieve business objectives, but cultural and social agendas too, especially in the non-profit and public sectors. Recognizing a need for alternative energy sources amongst the world’s poorest communities, Freeplay Energy is committed to providing innovative and practical energy solutions to ensure sustained access to information via the radio. The foundation continually searches for new applications for Freeplay’s patented wind-up and solar-powered technology. The ‘Encore Player’ is a solar and dynamo powered multi-band radio, MP3 player and recorder designed for off-grid communities. It has been designed and engineered for the humanitarian sector and is used by educational programs, listening groups and other programs where training and information are crucial. Image courtesy of the Freeplay Energy Ltd.

Industrial Society 1830–1944

1759 Josiah Wedgwood, a creative and business thinker, sets up his own pottery enterprise and produces new, inexpensive and beautiful tableware. 1830 Inventions such as the steam engine and the weaving machine necessitate the reorganization of industry. Manufacturing, mass production, utility and efficiency begin to replace handcrafts. 1832 The National Gallery opens in London, exhibiting fine arts to educate manufacturers and encourage good taste in consumers. Conceived as an aid to the manufacturer in his struggle with foreign competitors, the gallery effectively promotes the idea of an ‘industrial’ design.

1833 Isambard Kingdom Brunel appointed as chief engineer of the Great Western Railway, establishing him as one of the world’s leading engineers.

1851 The Great Exhibition of the industries of all nations asserted Britain’s world leadership in manufacturing and the ‘useful’ arts, and celebrated the fusion of science, art and design. 1861 William Morris, a British craftsman and designer, sought distinction between the work of the hand and the product of the machine, and in doing so took art out of the academies and into the design of everyday objects. 1869 Charles Eastlake publishes Hints on Household Taste, which claimed to be the first publication on design written ‘in a manner sufficiently practical and familiar to ensure the attention of the general public’.

1877 Christopher Dresser appointed as art adviser to Huskin & Heath, a silver manufacturing and industrial production firm and supplier of novelties and luxury goods. Dresser’s role was to help provide a new creative direction for the firm. 1887 AEG (Allegmeine ElektrizitatsGesellschaft) established. AEG rapidly gains a reputation for advanced management and for design patronage. 1907 Peter Behrens, the first designer for industry, appointed as design adviser to AEG, consulting on buildings, products and graphics, and effectively creating the first corporate identity.

1909 AEG’s turbine factory built. Designed by Peter Behrens, it was considered to be the most beautiful industrial building of its time. 1915 Design and Industries Association founded to promote and encourage good design.

1919 The Bauhaus is founded. Accepting the machine as a modern vehicle of form, they experimented with modular design, the elimination of decoration, and the prototyping of simple designs for mass production. 1930 The Society of Industrial Arts (SIA) is founded. It later becomes the Chartered Society for Designers (CSD), the world’s largest chartered body of professional designers. 1930 Art Center College of Design founded in California. 1932 Art and Industry: the Principles of Industrial Design by Herbert Read is published. 1934 The National Register of Industrial Designers established to maintain and improve the standard of design, to bring designers and manufacturers closer together, and to monitor the skills and qualifications of designers. 1934 The Government Council for Art and Industry established to address questions on the relation between art and industry. 1937 The BBC broadcasts a series of talks on design by Anthony Bertram; Design in Everyday Things. 1937 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy is appointed Director of the New Bauhaus: the American School of Design in Chicago. 1938 Design by Anthony Bertram published. 1939 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy founds the School of Design in Chicago, later renamed the Institute of Design.

1940 Wells Coates appointed design consultant to British Overseas Air Company (BOAC), and EMI recording company. 1940–1954 Raymond Loewy ‘styles’ the Greyhound buses in the USA. 1944 The Council of Industrial Design (CID) set up to improve the product design of British industry. The CID promotes the economy of design as well as of materials. The CID later become the UK’s Design Council.

Post-war Society 1945–1957 1945 Design becomes a profession in its own right. 1945 Braun, producer of functional and stylistic classics, divide their product line into four categories, each headed by a senior designer: Dieter Rams, Reinhold Weiss, Richard Fischer and Robert Operheim. 1946 Sony founded by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita.

1949 Raymond Loewy makes the cover of Time magazine. 1949–1951 Royal College of Art reorganized as an independent foundation, ‘to provide advanced teaching, and to conduct research into the fine arts and in the principles of art and design in relation to industrial and commercial processes’. 1950 Public project initiatives to rebuild bombed cities and towns. 1950s–60s Japanese manufacturers tour US corporate design departments to learn more about design procedures. 1950 public project initiatives to rebuild bombed cities and towns.

1951 Charles Eames designs the influential Eames armchair.

1951 The first Aspen Design Conference, founded by Chicago industrialist Walter Paepcke, is held. It brings together business and design and introduces themes such as ‘Design as a Function of Management’.

1952 Olivetti hosts the seminal Design and Industries exhibition at MOMA in New York. 1955 Walter Teague, design consultant to Boeing, and Frank de Guidice build a full scale prototype of the interior of the 707.

1955 Henry Dreyfuss, design consultant to General Electric, AT&T and Polaroid, publishes Designing for People. This considers design as a form of problem solving, as well as addressing social, ethical, aesthetic, and practical requirements. 1955 Dieter Rams joins Braun, a company that used design to achieve superior market position, and created a corporate identity through their products. 1956 The Festival of Britain celebrates the recovery of post-war Britain, and establishes the nation’s place in the world. The festival’s design team is led by Gerald Barry, Hugh Casson, Misha Black and James Gardner. 1956 Eliot Noyes is made design director for International Business Machines (IBM), shaping their design policy through product design, architecture and graphics, creating IBM as a leader in design. 1956 Good design, a concept founded on Bauhaus principles, is promoted by the Council of Industrial Design. 1957 The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), a network of design associations, is founded with Misha Black as a key figure. The ICSID promotes industrial design, and acts as a forum for professional design policy and guidelines. 1958 Ettore Sottsass becomes design consultant for Olivetti. He is employed on a retainer basis to encourage freedom of design thinking.

1960 Verner Panton designs the influential stacking chair, which is manufactured by Herman Miller. 1960 Erwin Braun initiates the Braun Prize, which reflects Braun’s core competence of design and benefits the field of industrial design on a broader basis. 1960 Henry Dreyfuss publishes The Measure of Man, which contains ergonomic data on human sizes and proportions. 1960 Victor Papanek becomes an international design expert for UNESCO and WHO. 1961 National Institute for Design (NID) founded. 1963 The Design Research Unit is founded by Misha Black, Kenneth Bayes, J Beresford Evans, James Williams, and Milner Gray. 1963 The International Federation of Interior Designers (IFID), a network representing 32 societies, is established. 1963 The International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA) begins in London. 1963 Mario Bellini becomes product design consultant for Olivetti and Cassina, leading innovations in ergonomics and design. Consumer Society 1958–1981.

Consumer Society 1958–1981 1964–1977 Eliot Noyes active as a design consultant for Mobil and advises on design policy for Pan American Airways. (PanAm). 1965 The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) introduces the term ‘design management’. 1966 Michael Farr publishes the first book on design management.

1966 Thomas Watson Jr’s seminal Tiffany Lecture at Wharton Business School asserts that ‘good design is good business’.

1969 Danish company Bang and Olufsen establish their corporate identity through a range of ultra-slimline modern products. 1970 The Managing Design Initiative is launched by Mark Oakley. 1972 The CID is renamed the Design Council. 1972 The RCA establishes a scientific design research department.

1972 Victor Papanek’s Design for the Real World charges the industrial design establishment with criminal negligence on a vast scale. ‘The designer’s responsibility is to society and the environment, rather than to the client’s bottom line’. 1973 Knut Yran publishes Philip’s first House Style Manual to ensure consistency in the company’s presentation. 1975 The Design Management Institute (DMI) is founded at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, by William J Hannon Jr. The DMI provides a forum for corporate design executives and heightens awareness of design as an essential part of business strategy. 1976 The first DMI Annual Design Conference. 1976 Peter Gorb teaches design at the London Business School (LBS), and initiates his design reclassification. 1976 Alan Topalian initiates a formal program of research into the management of design, promoting the common ground between business executives and designers. 1977 Peter Lawrence takes over as director of the DMI.

1978 The Sony Walkman is launched. It combines the miniaturization of technology and the needs of consumers. Worldwide success due to quality of manufacture and style. 1979 Cellular phones tested in the USA and Japan. 1979 Peter Gorb publishes Design and its Use by Managers. 1980–1991 Robert Blaich, senior managing director of design at Philips, introduces a design management system that regards design, production and marketing as a single unit. His commitment to design as a core element of a business wins him rapid recognition.

1981 Memphis Milan, a design studio focused on design innovation and mass culture is established. 1981 The Society of Industrial Artists and Designers (SIAD) sets up a design management group.

Network Society 1982–1997 1982 Time magazine names the computer as its Man of the Year. 1982 Commercial email services begin among 25 cities in the USA. 1982 The Design Management Unit at the London Business School is formalized. 1982 Hunan University opens China’s first design school. 1983 Research into Design and the Economy UK by Roy Rothwell and Paul Gardiner is published. 1983 Research into the Competitive Edge: The Role of Design in the American Corporation, by Clipson et al. is published. 1983 Italian product design company Alessi commissions architects such as Robert Venturi and Michael Graves to develop its product range. 1984 CD-ROM introduced by Sony and Philips. 1984 The UK’s Department for Trade and Industry and the Design Council jointly sponsor a report on managing design, with directives encouraging firms to use design for competitive advantage.

1984 The Apple Mac personal computer is launched, which puts the user not the technology at the center of the design. Adverts by Ridley Scott emphasize liberation, individuality and freedom. 1985 The DMI becomes an independent non-profit entity and establishes a membership program. Earl Powell takes over as director of the DMI. 1986 The Design and Business Association (DBA) is founded. 1989 The DMI and Harvard Business School initiates the TRIAD Design Project. It is the first international research project on design management. 1989 DMI begins publishing the Design Management Review. 1990 Publication of Design Management: a Handbook of Issues and Methods, edited by Mark Oakley. 1990 Publication of Design Management: Papers from the London Business School, edited by Peter Gorb.

1991 Stefano Marzano becomes CEO and CD of Phillips Design, and integrates design strategy into the business process. 1993 Mosaic (later renamed Netscape), one of the first Internet browsers with a visually appealing interface, is released and proliferates the web with a 341,634% annual growth rate of service traffic.

1993 Single European market inaugurated and barriers to trade across borders subsequently disappear. 1994 Publication of British Standard BS7000 Part 3: Guide to Managing Service Design. 1995 The Design Futures Council established. It is a global network of design community professionals aiming to reinvent the art and business of design. 1995 Publication of British Standard BS7000 Part 10: Glossary of Terms Used in Design Management.

Design Society 1998–2014 1996 Publication of British Standard BS7000 Part 4: Guide to Managing Design in Construction. 1997 The DMI establishes a professional development program for design management. 1997 DMI establishes the European International Conference on Design Management. 1997 Publication of British Standard BS7000 Part 2 Guide to Managing the Design of Manufactured Products. 1998 Design for the World network is established in Barcelona. It aims to reflect the concerns of international design organizations and to serve as a vehicle for design professions to act in concert. 1999 Publication of British Standard BS7000 Part 1 Guide to Managing Innovation. 2000 The first Designthinkers Conference is organized by the Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario. 2001–2005 The Design for Business program is developed and piloted by the Design Council. 2002 The Design Leadership Forum is launched in the UK. 2003 Publication of Design Management by Brigitte Borja de Mozota. 2005 Update of the British Standard BS7000 Part 3 Managing Design in the Service Sector. Led by Bill Hollins, this standard is the first to be written with Design Council approval. 2005 University of Oxford Said Business School creates a Design Leadership Fellowship.

2005 Stanford University Institute of Design establishes d-school, which is intended to advance multidisciplinary innovation. 2005 RED Unit set up at the Design Council, its purpose is to challenge current thinking on social and economic problems by exploring new solutions through innovative design practice. 2005 Sir George Cox, Chairman of the Design Council, carries out the Cox Review of Creativity in Business. 2005 Publication of British Standard BS7000 Part 6: Managing Inclusive Design. 2006 The International Design Alliance (IDA) nominates Turin as the first World Design Capital.

2006 European Design Day created. 2006 Publication of Design Management: Managing Design Strategy, Process and Implementation (Kathryn Best). 2006 The first TED (Technology Entertainment Design) Talks posted online. TED was curated by Chris Anderson ‘to spread great ideas’, based on Richard Saul Wurman’s first TED initiative in 1984. 2007 Design Management Europe established via EC funding for ADMIRE (Award for Design Management Innovating and Reinforcing Enterprises, an EU Pro Inno Europe Initiative). The aim was to encourage SMEs to adopt design management practices. 2010 ‘App’ (mobile application) named ‘Word of the Year’. 2010 Finland’s National Innovation Strategy defines policies concerning education, research and technology, and emphasizes the significance of business, design and organizational innovations as well as technical ones. Aalto University established. 2012 Indian Design Council established. 2013 Graphic Design USA names their 50th Anniversary as ‘The Year of the Designer’. 2013 Publication of The Handbook of Design Management (Rachel Cooper, Sabine Junginger and Tom Lockwood)

2014 Cape Town named as World Design Capital. 2014 The 13th International DESIGN Conference in Croatia (DESIGN 2014) calls for leading academics, researchers and practitioners to present their view on ‘EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN’. 2014 AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) celebrates its centennial.

Part One: Managing the Design Strategy This is the stage where design initiatives are conceived, and the focus placed on identifying and creating the conditions in which design ideas and projects can be proposed, commissioned and promoted. At this stage, design management engages design thinking in the organizational strategy, identifies opportunities for design, interprets the needs and desires of the organization and its customers, and looks at how design contributes to the business as a whole.

KNOWLEDGE

Identifying Opportunities for Design Opportunities for design projects, processes and thinking exist both inside client organizations and consultancies and outside in the wider social, cultural, political and economic context. There are no prescribed ways for identifying opportunities for design within any given organization. Instead it is the goals and aspirations of the organization, its corporate vision and purpose, or its brand identity and values, which will suggest what opportunities are right for each organization, and how a designled approach could best serve them. A corporate identity expresses the values and beliefs that an organization stands for, and these values and beliefs will be outlined in the company’s brand and mission statement. The same values and beliefs will also be translated into various business objectives and strategic plans across a number of departments within the organization and, finally, will also manifest themselves in the environments, communications, products and services of the organization. The values and beliefs of the organization will reflect those held by its customers; the people that use, buy or share in the overall brand experience. If the purpose of design management is to identify and communicate the ways in which design can contribute to a company’s strategic value, then identifying opportunities for design is the first step towards this (Borja de Mozota, 2003). CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES Opportunities for design often stem from changes in circumstances: from new demands, either internal or external, made of an organization. Within an organization, design opportunities can be found in the company’s name or brand, its mission statement, its corporate strategy (the overall objectives of the company), its business strategy (the department-level objectives that support the corporate strategy), or its operational strategy (projectlevel objectives). Opportunities can also arise during mergers and acquisitions, organizational restructures and company diversification, during formal meetings and informal conversations with other departments, and collaborations with stakeholders. Outside an organization, opportunities can develop from changes in local, national or international politics, economics, culture, society, population trends, technology and legislation. Opportunities can also originate from humbler origins, such as a chance article in a newspaper or a casual conversation. Perhaps though, the most valuable and rich source of opportunities for design arises from the customers themselves, whether through observing the way they behave when using a product, sharing the collaborative development of the services or collecting customer feedback on how to improve a service.

Table 3: The Business Triggers of Design

Table 4: The Experience Drivers for Design

TOOLS AND METHODS FOR IDENTIFYING DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES There are a range of tools and methods that can be used to proactively identify and flesh out opportunities for design. The following examples are good starting points for identifying where an organization sits in relation to the ever changing outside world. It is this outside world – not the internal world of the organization – that determines whether or not there is a market for its products or its services.

STEEP Analysis A STEEP analysis lists the Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental and Political factors that can affect an organization’s product or service. By identifying the emerging trends and influencing factors in each of the five areas, organizations can plan new business offers to address these potential growth markets and customer or citizen demands. A STEEP analysis can also be used as an earlywarning system to help identify whether future trends will affect the need for an organization’s current business offers, and, if so, what appropriate actions can be taken. SWOT Analysis A SWOT analysis is used to identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of a particular organization or market opportunity. By identifying the factors that can, or do, have an impact on the organization, whether from the inside or outside, an appropriate response can be developed. Competitive Analysis Using matrices is a valuable way of fleshing out potential opportunities in the market because they provide a way to represent the relationships between an organization’s proposed product or service, the competing products or services, and any ‘gaps’ in the market. In this form of analysis, products and services are plotted on a ‘positioning map’, which allows them to be compared and contrasted relative to each other. The position on the map forms the criteria for differentiating an organization’s proposed business offer from the competition, and identifies the growth potential in launching a new product or service in an area not currently provided for. Paradigm of Change Drucker’s paradigm of change model suggests that any organization exists contemporaneously in three interacting, but different, time zones: past, present and future. Flaherty (2002) further translated these zones into three business ‘dimensions’: traditional, transitional and transformational. These dimensions provide a rich starting point for identifying design opportunities and for exploring how design can respond to different challenges and operating aspects of an organization.

‘Ideas are surprising combinations of previously unconnected things.’ John Grant.

Conducting a competitive analysis is a valuable way of fleshing out potential opportunities in the market. This matrix for example, has been used to describe the brand position of washing powder detergents in relation to whether they are traditional or modern, and efficient or caring. Source: Millward Brown Tracking Study.

Drucker’s paradigm of change model, provides a way to think about the past, present and future states of an organization. Exploring how design can respond to different dimensions of an organization can be a rich starting point for identifying design opportunities. Source: Flaherty, 1999.

‘There is no way to market research a genuinely new product or service. To achieve purposefully planned change based on innovation, on an entirely novel and different product or service, the methodology required was…to devise some imaginable future and from that vision work backwards into the present.’ Peter Drucker. Flaherty identifies three management approaches for each of these business dimensions. In the context of design management, each one draws forth questions about the role of design: 1. Managing the traditional business (improving current operations), how can design contribute to improving the current operations of the organization? Perhaps, for example, by concentrating on organizational strengths, or creating efficiencies in production processes. 2. Managing the transitional business (adapting to new opportunities), how can design help the organization to address new opportunities? Perhaps, for example, by satisfying unmet user needs or attracting new customers. 3. Managing the transformational business (focusing on innovation, or ‘purposeful’ planned change), how can design help the business move towards a new vision of itself? Perhaps, for example, by successfully exploiting new product development ideas.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: Think of a brand or organization. What is currently NOT available to consumers that could be proposed as a market opportunity? Is there an unfulfilled user-need? How can design play a role? Scenario Planning One way to create an imaginable future in which to explore new design opportunities is to use scenarios. Scenarios create a context in which to imagine consumers using potential products and services. Thinking about the everyday experiences and behaviors of consumers in a scenario can provide the design team and other project stakeholders with a better understanding of their target audience as they highlight the relationships between the user behavior, situation and the products and services. By brainstorming and experimenting with these scenarios – whether they are drawn, written or oral descriptions – new ideas for products and services can emerge. Rollestone (2003) points out another advantage of using scenarios; because they focus exclusively on the customer and the user’s behavior and experience, the design team is forced to look at things from the point of view of the user, and put aside any of their own personal biases. Many creative ideas are developed in the course of business, but unless these ideas have a viable business case they are unlikely to succeed. Ultimately, the goal of the design resource is to support the values and objectives of an organization, address the needs of its customers, and to identify and create opportunities for design. Successfully promoting design and its growth will rely on an ability to address a wide range of issues, balance various agendas and value-judgements and forge a way forward, often in partnership with other individuals, disciplines, departments and organizations.

Technological innovations can be licensed and used in the creation of new products and services. Estimote create small, wireless Bluetooth-enabled sensors that can detect and communicate with nearby smartphones. Each ‘Beacon’, when placed in a physical space, broadcasts tiny radio signals to smart devices. Those in range (up to 200 feet away) are able to ‘hear’ these signals, estimate their location, and communicate with the beacon to exchange data and information. For customers, special offers from local retailers are communicated directly to their phone. For developers and retailers, the platform can be used to collect analytics to optimize product placement, provide indoor navigation, engage in proximity marketing, add automatic check-ins or even do contactless payments. Estimote Beacons are using licensed Apple iBeacon technology and are compatible with iBeacon-enabled Apple products and applications. Images courtesy of Estimote.

Opportunities can also stem from creating strategic partnerships with other organizations. In order to produce a ‘lifestyle’ offer for their target markets, MINI and Mandarina Duck worked together to create this convertible luggage set, which was designed by Mandarina Duck for MINI. Image courtesy and copyright of BMW AG.

KNOWLEDGE

Understanding the Audience and Market Many products and services are ‘makeable’, they can be created, developed and made as part of a design process, but they are not necessarily ‘marketable’. Marketable products satisfy a customer need and make a profit. Understanding the audience and the market is key to knowing both how design can creatively produce a viable business solution, and equally how marketing can respond to a design innovation to produce a viable business proposition. MARKETING AND DESIGN The Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK) defines marketing as ‘the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably’. Marketing identifies opportunities, anticipates and satisfies needs, creates differentiation, gains competitive advantage, generates income and adds value. As such it undoubtedly plays a pivotal role within an organization. Design, on the other hand, creates value through innovation, improved functionality, brand differentiation and a quality customer experience, and therefore also plays a key role in organizations. Design and marketing departments often work together to support the needs of a business, but how they work together will depend on both the nature of the organization and the market opportunities available. Traditionally, within client organizations, design exists as a resource in one of two places: marketing or product and service development. Within marketing departments, design can deliver services that support specific marketing objectives. For example, a designer can update the packaging design of an existing product so that it appeals to a younger audience, in response to a marketing requirement to increase the organization’s youth-market share. Within product and service development (also referred to as engineering, manufacturing or research and development, depending on the nature of the organization), design can drive innovation through the design process itself, for example, by adopting new technologies, materials, manufacturing methods or co-creative processes.

At almost any stage of the marketing-strategy process, design can add value and create competitive advantage, for example, by differentiating one product or service from another. Source: Adapted from Silbiger, 2012.

When ideas for new products and services originate within an organization’s marketing department, it is because a consumer need has been identified, a value proposition created, and a supporting business case developed. Design then supports both the marketing and the market opportunity. When new ideas originate within product and service development, it is often due to an innovation or a breakthrough idea, for example, inventing a new or better way of making something using advances in technology. Marketing then supports design to develop a viable business case and promotional marketing plan. Traditional market research and market analysis can identify a need, but might inhibit the creation of innovative ideas. A design innovation can create a unique product or service but if it is not marketable, it is unlikely to be viable or profitable. The design process forges a strong link between marketing and product or service research and development (R&D) by supporting those opportunities identified by the marketing department, and driving the invention of entirely new products or services devised by the R&D department. There is a growing awareness amongst business leaders of the unique role design plays, as something that can both add and create value. Design adds value when used ‘top down’ by supporting marketing requirements and responding to market opportunities, and creates value when used from the ‘bottom up’, by generating innovative ideas that are then successfully taken to market.

MARKETING CONCEPTS AND TOOLS Most designers understand the nature of marketing, but are unfamiliar with the actual concepts and tools used. Familiarity with these will provide a design team with a better understanding of what marketing people do and how marketing works in practice. Equally, design ideas that are ‘packaged’ in a way that connects to an organization’s marketing strategy will stand a better chance of getting valuable stakeholder buy-in. The role of the marketing department or resource is to uncover and connect with the consumer voice. Marketing creates value propositions that are aligned with the organization’s strategy, its consumer market, the environmental conditions and its competition. The marketing resource will talk to potential and existing customers as well as market researchers to learn more about the preferences of consumer. There are a number of ways in which a marketing department can communicate directly with consumers and then develop a business strategy in accordance with the responses.

The redesign of the MINI Cooper was a strategic exercise to refresh the brand classic and improve a product’s market position. Design reflects our time and culture, and as customer needs change so too do design specifications. Each aspect of the MINI Cooper redesign reinforces the brand image; refreshingly different, extroverted and spontaneous. Original design details from the cult MINI Classic have been retained or else updated, making the redesigned MINI Cooper S instantly recognizable to consumers. Image courtesy and copyright of BMW AG.

Design plays a key part of the product or service development process. The Dyson Cyclone was an innovation pioneered by breakthrough thinking. Five years and 5127 prototypes later, the world’s first cyclonic bagless vacuum cleaner arrived. The Dyson ‘bagless’ vacuum cleaner was the first not to lose suction. The original team of three designers has since grown to 350 scientists, all housed in a new research center. Image courtesy of Dyson.

Focus groups engage small, targeted groups of consumers in a discussion about a proposed product or service, advert or brand proposition, while marketers listen to the group and watch its behavior and reactions. In the field research and social media analysis are used to study the factors that affect a consumer’s choice of product or service, for example, the selection of a particular brand of washing detergent may depend on its position on a supermarket shelf, or the volume of social media activity it generates. Customer-satisfaction surveys, questionnaires and complaints also provide a platform for the consumer’s voice, and supply vital information about how a product or service could be improved. The opportunities for design and design thinking will inevitably involve building closer links between business units in the organization, sharing knowledge, and identifying new areas of connection. In this way integrated products and services can be developed that engage the knowledge, skills and expertise of business managers, specialists, consumers and customers. The following tools will help design teams understand the marketing considerations involved in launching new products and services. The Product Life Cycle (PLC) A PLC diagram shows the stages in the life of a product or service. It demonstrates how sales will initially grow as new market segments become aware of, and begin buying it, then mature and eventually decline. This useful model allows designers to anticipate market reactions. For example, it could help to determine when to develop and launch a new product range that will succeed an existing one. The Ansoff Matrix The Ansoff Matrix charts existing and new products against existing and new markets, and is used to plan ways in which to increase sales. Using this matrix, design teams can better understand how an organization can increase its revenue through the creation of new markets, products and services. Boston Matrix This is used in product-portfolio planning to chart the relationship between market share (relative to the competition) and market growth. This matrix allows design teams to better understand the different products or services in the organization’s portfolio, and the different roles that each perform.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: What are the different thinking styles and approaches that exist between marketers and designers? How can a design manager enrich the conversation? A PLC diagram shows the stages in the life of a product or service. It demonstrates how sales will initially grow as new market segments become aware of, and begin buying it, then mature and eventually decline. This useful model allows designers to anticipate market reactions. For example, it could help to determine when to develop and launch a new product range that will succeed an existing one.

The Product Life Cycle (PLC) model shows the stages in the life of a product. After introduction to the market, a product is likely to gain a growing number of consumers. Eventually the market will stabilize as the product reaches maturity and, as competing products are launched, will eventually see its sales decline.

The Ansoff Matrix. Productivity penetration increases sales of an existing product or service through increased promotional efforts or reduced prices. New product development increases sales by replacing current products in the organization’s existing market with newer ones. Market extension increases sales by selling existing products and services to new markets, and diversification increases sales by moving the organization away from its core activities to providing something new.

The Boston Matrix is used to chart the relative relationship between market share and market growth. Dogs represent those products with a small share of a low-growth market; they tend to absorb, not generate, profit. Cash cows represent those products with a large share of a low-growth market. If they continue to generate profit, they should be kept in the product portfolio and reviewed regularly. Problem children are those products with a small share of a high-growth market. As the company attempts to increase its market share through investment, they will continue to absorb resources while generating little profit. Stars describes those products with a large share of a high-growth market, these generate healthy profits.

KNOWLEDGE

Interpreting Client and Customer Needs Design adds most value when it uncovers and addresses the gap between an organization’s objectives and current offers, and the potential new desires of its customers. Understanding the interface between business and design relies on being able to satisfy the needs of the organization, its clients and its customers. This is true whether the design resource is on the client-side (from within the organization) or the consultancy-side (from within a design agency). UNDERSTANDING THE CLIENT Within any company the different business units all function to serve the values, beliefs, needs and ambitions of the whole organization. Design consultancies may be engaged by these business units to provide specialist design input in support of the organization’s goals. ln effect, the business unit becomes a client to the design consultancy. Equally, a design resource that exists inside an organization can also be engaged to provide specialist input into a specific business unit or project, again in support of the overall business objectives. The role of design in business is to help create products and services that address the needs of consumers, and to visually and experientially express the values and beliefs of an organization. Identifying how and where design can successfully contribute to different business units begins with a thorough understanding of the organization, the business it is in and the consumers and citizens it services. It is key to turning the design problem (or design opportunity) into a design solution. Business models and plans are structured around a number of internal components, such as mission statements and objectives, roles and responsibilities, leadership and financial structures, business units and lines of communication, and a number of external components, such as the competitive positioning, the cultural and geographic context, and partnerships, alliances and collaborations. Organizations use design to improve their market position while operating within the context of their business models. They also, increasingly, engage design thinking to create new business proposals, especially by engaging stakeholders and users in collaborative development processes. Understanding these internal and external components will help the design team determine how to add value and provide competitive and collaborative advantage, while also supporting the viability of the business. The more a design team knows about the challenges faced by an organization and its customers, the more in tune their design solutions are likely to be. For example, by better reflecting the organization’s brand or business intentions, or by differentiating the business from that of the competition through new product and service innovation. Whether client-side or consultancy-side, if unmet wants, needs and desires can be identified, then they can be interpreted into ways in which design can contribute to a viable business proposition.

‘Understanding the consumer is important for designers in order that

they can develop a conscious and subconscious understanding of consumer needs, and translate that understanding into design features.’ Rachel Cooper and Mike Press.

Beverley Knowles Fine Art (BKFA), is the only gallery in the UK specializing in the work of contemporary, British female artists. Deciding where to locate the gallery – London’s Notting Hill – was key to accurately reflecting the BKFA brand. According to Beverley, Notting Hill is ‘the sort of area that a quirky bright pink gallery with a unique specialization in female artists fits right in’. It is also an area likely to attract the kind of customers that would buy pieces from the gallery. Image courtesy of Beverley Knowles.

BKFA commissioned Banana Design to create an identity that would reflect its brand and business intentions, and visually express its values, beliefs, needs and goals. A strong use of color underpins the brand identity; dark-olive green symbolizes the sober business side of the art world and the soft pink references the female artists that the gallery represents. Image courtesy of Dave McCourt.

Companies use design to improve their market position. The overlap of customer needs and business needs is where design can add most value. Managing design in a way that takes into account the bigger picture can provide valuable competitive advantage to the client organization.

UNDERSTANDING THE CUSTOMER All design communicates a visual message. lt is the combination of design elements, such as color or shape, aesthetics and interactions, which make each message distinct and, ultimately, crystalizes the brand. The message has to be ‘right’ for its target market, and successfully reaching that target market depends, in part, on how attuned the designer is with the audience (Swann, 1990). Statistical data, ‘big’ data and feedback from existing and potential customers and market researchers is most useful when it is ‘shareable’; communicated in a form that is understood by people from a variety of professional backgrounds. Many forms of market research can provide designers with a better understanding of the dynamic responses and changing needs of consumers and stakeholders, as well as the opportunities available in the design project itself. Mood Boards Using a range of visuals, textures, colors and shapes, mood boards present images that represent the lifestyle of a specific target group. Mood boards can help to define a product or service brief.

Metaphors and Analogies In this context, metaphors are used to capture the personality of a project. The metaphor is translated into key attributes that capture the ‘feeling’ of a product or service in a way that everyone can relate to, and which designers can translate into aesthetic and functional design forms. For example, Alloy’s design concept for the Argus®3 thermal-imaging camera concept was code-named ‘Baywatch’ to playfully guide the design team into thinking about lifesaving. Analogies are used to describe by comparison the desired attributes of a product or service. For example, ‘if this product were a car would it be a Rolls-Royce or a Mini?’ Analogies focus thoughts on the desirable product attributes, and give the designer a tangible form with which to relate to the target audience. Opinion Polls Opinion polls, such as MORI, are derived from conducting interviews with representative samples of people in order to gain a measure of the wider community’s or population’s views. The sample chosen is usually representative of a larger population of those individuals who are likely to form the target market for a specific project. Individual Interviews A one-to-one interview provides an in-depth understanding of the customer’s experience, and is often more revealing of their true feelings towards a product or service than focus group conversations. The interviewees can be further challenged on particular aspects in order to gain more in-depth understanding of their motivations and aspirations. Demographics and Other Classification Tools Databases that classify people according to a particular set of criteria, for example, where they live, how much they earn, age group or purchasing patterns can often provide an insightful tool. The assumption behind such tools is that people who have similar lifestyles, behaviors and attitudes will also share similar purchasing habits.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: What business is the client organization in? What drives it? What are its key motivations, goals and aspirations of the business, and of the potential customers?

An introduction to ‘aspiring singles’ consumer type, taken from The CACI Acorn 2005 UK Demographics Profile and Users Guide. Image courtesy of CACI Limited, 2005. All rights reserved. Source: Acorn User Guide, CACI Ltd.

The CACI Acorn 2005 UK Demographics Profile and Users Guide provides definitions and classification types that are often used to describe consumer profiles or target customers. This page is an introduction to the ‘comfortably-off’ type. Designers and marketers can use demographic categories to help them agree on the target market and the needs, wants and desires, lifestyle attitudes and behaviors of the individuals for whom they are designing a product or service. Image courtesy of CACI Limited, 2005. All rights reserved. Source: Acorn User Guide, CACI Ltd.

KNOWLEDGE

Auditing the Use of Design Auditing how design is used by an organization and how effectively design communicates and supports its overall goals is an incredibly useful exercise. By investigating how an organization presents itself, a design audit reveals whether or not there is design coherence in the ways in which the organization communicates its beliefs and values. The design audit also compares how an organization operates and behaves internally (for example, in the design of its working environments), against its external perception and identity (for example, its corporate image and product offers). Inconsistencies in the actual design outputs, such as buildings and interiors, products and services, packaging, graphics, advertising and social media, can then be identified. THE DESIGN AUDIT A design audit honestly and objectively appraises the use of design within an organization. It identifies what does and does not work and determines if a design budget is being used effectively. How design is used and managed can be very revealing of the organization’s true attitude to design, and the customers’ true perception of the organization. The design audit can uncover an organization’s level of knowledge and understanding of design as a valuable asset: one that can be used to further strategic business objectives. A design audit supplies a fresh, unbiased view of how design is used to promote the strategic objectives of a particular organization. It provides an analysis of the effectiveness of all the design elements, and determines how well they are communicating a unified message. The design audit can also suggest areas for improvement. In effect, the design audit is a systematic analysis of the organization’s present position and recommendations for its future, changed and improved, position. The content of a design audit will usually include a review of the organization and the marketing environment in which it operates, the material collected in the audit, an analysis of the use of design, a conclusion and recommendations for improvements and actions. Although the audit can be conducted by an individual or team from inside the organization, there are several benefits in using an outside consultancy. A consultant is more likely to be objective and not be swayed by internal biases and organizational politics; they may have a level of design expertise that does not exist inside the organization; and as a neutral party, employees and customers may be more open in their comments during interviews about how they feel about the organization and its use of design.

Design audits provide a useful analysis to show how organizations are using design to help achieve their overall goals. Eden, in collaboration with design agency Thonik, addressed the city of Amsterdam’s desire to communicate its identity more clearly for the benefit of city residents. Eden’s solution was a city-wide style that unified almost 60 different organizations.

The workings of each part of Amsterdam influences how the city is viewed as a whole, and whether people understand the organization of the city in a recognizable, accessible and transparent way.

The design audit recommended that almost 60 visual identities should be distilled into a single style. The solution was deceptively simple, employing three red Saint Andrew’s crosses from the city’s fourteenth-century coat of arms. The solution offers plenty of room to accommodate the different identifying characteristics of the city’s various quarters and services.

Letters, reports, signage, fleet marking, and other means of communication were standardized. This saved the city considerable sums on the cost of template development, maintenance, printing and management and provided Amsterdam with a clear image. All images courtesy of Eden Design & Communication and Thonik.

CONDUCTING A DESIGN AUDIT The first step in conducting a design audit is to build a picture of the size and scale of the organization, and how it operates. A good starting point for this is to identify the nature, role and function of the organization and review its mission statement or corporate philosophy. It is also beneficial to look at the company’s structure, and identify relevant stakeholders, all the current brand names in use and the organization’s current design procedures, policies and guidelines. Finally, identifying the markets that are currently addressed (the market position) followed by an assessment of the markets available (through an analysis of market conditions or of the competition) will help to complete the picture.

The next step is to develop an understanding of how the organization is perceived, both internally and externally. Gaining an impression of this from within the company is usually achieved by conducting interviews with key stakeholders such as the CEO or company director, the head of design or the design manager, as well as a variety of employees. External interviewees may include current customers, potential customers, and other stakeholders who could provide valuable input on the organization’s perceived reputation. The third step is to conduct a visual audit of those items that are relevant to assessing the use of design in the organization. This might include the organization’s visual identity; its name and style of logo, letterheads, printed material, packaging, advertising and digital/social media; buildings and offices, retail showrooms, exhibitions and signage, the immediate locality of its premises; its vehicles or uniforms and its customer service and staff behavior. A design audit will also include a review of an organization’s internal communication activity (how design is perceived and used by staff within the organization), and compare this with a review of how design is experienced externally (the likes and dislikes, and the concerns and experiences of its customers). In doing so, the audit will highlight both positive examples of the use of design as well as any inconsistencies, which may produce misconceptions about the organization. Once the audit’s investigations are complete, the results are compiled, analyzed and evaluated, and recommendations for action are then made. Design audit findings are typically delivered to the client as a presentation and then distilled into a report covering the audit’s purpose, process, results and recommendations.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: Research an existing organization. Who is currently responsible for making design decisions? Do design guidelines exist, and do they adequately express the use of design by the organization? HOW USEFUL IS A DESIGN AUDIT? Design audits are a very useful tool for a design manager operating within a large organization. The design manager is responsible both for the coherence and consistency of the organization’s design message, and ensuring that this is aligned to its business strategy. Any design inconsistencies within an organization will be revealed in the design audit. Similarly, if there are missed opportunities, the audit can outline these and suggest ways in which design can play a more active role in supporting business objectives and improving customer experiences. Through its collation of visual evidence and recommendations for action, the design audit can form the basis for a larger audit that explores how design is managed, and how good design management can support the business strategy more actively. Recommendations are a powerful way to begin the process of updating or expanding the design resource and its skills efficiently and productively, so that it can, through design, effectively address the needs of the organization. The audit can provide sufficient evidence to affect change and transform the way in which the organization invests in design. In this way, the design manager can grow their internal design team, staffing and budget levels, and ultimately promote the value of design within the organization.

The 100th anniversary of media and marketing group Wegener, and the receipt of a royal warrant, were two reasons to review the group’s corporate identity and brand policy. The Wegener brand was updated to become more visible and communicate more actively, especially towards advertisers and members of staff. Image courtesy of Eden Design & Communication and Wegener.

Eden Design & Communication helped first to determine the communication objectives and strategy of Wegener, and then in shifting the orientation of their communication from the shareholder to the stakeholder. Eden helped Wegener develop a brand promise for stakeholders, which was: ‘Achieve more. With Wegener’. Eden also designed a new brand identity for Wegener that introduced the royal warrant in visual form to accompany the word trademark, and redefined Wegener’s newspaper company’s brand structure. Image courtesy of Eden Design & Communication and Wegener.

KNOWLEDGE

Establishing the Design Strategy In order for an organization to establish its design strategy, a business case for its design needs to be formulated. Inside an organization, this responsibility will usually fall to the design manager, who may choose to bring in an external design consultancy or agency to help. The purpose of the plan is to persuade the organization’s senior management and stakeholders that there is a need to establish a design strategy, initiative or resource that extends beyond their current use of design. The design audit can help support this plan, but building a case for design will also involve demonstrating how design thinking can best serve the mission, aims and operational needs of the organization. A solid case will ensure that everyone can see the potential tangible benefits from their own perspective. Ensuring that senior management can understand the value and impact of design, using the language of marketing or finance as appropriate, increases the likelihood of key stakeholder support. Defining the boundaries of the design initiative is also important in order to set everyone’s expectations at the right level. SETTING UP A STRATEGY FOR DESIGN Borja de Mozota (2003) points out that once the design demand has been initiated, two decisions need to be made. Firstly, who will be responsible for design in the company? And secondly, how will the project design-management tools be delegated within the company? In response to the first question, the decision will involve appointing a design sponsor or champion; someone who has representation at board level. In many cases this will be the design manager, but in some organizations it may be the head of marketing, or the head of research and development. This person’s role will be to promote the engagement of design at different levels of the organization. In response to the second question, the design manager (or sponsor) will be the keeper, initiator and guardian of the project design-management tools that are used to disseminate design thinking throughout the organization. These tools might include; design policies, strategies, agendas, and guidelines; design workshops, toolkits, briefings, newsletters, books, trade magazines and websites. A useful way to establish the benefits that design can bring to an organization is to consider design, design policies and design strategies in relation to three levels of the organization: at board level, mid or business-unit level, and at design-activity level. At board level, the question posed is, how can design be used at a strategic level? It will often be in response to a situation where an organization perceives a strategic need. At the middle level, the question posed is, how can design be used at a business level? Here, it will be used to translate the perceived need into a new product or service, process or concept. At the design-activity level, the question posed is, how can design contribute at a project level? At this level it will assist in how the products or services developed as a response to the need are delivered. It is possible to differentiate between a design policy and a design ‘strategy’, although both inform

each other. The design strategy establishes how an organization intends to use design, and how design processes can best serve its operational needs. The design policy describes the legislation that will support the design process, and involves coordinating the planning and policy information to meet the needs of stakeholders (Cooper and Press, 1995). In many ways, the design strategy is the vision for design at all levels in the organization, and the design policy is a series of decision-making milestones for making the vision possible.

Oyster, London’s travel smartcard, was introduced to support the mission, strategy and operational needs of Transport for London (TfL). It also supports the needs of TfL customers as the system is designed to make it quicker and simpler for passengers to get around the city, cut queuing times and keep cash off the buses. The Oyster card works by the user simply pressing it on a card reader at tube

stations and on buses. Image courtesy and copyright of Transport for London 2005.

The smartcard is designed to be reusable, thus eliminating the need for paper tickets for each and every journey. As such, Oyster is being hailed by TfL and Friends of the Earth as an environmental asset, as 100,000 fewer paper tickets are sold every day – a saving of 32 million paper tickets a year since the smartcard was introduced in 2003. Image courtesy and copyright of Transport for London 2005.

DEVELOPING PROPOSALS FOR THE DESIGN STRATEGY Once the need for a company design strategy is established, the design manager (or sponsor) is responsible for developing proposals for it. There are several ways to develop design proposals that will successfully meet the requirements identified by the organization. The design manager can either work alone or in conjunction with a design team (in-house) or invite proposals from a consultancy (out of house). At this stage, design proposals do not deliver a full working solution; they merely provide an outline of how a design team or consultancy would address the needs of the organization should they be successfully engaged to work on a project. The proposal will usually be a written document that sets out what the design services are and how much they will cost.

IN-HOUSE VERSUS OUT OF HOUSE It is not uncommon for an organization to invite an external design consultancy to put together a proposal for a design strategy. Gaining valuable stakeholder buy-in from other business units within an organization may well be crucial to the success of the design strategy, and an outside design consultancy can often provide proposals with a level of objectivity, as they will be free from the pressure of internal inter-department or political agendas. Outside design consultants can also supplement an in-house design group by providing a fresh perspective, by guiding or directing a specific project, or by supplying a specific set of skills or experience. Outside consultants can either operate on a short-term, single project basis with the aim of achieving the defined objective, or a longer-term, strategic, advisory or ‘retainer’ basis. There are many different types of consultancies and design teams offering a range of scale and services. There are benefits to appointing one lead consultancy as the overall ‘contractor’ under which smaller agencies can be appointed, although this can prove expensive. A less costly method is for an organization to appoint smaller specialist agencies, and be prepared for the inevitable ‘jostling’ for prime position amongst the agency’s client base as part of the process.

‘Design strategy is the effective allocation and co-ordination of design resources and activities to accomplish a firm’s objectives of creating its appropriate public and internal identities, its products and service offerings, and its environments.’ Mark Olsen.

Table 5: The Pros and Cons of Using In-house and Out of House Design Teams

WORKING WITH DESIGN CONSULTANCIES So how does an organization bring in a consultancy to help establish its design strategy? Firstly, the organization’s design manager will define an initial client brief and draw up a shortlist of consultancies with relevant experience for the project in question. The consultancies on the shortlist are then invited to present or ‘pitch’ their proposals. A pitch will introduce each consultancy’s approach and working methods, and is a good means for the organization to appoint the best consultancy for the job, and agree the scope of works, project budget and consultancy fees. From the consultancy’s perspective, a pitch is not a platform to dispense design services for free. Rather, it is an opportunity to demonstrate and educate the design ‘buyers’ about the value of their thinking in helping address the organization’s challenges. A frequent consultancy mistake is to spend

most of their pitch talking about their capabilities, rather than demonstrating an understanding of the client and the project. Although consultancy credentials should be included in the pitch, the client will be more interested in forming a working relationship with a design team that can address their needs and focus on providing a creative and viable design solution. The client will also be more interested in the consultancy that can demonstrate an understanding of the motivations and aspirations of both their business and their customers. For the design manager, it is important to be able to find the right design consultancy for a specific project. Examples of sources that can better inform this decision include design trade bodies and associations that run client referral services (and keep a list of design providers), trade journals and magazines, word of mouth, design-award winners and those consultancies that the client’s competitors are working with.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: What are the benefits and drawbacks of working solely with an external design consultancy, or exclusively with an in-house design team? And with a combination of both internal and external design specialists? PRICING DESIGN PROFITABLY Whether in-house or out of house, design is a resource that has to be paid for by the client. Understanding client expectations when setting a price for the work to be done is never easy, and the hard evidence of financial benefits of the design project will not yet be there for evaluation. So how is a fair rate, one that is acceptable to both sides of the relationship, established? For the consultancy, pricing profitably means covering the costs, overheads, and expenses involved in running a design business, while also allowing for a portion of the profits to be invested back into the business. Staff salaries or sub-contracted consultancy fees are likely to be the largest part of the cost of design. Trade magazines usually publish average hourly rates, salaries and market rates for particular design roles and tasks, and these can serve as a useful starting point for anticipating or managing client expectations for the human-resource costs of the job. Design consultancies’ charges, fees, or hourly rates will inevitably vary depending on experience and what the market is willing to support. A good rule of thumb that consultancies can adopt is to work out the annual overhead costs and divide this annual total by the approximate number of hours worked that are actually ‘billable’ to a client (usually 1000). Non-billable time includes activities such as administration, marketing, writing proposals, holding client presentations, and recruiting staff. The result is an hourly rate that will cover the cost of running the business and the actual design time. To calculate the hourly billable rate for a single design team member (assuming most of their time is spent working on client projects), divide their salary by 1500 hours. Consultant and consultancy rates can also be used to estimate whether a job can be completed profitably by establishing if the price for the job is sufficient to cover the design time and the overheads.

Apple has a clear business strategy for using design to add value to everything the company does, and to consider how customers experience their products and services. Apple’s iPod, designed in-house under the leadership of Jonathan Ives, has quickly become a design icon of the digital music age. Along with iTunes software and iTunes music downloads, the design of the overall system demonstrates an integrated, seamless and fully-customizable approach. Image courtesy of Apple.

Apple’s design strategy is visible in the company’s products, services and stores. Apple has always recognized the importance of customer feedback and see it as an important part of the brand’s success. Apple’s ‘mini’ retail stores are designed to fit in a variety of locations, and are environments for both introducing innovative products and gathering valuable customer feedback. Image courtesy of Apple.

The Apple mini stores feature stainless-steel walls and seamless white floors and ceilings. They contain a range of portable computers, iPods and associated products and customer services such as The Genius Bar, where questions are answered by an Apple technical expert. There is also an onsite repair service. Image courtesy of Apple.

KNOWLEDGE

Promoting and Selling the Design Strategy Whether the design strategy is established in-house or via a consultancy, the design manager will require a solid entrepreneurial mindset in order to successfully promote and sell the design strategy and thinking throughout the organization. In order to do so, the design manager will need to raise awareness amongst the organization’s key stakeholders, to ensure that the design strategy is understood correctly, and persuade those individuals whose contributions are vital to the success of the design strategy of its relevance to the viability of the overall business. A way of identifying the key stakeholders in any business is to look at its organizational chart, which maps the roles and functions of groups and individuals. Inevitably, the amount of promotion and buyin required will depend on how design is perceived within the organization, and how persuasive the design manager is. At this stage it is useful to consider the design strategy as a business plan. A design manager working within a client organization, may aim to build and grow a design resource, whereas a project manager working within a design consultancy may be seeking client buy-in to a design concept. Whether inhouse of out of house, the key questions to ask are, what is the business case for the idea? What are the benefits to the client organization and its customers? How long will it take to realize it and how much will it cost? What resources are needed? What are the short-term and long-term benefits? Working out the answer to these questions will help create a financially viable solution. GAINING STAKEHOLDER BUY-IN People are more likely to understand a design strategy if they are involved in the process of formulating it. Key stakeholders are found both within the organization, for example, key heads of other business units, the company director or senior board level management, and external, for example. Design managers will involve key stakeholders with the aim of getting their support and buy-in. An effective way to do this is to describe the actual design strategy, but in terms that sell the benefits to each of the stakeholder’s business units. For example, if one of the key stakeholders is the human resources manager, describing the benefits of the design strategy to the organization’s recruitment policies is more likely to build a persuasive case. If selling the strategy to many different types of stakeholders, the design manager should try to find some common ground, such as describing the benefits of the plan to the customer. Since no business organization can exist without customers, finding ways to work together in improving the overall customer experience will be of mutual interest.

‘There should be at least one member of the board who takes a personal and qualified interest in design. Design should be on the

agenda at board meetings and the plans of the company should include a policy for design. This will give the company design initiatives support from the top – crucial to the implementation of any design project.’ Jen Bernsen.

Understanding who the key stakeholders are can help establish which stakeholders to involve, and in what way, to help deliver a viable and achievable design strategy. NEC Corporation is one of the world’s leading providers of Internet, broadband, network and enterprise solutions. This diagram shows the key stakeholders in NEC’s environmental activities, as published in their Annual Environmental Report. NEC promotes responsible environmental management and a vision of a sustainable society through their stakeholders. Source: NEC Corporation.

FORMING PARTNERSHIPS AND ALLIANCES

Within an organization, design rarely exists in isolation to other business units. For the design strategy to succeed, partnerships and alliances with individuals and groups, both inside and outside the organization, need to be established. These partnerships, alliances and other forms of collaboration need to be managed in a strategic and consistent way, so that, depending on the nature of the relationship, expectations amongst stakeholders are agreed, identity guidelines are managed, customers are not confused and assets are legally protected. Partnerships describe the relationship between two or more people, groups or organizations that are involved in or share the same activity; they work together in partnership with each other for a common purpose. Caroline Flagiello of IDEO writes that ‘to create the conditions for great design and innovation, start by identifying and nurturing business relationships built on mutual respect’. She suggests five ways to nurture ‘power partnerships’, ones that allow both sides to stretch into new areas of innovation and success: (1) don’t limit your moves, think open and ‘what if?’ (2) engage as an equal – collaboration requires regular conversation (3) build a common vocabulary – use language you both understand (4) know how to lead, and how to follow – make decisions and be prepared to ask questions (5) make each other successful – push each other’s thinking and aim for greatness (2013). An alliance is an association of two or more groups, individuals or organizations who agree to cooperate with one another to achieve a common goal. Organizations that form strategic alliances often possess similar aims or characteristics. Motives for two companies forming an alliance can include: licensed merchandise, sponsorship, co-branding (where two or more brands are used together to market specific products, services or events) and joint ventures. Good relationships are central to sustained high quality performance of many leading organizations. People like working with people they like, and treating suppliers as part of a co-creative process of delivering better products and services to customers makes good business sense. Whether working with customers, suppliers, partners, alliances or employees, successful long-term relationships are based on trust and the sharing of mutual benefits.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: What key stakeholders need to be involved? What are the objectives of the alliance? Who is providing what resources and expertise? What form of agreement is in place?

Thousands of children are taken to hospital each year as a direct consequence of chair related accidents in schools. Don’t Lean Back (DLB) now produce and sell a design that stops children leaning back on their chairs. The chair was the idea of teacher Tom Wates, and Sedley Place provided design advice and production expertise over a 3-year period in return for equity in the company. The Max Chair changed the way school chairs are purchased by facilities managers, and the way schools think about furniture: it is no longer simply a choice of color and price, but other measures of performance such as style, safety implications and sustainability. Image courtesy of DLB.

IBM technologist Jennifer Chu holds an IBM POWER microprocessor, the chip at the core of a wide range of products, from game consoles to powerful supercomputers. In China, an alliance of 15 companies, including Freescale Semiconductor and IBM, announced the formation of Power.org; an open collaborative consortium and developer community that aims to develop, enable and promote Power Architecture technology, guidelines and specifications. Image courtesy of International Business Machines Corporation. Unauthorized use not permitted.

KNOWLEDGE

Planning for Long-term Growth Design does not exist in isolation. Different organizations have different stages of development in their use of design. Consequently, how design is managed will depend of the nature of the organization, and their aspirations for how design and design innovation is utilized within the organization. Planning for the long-term growth of design within an organization will involve a number of key actions. In the first instance, it will require the organization to be open to opportunities, and flexible enough to respond to changing circumstances. Secondly, it requires the establishment and growth of a trusted and reliable design team, one that can actively advocate the use of design both inside and outside the organization. Thirdly, it requires that the value and merits of design be made explicit. Building on project successes is essential for providing legitimacy and authority to the design strategy. And lastly, it requires that these merits are promoted to educate other stakeholders about the power of design. BUILDING DESIGN INTO THE ORGANIZATION Introducing a design strategy within an organization can have an impact on how individual business units operate. If a design team was previously embedded within another business unit, becoming its own department will alter responsibilities, accountability and existing lines of communication. Functional areas may need to change and new organizational structures and business models may need to be established. Design managers need to plan ahead in order to consider the most viable position for a growing design team. An organization may need to reorganize itself in order that its design strategy can best support its needs. Creating new business units is common practice when the need for one becomes important enough to the organization’s success. For example, because dissemination of corporate knowledge and the internal flow of information grew to become such an important consideration, many organizations established an entirely new business unit to manage corporate intranets and share knowledge as a stimulus for innovation and collaboration. Building design into the organization may also originate from thinking about how to best benefit the customers. How can the process for creating products and services be reconfigured around the user, rather than the internal structure of the organization? Looking at a situation from the viewpoint of a customer enables a better understanding of how to improve processes, and what opportunities there are for developing new products, services or experiences.

‘Start with a single project on a modest scale. Start with a project that can produce visible and useful results within a limited time and at a modest investment. Then, even if it’s on a small scale, it will contribute

to ‘selling’ the idea of working with design in-house and thus pave the way for larger projects in the future.’ Jen Bernsen.

Interface is the world’s largest designer and maker of carpet tile. For Interface, Design is a mindset and sustainability is the journey of a lifetime. FLOR, the consumer/residential division of Interface, shares the same passion for sustainability as their parent company. Greg Colando, FLOR’s CEO, states that: ‘Sustainability is at the core of everything we do… We use 100% recycled nylon for the face fiber of our carpet design squares, we have some of the lowest VOCs in the industry, and our Return & Recycle Program is our investment back into one of our core beliefs, which is the re-purposing of existing materials. … This philosophy ensures we are bringing value to the customer in ways that go beyond just a well-performing area rug and extend into our overall impact on the world around us.’ Four of the best-selling products reflect the aesthetic richness of their modular carpet tiles: Parallel Reality, Vintage Vibe, Lasting Greatness and Modern Mix. Images Courtesy of FLOR.

BUILDING A FLEXIBLE AND ADAPTABLE DESIGN RESOURCE

The ability to adapt to changing circumstances necessitates a flexible and responsive mindset. For design managers, managing the long-term growth of a design strategy means ensuring that it is expandable, so that as the reputation and use of design within the organization grows. As project successes become known, the way design is managed can also evolve. Effectively, this will mean that the organization has systems in place that allow easy access to design teams and resources as and when is necessary. Such systems might include the creation and maintenance of an in-house design team, purchasing design expertise or entering into a partnership with a design consultancy, creating a design roster, establishing a design procurement process, or combining a variety of approaches for different types as well as stages of a project. BUILDING ON DESIGN SUCCESSES Building a series of successful design outcomes, whether managing a single project, establishing a long-term relationship with a board level design champion, or delivering a series of unique customer experiences, is the most fruitful way to increase stakeholder buy-in and recognition of the value and merits of design. Making design successes explicit by measuring the value of design, though important, may not always be possible, in which case other forms of promoting design successes should be sought out. For example, the National Patient Safety Agency, part of the UK’s National Health Service, measures the success of its Design for Patient Safety Initiative by the number of lives saved.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: In what other ways can design support the objectives of the organization, and the goals of specific business units? Should design thinking be present in some form within every business unit, and on every project or initiative?

Herman Miller is a recognized innovator in contemporary home, healthcare and office furniture design. A long-term commitment to integrity in product quality and business relationships has developed through partnerships with some of the century’s most outstanding designers. One such example is the productive working relationship between the company and the legendary Charles Eames. Shown here is the Eames Molded Plastic Side Chairs, designed by Eames and manufactured by Herman Miller. Engaging talented external designers led to the company gaining a reputation for leadership and innovation in design. Image courtesy of Herman Miller.

As an outstanding example of building on design success, Japanese lifestyle company MUJI celebrated the achievement of nine iF product design awards in 2005. The awards were bestowed in recognition of the enduring excellence of MUJI product design in the company’s 25th anniversary year. The iF design awards are a mark of design excellence, and MUJI’s White Porcelain series, shown here, was the winner of a Gold Award. Image courtesy of MUJI.

Case Study PRACTICE

The Argus®3 Thermal-Imaging Camera

The Argus®3 Thermal-Imaging Camera. Strong semantics echo the rugged strength of the product – it had to be tough and it had to look tough.

‘Reducing danger or saving just a few lives can generate an awful lot of goodwill. Think of the benefits Volvo has reaped by making its cars

safer. Take the pain or struggle out of your products or services, and you’ll not only win over customers but likely beat out the competition.’ Tom Kelley. UNDERSTANDING THE NEEDS OF THE USER A thermal-imaging camera provides firefighters with good visibility in thick smoke or in complete darkness. Good visibility allows quicker scene assessment and, crucially, faster location of any casualties. The pioneering e2v technologies saw that military infrared sensors could be invaluable in helping fire services save lives. Their first thermal-imaging camera, branded Argus®, was launched in 1995 and was an instant success thanks to its excellent technical and ergonomic performance. In the following years many competitors appeared, all wanting a piece of the market, and the underlying technology has become more sophisticated and the hardware more miniaturized. In 2001, e2v technologies approached Alloy Total Product Design to embark on a collaboration that would produce a completely new thermal-imaging camera; the Argus®3. The principal challenges for Alloy were to improve the ergonomics and performance of the original product and integrate new and unique functionality. Technologically, the Argus®3 has to support three completely different core-sensor configurations, ensuring that there is a global market for the camera by adapting to the various standards required by different countries. Above all, the product has to be extremely robust, simple and intuitive to operate and it must not impede the firefighter while going about his or her duties. These design considerations were essential to the product’s success. The key to the design solution was an understanding of the end user and the exceptional demands of their duties. In order to gain this understanding, the director of Alloy’s design team, James Lamb, undertook comprehensive firefighter training to ascertain exactly how the camera would be used in real-life situations. THE MOMENT OF INNOVATION The ‘eureka’ moment was surprisingly counterintuitive. James’s participation in firefighter training revealed that the camera was used in short, quick bursts for orientation and checking for casualties, and then lowered, while more traditional fail-safe techniques were observed for recovery. Therefore the new camera design needed to be less cumbersome when the product was not in use, particularly if the user was crawling or lying down. The camera had to be both more accessible and less cumbersome than previous cameras. Alloy found that the camera had to have handles so it could be easily passed between colleagues in difficult conditions. Thermal imaging cameras are expensive, and in most cases there is only one camera for each firefighting team, so members of that team need to pass it to one another. This can be a very difficult task if firefighters are working in the dark, with thundering noise, and wearing thick gloves. As well as handles, the camera’s controls and features had to be simple to operate with bulky gloves on and easily viewed, as time is of paramount importance when working in life-

threatening conditions.

The director of the design team James Lamb undertook comprehensive firefighting training to understand exactly how the camera would be used in real-life situations.

Several options were explored, including a camcorder option with rotating screen, which was ultimately rejected because of a perceived lack of robustness. Managing both the actual and perceived toughness of a piece of industrial equipment such as a thermal-imaging camera is crucial to the success of the design. Simply developing a tough product was an insufficient design solution; the product also had to look indestructible, and stand alongside the other tools firefighters rely on. In a real-life situation, if the firefighter can’t get through a window and has no hammer, but does have a thermal-imaging camera to hand, this is what will be used to smash the window. The material specification needed for this application was decided upon at an early stage in the design process. Radel 5100 is a high-melt, super tough thermoplastic, and this was augmented with a U0rated Santoprene for grip, impact and color differentiation.

The Argus®3 has proved to be exceptionally popular with firefighters. The improved design has also opened up new markets for e2v technologies in the marine and aviation sectors.

The key to the design solution was an understanding of the end user and the exceptional demands of their duties.

Integral handles allow the Argus®3 to be easily handed from one firefighter to another.

THE NEW DESIGN The Argus®3 industrial design incorporates a number of innovative features. The camera was reconfigured into a vertical format, ensuring a less cumbersome profile when the camera hangs close to the hip or chest. Firefighters often access their casualties by crawling or crouching, so it was important to ensure the camera was not too difficult to carry, would not bounce around and did not project too far out from their body. The Argus®3 has two handle options, both of which ensure that accidental activation or deactivation is prevented, and also improve handle security. In addition, the vertical format reduced wrist strain by placing the camera’s center of gravity as close as possible to the grip points. The Argus®3 features replaceable strengthening panels and several detachable elements, which allows the camera to be adapted by the user to any situation. The distinctive handles can be removed and replaced with low profile bumpers and straps, and can also serve as replaceable

protectors to the expensive core camera. The camera’s organic shape fits easily into a gloved hand, with smooth flowing forms, ensuring there are no sharp edges to concentrate stresses and weaken the structure. There are two anchor points for mounting a neck strap, which are positioned so that the camera falls at a natural angle for rapid deployment without actually hindering movement and the controls are simple and easy to operate with gloved hands. The provision for multiple sensor configurations allows the camera to be sold to different countries around the world. New features include image zoom, eight color settings, image capture and the ability to send live footage to the incident command outside the fire zone. Although mainly used by civilians, some of the camera’s technology is derived from military applications, resulting in selective export restrictions on certain builds. The modular construction overcomes this, making this lifesaving technology universally available. The principle benefit of the Argus®3 is in the product’s use. By speeding up the detection of the source of fires, they can be dealt with more quickly and this means less harmful emissions, less damage to property and the environment and fewer casualties. Used in preventative maintenance (for example, potential flame points) the Argus®3 can stop potentially environmentallycatastrophic events ever happening. The Argus®3’s final industrial design is based on radical ergonomic innovation, and has instant appeal to firefighters who can see the advantages of the streamlined format instinctively. The appearance emphasizes the product’s leading edge technology with its paradigm busting form. Many of e2v technologies competitors’ cameras have a format copied from the original Argus®. This new design demonstrates that the best manufacturers learn from their customers and never stop innovating. For Alloy this was a dream job, balancing the needs of the world’s most demanding consumers with extreme physical and mechanical design constraints. This is a product that genuinely makes a difference and helps everyday heroes conduct their business more effectively. Argus® is a trademark licensed from Argus Industries, Inc. All images courtesy and copyright of e2v technologies ltd.

PRACTICE

Camper ESTABLISHING THE DESIGN STRATEGY Camper embodies the spirit of a family business; in this case a family that have been working together for over a century in the footwear industry. Responsibility, commitment and quality were values treasured from the outset. Today, Camper take an imaginative approach to everything they do, especially with regard to their strong belief in social, environmental and corporate responsibility. They consider their ability to create products that improve the health and quality of life of their customers to be one of their most valuable assets. Camper’s approach to design is reflected in these values and in the structure of its business, which Camper considers to be driven by more than just the pursuit of profit. The company chooses to build working relationships and use production processes that are respectful of both individuals and the environment. IDENTIFYING OPPORTUNITIES FOR DESIGN In 1887, Antoni Fluxá, a Mallorcan shoe craftsman, set sail for England intending to learn about the latest industrial manufacturing techniques of the time. Upon his return, he assembled a group of craftsmen and introduced them to shoemaking machinery – the foundation upon which the Camper empire was eventually built. In 1975, Lorenzo Fluxá, grandson of Antoni, created Camper, a business concept that reflected the new social, political and historical drivers of the time, and echoed a lifestyle based on freedom, comfort and creativity. Camper means ‘peasant’ in Catalan, and the organization manufactures its shoes in the countryside, using traditional craft knowledge to make footwear for urban-dwellers. Camper makes high-quality and functional shoes, which combine comfort and imagination with a sense of innovation, humor and irony. For example, ‘Twins’, one of their many product families, is based on the idea of having two single shoes, not a pair. Each shoe is asymmetric, different, surprising and even surreal. Camper shoes are built not only to please but to last; the company continually researches materials and manufacturing methods to ensure that a pair of Camper shoes are a good consumer investment. A VALUED TEAM OF STAKEHOLDERS Camper prides itself on its craftsmanship and its vocation for manufacturing. People working for and with Camper like what they do, and know and love their trade. Camper considers each of these people to be a stakeholder in the business with whom to exchange ideas, suggestions and points of view. The business prides itself on building long-term relationships based on trust, a sharing of

ideas and working together as a team to identify new opportunities. Ensuring proper working conditions is also part of the approach to make Camper partners unique and relevant members of the Camper ‘family’. Imagination has become the company’s lifeblood, and its contributions to the world of design and creativity have been publicly recognized through numerous awards. Camper won Spain’s National Design Award in 1998, the country’s highest honor in the field of design, which was official recognition of a brand that has turned creativity into a viable and growing business, one that combines local values with global horizons.

The Camaleon, one of Camper’s product families, was the first shoe to be commercialized in 1975. As a remarkably casual shoe for its time, it addressed the market desire for shoes that reflected a new lifestyle, and helped consolidate the Camper brand. The Camaleon is a close replica of the shoes used by peasants in Majorca since the beginning of the twentieth century.

Pelotas, another of Camper’s product families and one of Camper’s best sellers, is a design concept inspired by the passion and imagination of pioneering sportspeople. It is an ironic ‘revival’ shoe with a slightly retro look.

Camper’s techno-casual Pelotas Nu, an update of Camper’s most emblematic model, brings together technology and classic design. It offers shock absorption and lightness, and almost all the inner lining has been removed for greater freshness, breathability and freedom of movement.

This is the interior of Camper’s London Info-Shop. The temporary fit out of the shop is treated as a ‘publication’, with its contents and featured theme displayed on the wall, floors and other elements of the store.

CAMPER STORES: THE BRAND’S MOST IMPORTANT ASSET The first Camper shop opened in Barcelona in 1981, and was followed by many more branches throughout Spain. Camper initiated the concept of the self-service shoe store, displaying all the available stock in conceptual showcases, which arranged shoes functionally by style, size and gender and allowed customers to interact with the shoes and help themselves to those they wish to

try on. International expansion began in the 1990s and today Camper is the leading company in Spain’s footwear industry, and has a growing number of stores worldwide. When Camper began its international expansion, a conscious effort was made to ensure that the global rollout of their stores reflected the Camper spirit, but also allowed local influences, and the character and culture of the store’s location, to add some variety to the interiors. Camper showed the world its shoes and its philosophy, but it also had the opportunity to observe what was happening on the other side of the glass. The Camper stores became a window through which Camper could ‘both look out and be looked at’. Design is central to Camper, whether manifested in its branding and philosophy, in its employees, partners and collaborators, or in its stores, posters and other graphic elements. Within the stores graphic design such as posters, boxes and bags are decorated with ironic messages. In their series of collaborations with design consultants, Camper have introduced two new concepts, the ‘Walk in Progress’ and the ‘Info-Shop’. WALK IN PROGRESS STORES The continued international expansion and opening of new stores created an interesting challenge for Camper: how could the organization increase profits and create cost savings by reducing the time between acquiring a new site and opening a Camper store, while retaining the true spirit of Camper. The solution had to be simple, quick and cheap, and had to reflect the Camper brand and values. Working with Martí Guixé, a Catalan designer and regular Camper collaborator, the concept of the Walk in Progress was adopted as the design strategy to address the challenge. The remarkably simple idea was to make a temporary, provisional, interactive store design, incorporating shop fittings made of recycled materials, which allowed Camper stores to be opened before their definitive design and decoration were finished. The objective of getting each store opened as quickly as possible was achieved with a range of props: a central table made of shoe boxes displays the latest range of shoe styles. Text and graphics on the walls invites customers to ‘imagine a better world’, and marker pens are handed out to customers so they can add their own thoughts, ideas and messages. Each Walk in Progress store has a section of the wall painted red, and the text on it explains the interactive nature of the environment, and encourages Camper customers to leave their mark: ‘our architects and builders are now working on a unique project for reforming this space. We want to do the best job possible, which will take us at least nine to twelve months. Since we are a small company, we cannot afford to be closed to our colleagues. Meanwhile, we have opened this Walk in Progress store. We hope you understand that, although the shoe boxes are not especially luxurious, the idea is simple, useful, and recyclable. The shoes are 100% Camper.’

Camper’s Madrid flagship store is the brand’s third Info-Shop. Images, icons and objects are joined with Camper shoes to create an enormous visual Camper encyclopaedia that contains many references.

INFO-SHOP Camper collaborated with Martí Guixé for their second pioneering store concept, one that converted the shop into a publication: the Info-Shop. Using the analogy of the shop as a magazine, the contents and theme of the publication are present in the design elements of the store interiors: the walls, the floor, the furniture, and the graphics. The concept is that ‘the value of the content

becomes the value of the design’, and ‘the decoration becomes the information and the information become the decoration’. The first Info-Shop was ‘published’ in London in 2005, with the featured theme of the Somera, a Mallorcan donkey that had been facing extinction, but had recently become a protected species. Camper used its Info-Shop to raise awareness of an issue close to their Mallorcan roots, and raise the profile of what was a rural and local issue in the heart of a major international city. The second Info-Shop, opened the same year in Tokyo, was a result of a collaboration between Martí Guixé and Tohoo. This Catalan– Japanese ‘issue’ also reflected the local spirit of the area and took the form of a Camper catalog that was unique to Tokyo. As part of the continued expansion of ways to express the Camper brand, Casa Camper, unique hotels in two of Europe’s most creative cities – Barcelona and Berlin – opened as a way to bring the Camper spirit and values to the hotel world. The concept provides a high degree of functionality with friendly aesthetics, reflecting the Camper beliefs that luxury lies in simplicity, discretion and authenticity; in a healthy life; and in understanding aesthetics as culture and as a source of ‘inner satisfaction’ that can lead to a simpler, more human and more respectful way to relate to our world.

Camper frequently collaborates with design consultants. Martí Guixé worked with Camper to develop a series of Info-Shops, including this one in Tokyo.

Camper Together with Campana New Camper store on Paseo de Gràcia, Barcelona Camper ‘Together’ with the Campana brothers from Brazil, created a ‘Torn Leftovers’ Project in Barcelona, designed to be open to the public for a limited time only. It is a provisional design made up of reused and recycled graphic materials and advertising posters that allow Camper stores to open in the least amount of time possible, before the definitive design has been completed. The concept needed to be strong, but also low cost, easy and fast to construct. Images courtesy and copyright of Camper.

Interview Dr Chris H. Luebkeman, Director for Global Foresight and Innovation, Arup Group, London

Chris refuses to be categorized. His former experiences have enabled him to ‘specialize in being a generalist’ and occupy ‘the spaces between professions’. Prior to joining Arup in 2003, Chris taught at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, the University of Oregon, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Can you tell me about your background? I was first trained as a geologist and a civil engineer, after which I studied structural engineering and architecture. I then taught structural and mechanical design in schools of architecture in different parts of the world. Each institution was fascinating because they had very different cultural contexts in which they taught and practiced design. When I joined Arup as Director of Research and Development, I went from managing a graduate student team of six to managing 50 professionals in a matter of months. I went on to learn more about things I never thought I would ever learn about in a corporate, global design practice. I was the head of R&D for three years, after which I created my own position within the company, which is now the foresight innovation and incubation unit at Arup’s. I believe that design is fundamentally a synthetic and symbiotic profession. A designer must be

open to synthesizing varying aspects of their person, their projects, and issues and subjects – things ranging from highly technical, to highly opinionated, to highly personal. These synthetic and symbiotic relationships must be open to incorporating things that can be very clearly articulated in a numerical and representational way, and that can be justified very clearly and rationally. At the other end of the scale there’s the purely emotive reaction and understanding a client’s or a group’s emotive melange, as well as being able to control one’s own emotive response, both through suppressing it and encouraging it. I also believe that understanding context is probably the most important thing that a designer can ever do. Very often contexts are hidden and it takes quite a bit of work to delve into the real context of a project. There’s an obvious context a client might present. Then, there’s a political context, which are the rules of the game within which one can move. In the built environment, the rules are very clearly set out within local and national governing bodies, but the rules of the game are different for each village, city, and country of the world. Understanding the realm of context is key to design. Can you talk about your actual role and responsibilities? My role is fundamentally to help people, clients, business units to frame their thinking about the future. We do that through research projects, white papers, presentations, discussion and workshops that we run internally and externally. Our internal focus is primarily on raising our staff’s awareness of issues which are driving change globally. We do this through internal workshops and as presentations through our intranet. Externally, we work directly with clients, looking at things such as the store of the future, airport retailing of the future, the airport of the future, the hotel of the future, the resort of the future. We carry out these ‘futuring sessions’ in a very specific way which we designed and developed over the past four years. In addition, I run a series of external workshops entitled ‘Drivers of Change’ in which we have spoken over the past two and a half years to over 6000 individuals in almost 70 workshops, asking them what’s driving change where they are. The method of workshop has been the same everywhere. It’s based upon the belief in emergence, and what I call the wisdom of the crowd. I don’t tell people my opinions about anything until we’re done, and then I share with them the results from the other workshops. They can gauge where their views fit with the other world views. These workshops have been in Africa, Australia, Asia, North America and Europe. It has been really quite fascinating, looking at some of the constants and variables across the world. These workshops are fundamentally rooted in my design education, and without my design education both as an engineer and as an architect, these workshops would be nowhere near as successful. I use the analytic, synthetic, and listening skills that I learned as a designer, combined with the very clear analytical skills of an engineer – where you are given a problem and you search for the fundamentals of what you are really after. With regard to design education, do you think it is important to teach business skills? Yes. I believe that business practices vary globally. Business principles do not. Profit and loss, building contracts, ethics, these sorts of basics are vital to understand because they’re part of a professional vocabulary. I believe strongly that there should be a course in which this vocabulary is introduced. I think it is folly to anticipate that a young person who has not worked in an office, who has never sat in a client meeting will be able to understand the context in a way that makes sense to the content of their educational experience. What can that young person absorb, what can

they make sense of? I believe if one is in a work experience or apprenticeship program during their education, in which they’re exposed to the business, then it will make sense to them. Otherwise, it’s simply fantasy. It’s playing monopoly and business is not a game. Typically designers have a passion for what they do, and very often they feel that business is a dirty word. But if you don’t make a profit, you can’t eat. I think it is vital that, early in your career, you can identify your strengths and weaknesses, so that if you’re not good at business, you make darn sure that you work with somebody who is good. You find a partner who loves doing business; who understands it, or you make sure that you’re working in a team, or that you teach yourself more because somehow each person has to know their strengths and their weaknesses. Business is not rocket science, but you need the context to make sense of it, because design is always within a context. It’s never in a vacuum. What skills would you like designers and design managers to develop? Is there an ideal balance of generalized and specialized skills? We need both generalists and specialists. It’s vital that we have both. But we cannot have both in an over-supply. I’m concerned about current trends in design education towards too many people becoming generalists. Imagine if you’re in an operating room and you wake up from your anaesthesia, and you ask those around you ‘what’s your specialty’, and all seven of those doctors answer you, ‘actually, I’m just a generalist’. Would you be happy? No. When you’re in that operating room, you want six specialists and one generalist. When you listen to a symphony, you don’t want 27 conductors. We need to have specialists. We need to have people who are incredibly good in a very specific area, and we need them to appreciate their role in the whole, but also recognize that their specialism might not be the most important all the time. If we can get to the point that a specialist can say, ‘actually, you know what, my area here is not that important and therefore we don’t really have to optimize it. It’s okay just to be at 50% efficiency or to do a so-so job because it doesn’t matter here’. And then to know where another case it’s important for them to really fight for their corner because they see that it is truly vital to the success of the project. You do that through awareness and respect for the end game rather than the stops in-between. There needs to be a certain maturity as an individual to be able to work with somebody from a different background with mutual respect that is engendered through the ‘aha’ moment, when you’re sitting there and you’re working with somebody else and you look over and go ‘wow’, that’s a great idea. This is how one develops respect for other professions, those ‘aha’ moments where you see that they’ve done something which has made the project better, or your idea even better. Then you go ‘aha’, you’ve got something that you can contribute and that should be great. You can then begin to sit down, let your hair down, relax and talk. It’s dialogue and respect we need to be encouraging.

Keiko Uchida, Founder of the Keiko Uchida Collection

Keiko created the Keiko Uchida Collection in 2013, a distinctive brand of fashion accessories that she developed to bring the Japanese aesthetic to European markets, and to foster a cultural interaction between East and West. Her mother is a renowned kimono stylist in Tokyo, and Keiko herself has a particular passion and expertise in the Japanese tea ceremony. Tell me about your background I started out as a high-end kitchen designer in Tokyo and moved to the UK in 2002 to do a MA in Design Management, which eventually led me to work for Muji. In my 9 years with Muji I was involved in product design, product development and design management. I ended up co-designing some of Muji’s best-selling ranges of accessories in Europe such as slippers, blankets and travel accessories. It was perfect training for setting up my own business and in 2012 I left to create my own range of fashion accessories. What is the vision of your brand about? The Keiko Uchida brand is based on a simple but powerful concept: the idea of taking some of the best traditional design ideas from Japan and using them as the basis of stunning new products for the Western market. It’s a concept that isn’t just about finding and using gorgeous patterns – many of the products use antique kimono patterns sourced in Tokyo – it’s also about cultural exchange, and the chance to introduce the best of Japanese culture to European audiences. From East to West, and from traditional to modern. Kimonos and kimono patterns have a central role in the Collection and a driving force of the brand

is my passion to introduce authentic kimono design into European lifestyles. I have a Japanese sensibility, and I want to introduce my products in a natural, peaceful way, rather like the way in which Japanese food became widely accepted around the world. I am peaceful and passionate by nature, and keen that kimono design is used in all kinds of new products, drawing on the enormous range of authentic kimono patterns that exist. I inherited my mother’s extraordinary work as a kimono stylist, and I developed my own unique knowledge and expertise in kimono. For my most recent product designs, I searched kimono collections in Tokyo and Kyoto to find authentic patterns that embody a particular Japanese aesthetic, and which have a beauty and energy all their own. Kimonos play a special role in Japanese society and culture. It is deeply beautiful how important the actual wearing of the kimono can be, in terms of wearing and displaying the kimono properly, as though the person wearing it is sending a message to those around them. There is nothing quite like this in the West and it is something of great aesthetic power. What challenges did you face when making the transition from working for Muji to working for yourself? My time at Muji, as well as the MA in Design Management and MSc in International Business I undertook, was amazingly useful in developing a whole range of skills and knowledge that have since proved of real importance in setting up and managing the Keiko Uchida Collection. For example, at Muji I was responsible for collaborating with many international suppliers and designers. This was very valuable experience, since it is famously hard to find effective and trustworthy suppliers, and many organizations specifically hire buying staff to find good suppliers. Muji is one of the strongest retail brands in the world and it has a very strong team-working ethic. While there, and even though I had specific responsibility for a department, I could still benefit from the advice of my own team and of the management structure. This allowed me to understand the importance of sharing the same goals and talking things through together to find the best way forward. When I started my own business, this changed radically. First, there was the challenge of making decisions on my own – an exciting challenge as the new business was an expression of my own decisions, values, tastes and choices. Second, it was clear that I had to be multi-skilled, taking on the whole range of responsibilities related to running a business. This led me to learn about and train in a variety of skills and tasks, from book keeping to marketing. Third, there is the personal responsibility for risk and success - to have the weight of a company’s development on my shoulders, and the weight of my own professional future as well! It has been a very thrilling and rewarding learning curve. What steps did you take to set up your business? There were a number of phases of planning, and at the heart was a series of business plans which I am still regularly developing as the business grows. The key phases were: The Business Plan: Creating a business plan to set out the company mission, long-term direction and general and specific targets. The plan is a useful tool for setting goals for each stage of

business growth; for securing business and financial relationships; and for communicating my vision to individuals and organizations. Investors: An early and important step was to secure the commitment of two private investors, both sourced from my existing network. Setting up the company: Early on, I set up a limited company through Company House so that I could process finances and begin trading. I also set up a business bank account and took advantage of the bank’s professional advice regarding small businesses. Office and storage: I work from home as I am the only full-time member of staff, and I hire professional resources as and when needed (accountant, marketing, PR expertise, custom clearance, IT support). I have a logistics partner company with warehouse space, as it is necessary to store some stock near my London workplace. Trade fairs: Strategically I decided to join a number of trade fairs, gift fairs and charity fairs in London, the UK and Paris. There I could show my products to professional buyers as well as direct customers. Buyers are quite cost-oriented in their decision-making, while customers are far more story-oriented in their tastes – they love to hear detailed facts about kimono design, Japanese tea ceremonies and the etiquette of wearing kimonos. PR and marketing: I decided early on that I needed a strong PR boost for my brand and a presence in the marketplace. I therefore employed a young and very active PR agency in Notting Hill, on a project-by-project basis. This was a big step and a huge investment for a start-up company of my size, and it has proved to be an excellent investment: taking the risk has paid off. I work with them on all sorts of media, including magazines, blogs, TV, newspapers and celebrity endorsement. I received a letter from Helen Mirren saying how much she loves wearing my kimono dressing gown and kimono slippers at home and in the theater. Such PR successes are really useful and give great encouragement. Manufacturers: At Muji, I learned about high quality suppliers – how they work, what they are capable of. Using suppliers I already know makes things easier and faster – I don’t need to check every step as I would with new suppliers. An important process early on was to reconnect with suppliers for the first phase of production. Also, these suppliers are based in Japan and Hong Kong, so I am researching possible new suppliers nearer the UK in order to reduce delivery leadtime, delivery costs and import duty. It would also make it easier to discuss processes and requirements face-to-face. As a start-up limited company, it is possible to get grants and business support from the UK government if I work with UK suppliers. So a second phase will be to develop more local relationships. E-commerce: I launched the Keiko Uchida e-commerce platform on the website in November 2013. The amount of work involved in developing and running an e-commerce capability is significant: it is now an important daily task, especially as I run it on a tight budget. Apart from generating direct sales, the key to the value of the site is to secure a detailed analysis of customer traffic, preferences and behavior trends. I am planning to use Google analytics for management and marketing reasons and to improve the site itself, to make it more profitable.

Who else supports you, in terms of partnerships and alliances? London’s Notting Hill where I am based has many wonderful and idiosyncratic shops close-by, many of which also began as single-person start-ups. It’s the perfect place to get continuing advice and help from the many individual shop owners – as well as courage, ideas, support and networking opportunities. I have found that networking has proved invaluable: I am continually developing my people networks, professionally and socially I also developed connections with Japanese organizations in London and Japan for other direct and indirect support. How does design management play a part in your company? Studying design management introduced me to a wide range of theories and models of design management, which I am now putting into practice on a daily basis. Owning my own brand is all about management: managing time, people, budgets, products, ideas, sales and marketing etc. I have many ideas, but I have to ensure I focus on one initiative at a time in order to refine the idea and to develop a solid and considered approach to strategy, process and implementation. Sometimes, we think that the key to design management is the design or the product, but I think design management is more about understanding people.. In the end it is people who design products, who choose the design, and who buy that design from other people. It is people, the consumers, at the end of the line.

KEY SKILLS

Managing Client Relations To the client, the design industry can appear to be a bewildering and fragmented place. To help clients understand the use of design in the context of their organization, it is vital to first understand how the client’s business works. It is best not to have any assumptions or preconceptions, but to ask questions directly, and in so doing develop an insight into the client’s perspective and the workings of their organization. Additional research via the organization’s website, company report or other corporate documents will also suggest the ways in which design can support the company vision. Being client-focused is an important part of managing design needs within an organization. Clients may not know what to expect from an internal design team or external design consultancy, in which case, the design or project manager needs to keep the client informed and up-to-date on what is happening, when it is happening, and how it will happen, throughout the lifespan of the project. Equally important, the client needs to communicate any changes in strategy, priorities and people that may affect the project’s success to the design or project manager. Today’s clients not only expect design resources to deliver good quality and profitable processes and projects, but also reliable working relationships. There are a number of tools, techniques and skills available to help manage the client relationship and to facilitate relationship building with clients. Nominating a client point of contact is essential to the creation of clear channels of communication, and prevention of confusion and misunderstandings. Holding regular status meetings between the design team contacts keeps everyone informed of progress, and provides the forum for problems to be solved and decisions to be made together. Clearly agreeing roles and responsibilities helps to identify all decision-makers and the areas for which they are responsible, and writing regular status reports enables the wider design team and client contacts to keep track of progress. Creating a project plan that charts the actual progress of the project against the proposal will enable key milestones and decisions to be evaluated on a regular basis. Defining the project scope at the outset of the working relationship will establish where the boundaries of the project lie, and will help keep everyone’s expectations realistic and achievable. Managing client relations well enables everyone involved to work more effectively. Thinking about how to best service the client means taking into account the bigger picture of their customers, stakeholders and shareholders. Building long-term sustainable relationships with clients, customers, colleagues or consultants – both inside or outside the organization – and tapping into their motivations can help build allies and supporters to raise awareness of design, and potentially help realize design value in the process. Matching and managing expectations is key to client (and customer) satisfaction, and as such it is important to establish a balance between what the client expects from design, and what the design resource or team can actually deliver.

‘If we want to know what a business is, we have to start with its

purpose. And the purpose must lie outside the business itself. In fact, it must lie in society, since a business enterprise is an organ of society. There is only one valid definition of a business purpose: to create a customer. The customer is the foundation of a business and keeps its existence.’ Peter Drucker. Table 6. Motivating Factors within the Client–Consultancy Relationship

‘Clients want chemistry, understanding, loyalty, commitment, trust, respect, integrity, passion, collaboration and partnership. There are the qualities of great relationships, and they are increasingly becoming a client’s ‘hire and fire’ issues.’ Ralph Ardill. Table 7: Designing the Meeting

Managing client relations successfully increasingly relies on computer software for organizing and maintaining accurate records, contact information, file sharing and project-tracking updates. Basecamp is a web-based project management app and offers a simple way to communicate, collaborate and manage projects. It can be used to assess to-do lists and tasks, post messages, gather feedback and track people’s time on a project. Images courtesy of Basecamp.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: Who is the client? Who is the project sponsor? Who are the stakeholders? Is there more than one client on the project? What is the best way to manage for multiple client relations?

KEY SKILLS

Guiding Design Decisions Consider what best represents design value to a client. Is it cost, quality, customer satisfaction or perhaps a combination of all three? All clients will have expectations of the design function, some might regard it as a valuable strategic resource that supports company objectives, while others may consider it a commodity that is purchased. In between lie many other deep-rooted ideas and unproven prejudices about design. In order to guide design decisions, barriers in the client relationship and decision-making process need to be identified and removed, and expectations need to be managed in order to prevent misunderstandings about what design can (and cannot) do. A common client concern is a lack of understanding about how and where their budget is being spent. This concern can raise questions over the level of trust in the relationship or perceived value for money, and soon develop into fear of the unknown. Design or project managers always need to keep their client informed and be aware of the client’s own need to provide information and accountability. Although building trust is implicit in developing the client relationship, more formal arrangements can help manage confidence and confidentiality between a client and a design team. Drawing up a nondisclosure agreement (NDA), for example, means that the design team cannot disclose highly sensitive aspects of the project. Taking the time to mentor clients about design and to explain the structure of a project or project team are useful ways to guide design decisions and facilitate discussions about the role of design within an organization. Doing so builds an understanding of design, and recognition of how it may be able to help achieve company objectives. The ability to guide and communicate effectively with an organization’s key decision-makers can also empower the client to promote design within their own organization, so raising awareness of the value of design thinking. Good design or project managers educate clients in the ways that design can help business compete and add value to their products or services. Doing so helps more businesses to become efficient buyers of design services. It is also good practice for design managers to keep clients informed of current design thinking, relevant industry trends, and knowledge of the competition’s design activities. Translating unfamiliar terms or progressing conversations by, for example, explaining the economic benefits of good design (both perceived and real) puts design into the language spoken by the client and helps demonstrate the real commercial value in great design. Actively guiding decisions will, at times, include the need to be both assertive and empathetic, and to be able to say ‘no’ if required. Design or project managers need to be able to tap into the motivations and aspirations of the client, encouraging the merits of effective and design-positive clients who are willing to innovate. Inspiring clients involved in the process of design to take pride in their role as potential design patrons and champions is one of the best ways to encourage them to take creative risks.

QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION: How can design thinking encourage better decision-making at each level of an organization – the corporate level, the business unit level, and the operational level?

Providing collaborative spaces for helping the process of communication offers an opportunity to evolve the modern workplace through design. Herman Miller is working on a more natural and desirable way of working that fosters greater performance and engagement, something they call Living Office. Living Office includes an office furniture system designed by Yves Behar called Public Office Landscape. The modular design aims to encourage spontaneous conversations and continuous collaboration between employees. The system is based on three main concepts: social desks for individuals to work in configurations that encourage interaction, group spaces for focused collaboration and spaces in between that facilitate casual interactions and community. This approach creates a more naturally human experience of interaction and creation rather than having designated individual desks with ‘break out’ meeting areas. Prototype seating elements were used to create a Living Office in Behar’s own San Francisco studio, fuseproject, for 18 months prior to launch, as an effective way to evolve and test the elements of the system and concepts. Freestanding displays like Herman Miller’s Intersect Portfolio encourages the exchange of ideas, information and note taking, while also serving as a flexible and expandable boundary and divider. As the number of ideas or people involved expands, so too can the area available. Image courtesy of Herman Miller.

KEY SKILLS

Developing Good Working Relationships People like working with people they like, so getting along with others, relating to them, initiating conversations, sharing interests and finding mutual benefits are crucial elements in building and developing good working relationships. Both the client and the design resource each need to ask themselves if they can work with one another. Can they relate to each other’s values and methods of operation? Can they build a successful working relationship together? On an informal level, developing good conversational, communication and interpersonal techniques, will provide more natural interactions, and allows individuals to profit from formal and informal opportunities. The elevator ‘pitch’ is so called because it encourages people to take advantage of opportunistic meetings, even if they are only for a brief amount of time. Networking is another key aspect of building successful professional relationships; accumulating contacts, gaining cooperation from others and learning things through the grapevine can be enormously valuable. Many professionals keep a database of associates and contacts, some of which might include those they have met only briefly, at industry events or trade fairs for example, but the challenge is to develop the relationship with these contacts to such a level that they can be counted upon when needed. The ability to build networks and accrue contacts is an important attribute that an individual can bring to an organization, both personally and professionally. Having an entrepreneurial outlook is valuable not only to the employer, but also to the employee’s personal brand and future career aspirations. On a more formal level, good working relationships stem from a sound understanding of the client’s working operations. Formal roles, such as the head of marketing, the head of procurement or the project manager will be noted in an organizational chart, but understanding the part that each role plays will foster sound and effective relationships. Power figures describes those individuals within an organization who can say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to an allocation of resources necessary to continue or complete a project (for example, the CEO). Gatekeepers describes those who control access to the power figures (for example, a personal assistant). Problem owners defines those people in whose working area a design problem is located, and the actual ‘client’, in this context, is the person who commissions the design work, and pays the design fees. Design or project managers often have access to a range of contacts within a client organization, and so can build a picture for other design team members of who is playing what role within a particular project. This can prove to be invaluable to the design team, in order to provide knowledge about the more unofficial aspects of the client organization. The design manager will need to develop an ability to play different roles at different stages of the project, both externally (in relation to the client), and internally (in relation to the design team). This might include acting as a coach (encouraging clients and design teams about the business benefits of design), a mentor (educating and supporting the client and the design team) and frequently a peer (assisting and facilitating the client and the design team).

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: Who are the decision-makers within the client organization? Whose knowledge, skill and cooperation do you need to successfully pitch or complete the design project?

At Dyson, team working forms an important part of day-to-day working relationships and the process of innovation. Image courtesy of Dyson.

The belief that innovations come mainly from face-to-face communication underlies the BMW Group’s Research and Innovation Centre (known as FIZ). BMW’s Product Creation Process underlies the creation of every BMW Group project from the initial concept through to the start of production. The Project Building has now become part of the operating process. It is a catalyst for creativity, offering a working environment ideally suited to encouraging dialogue amongst associates. Image courtesy and copyright of BMW AG.

KEY SKILLS

Verbal Communication Verbal communication skills form an important part of how we conduct our relationships with others. Different people have different communication styles and our own background, experiences and training will influence how we view the world and communicate with those around us. These differences in viewpoints and communication styles however, can create barriers to communication. Communication is a two-way process. Being a good communicator means being able to communicate effectively, in a way that promotes understanding and recognizes the value of different styles of communication. In a highly competitive marketplace, misunderstandings and breakdowns in communication can be costly mistakes to make. Designers and managers can find it difficult to agree project objectives and outcomes, since each of their (valid) viewpoints considers the matter from a different angle. Failing to find common ground will often create arguments as each party attempts to justify their own position. Being receptive to another point of view, and willing to looking at situations in a different way, with new insights, is the first step towards effective communication. The ability to communicate the merits of effective design to clients can make the difference between a design proposal being accepted or rejected. If presented and communicated in an irrelevant way, a brilliant creative idea or concept, is unlikely to succeed. Similarly, a highly articulate and polished verbal presentation will not compensate for a flawed design. The ability to present a design solution and communicate its merits on different levels (such as functional, economic or ecological), in a way that is understood by different audiences (such as clients, customers or managers) can be a differentiator in the fast-changing and highly-competitive industries in which design operates. Although communication skills can be learned, successful communication relies as much on our desire to communicate effectively: to understand others and be understood.

‘Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don’t just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them and engage them in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn’t just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards. Conversation can change the way we see the world, and even change the world.’ Theodore Zeldin. INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

It makes good business sense to develop sound people skills, to learn how to listen instinctively and to speak to others with clarity, diplomacy and sensitivity. We are often not aware of the words we use, or the impact of those words on other people. Communication is about conversation, dialogue, speaking and listening. The meaning of what we say will be affected by the perception of the listener. How the listener responds to our words will tell us if they have understood us, and whether we need to find a different way to express what it is we want to say. When communicating, how we listen is just as important as how we speak. Conversation is a fluid and tentative process and involves giving and taking, trust and tact. Good listening involves paying attention, and being open and receptive to what the other person is saying. We are not listening if we are mentally rehearsing what we are going to say when it is our turn to talk, or if we have already made our minds up about what we think. Quite simply, if we are not listening, we will not understand; and understanding is essential, especially in design management where frequently neither designers nor managers fully know the answers to the questions that conversations between one another continually pose. Empathy means being able to see things from someone else’s point of view. The ability to empathize with others – to think about the audience or recipient of our communication, and to prepare and act accordingly – is the key to the art of being a good communicator. Some designers use empathy to understand the needs and experiences of people who are dissimilar to them. Empathizing with the end users often motivates designers to go beyond merely collecting information on design problems, and encourages them to develop user-centered design solutions. Body language is responsible for 90% of all emotional information, and 65% of all actual information, which we communicate. The meaning conveyed by our body language is often more powerful than that conveyed by our words. An awareness of body language, both our own and others, will tell us whether the verbal communication is being physically reinforced or contradicted. The voice is the most powerful communicator of body language, it communicates how we are feeling (unconsciously), as well as the image we want to project (consciously). It is worth paying attention to how our voice sounds in conversation; is it fast or slow, energetic or relaxed? When we are nervous, breathing slowly and steadily can help regulate the voice and relax a racing heartbeat, and using pauses when talking gives listeners much needed moments of silence to reflect on what is being said.

‘Keep negotiations secret. They must be conducted in private. Only the policies should become public knowledge. How they were negotiated should remain confidential, saving loss of face.’ Attila the Hun. NEGOTIATING SKILLS A negotiation is a meeting between two separate parties. The aim of a negotiation is to reach an agreement. Ideally this will be a ‘win-win’ situation, where both parties reach a mutually agreeable and beneficial end to the negotiation. Most business situations require, and even expect, some level of negotiation, and it is especially important when managing client or design-team relationships.

Before entering into any negotiation, consider whether there is a neutral ground in which the conversation can take place. Ensure that the people doing the negotiating are empowered to make any necessary decisions, and allow plenty of time to conduct the negotiation so there is no pressure that might lead to settling for an unsuitable outcome. For most negotiations it is usually possible to plan in advance your three different positions: the ideal settlement, the realistic settlement and the fall-back position. You may want to agree each of these with your team, and make a guess at the other party’s position, beforehand. During the negotiation, list the issues that are to be agreed, and work through these one by one. Settling the important points first will allow you to keep minor issues up your sleeve for later bargaining power. Alternatively, settling minor points first will build a sense of progress and a spirit of accomplishment. Be relaxed, but in control, and be prepared to give and take. After the negotiation summarize the outcomes or agreements verbally, then put them in writing at a later stage. Remember, successful negotiators do more listening than talking. Power bargaining erodes trust and goodwill. You may gain short term, but it will prove to be costly in the long term.

‘Never trust negotiations to luck. Enter every session armed with knowledge of the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses; knowing his secrets makes you strong.’ Attila the Hun. PRESENTATION SKILLS The basic requirement of any presentation, whether verbal, visual, written, or a combination of all three, is that it is actually presentable. The ability to present yourself and your ideas is essential to good communication, persuasion and the ability to influence key decision-makers. One-to-one briefings can be handled differently from larger audiences, so prepare your presentation, equipment needs, and the layout of the room accordingly. Before the presentation, organize and structure what you are going to say. Practice the presentation beforehand, and estimate how long the presentation will take, remembering to allow time for questions. Identify what you want to achieve from the presentation. What is the objective? Why is what I am presenting relevant to this audience? Who is the audience? Are they design-aware (familiar with design jargon), or do they have less knowledge of design (and therefore unfamiliar with design terminology)? The language you use to communicate should be tailored to suit the audience and subject matter. At the beginning of the presentation, introduce yourself, other members of your team, and, if necessary, other people in the room. Explain the purpose of the presentation and what you want to achieve from the meeting. Tell people how long the presentation will take, how you’ve structured the presentation, and whether you want their comments during the presentation or at the end.

During the presentation, take time to explain things properly, and give people the chance to absorb what you are saying. Explain your thinking in a logical sequence and include why your proposals are relevant or appropriate. Relate to people while you are talking, and make eye contact with your audience. After the presentation, always make notes of the discussion that follows. Record what was said, who said it and what was agreed. Assign responsibilities for specific actions, identify when the next meeting will take place and thank everyone for coming.

‘Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.’ Winston Churchill. TELEPHONE SKILLS When making a phone call, the way you verbally communicate with others will reflect how you and your organization are perceived. Body language communicates over the phone, so sit up straight and smile. Be aware of background noise and, if necessary, close the door, turn down the radio, or move to another room. Do not eat or chew while on the phone. As soon as the person receiving your call has picked up, introduce yourself and let them know with whom you would like to speak. Speak slowly and clearly. Have respect for the other person’s time; they may be busy or in the middle of something. Ask if this is a good time to speak, if they cannot handle your call at that moment ask when would be a good time to call back. If you are leaving a message, state briefly what the call is regarding. When answering a phone, do so promptly using your name, in a warm, confident voice. Be helpful, listen carefully and take notes if necessary. Give the person your undivided attention. Typing, eating or doing something else while on the phone is distracting and impolite. When returning a phone call, always try to do so within 24 hours of the message being left. If you are on vacation or out of the office, relay this information in your recorded answering message, and ensure that anyone answering your phone also relays this information. When leaving a message on an answering machine, speak slowly and clearly. State your name, organization, time and date of call, phone number where you can be reached, and a brief overview of what your call is regarding.

‘Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.’ Winston Churchill.

KEY SKILLS

Key Skills Exercises Managing Client Relations Building trust with clients takes time, and as a design manager, it is often easier if there is already some demonstrated success within an organization of the positive impact design has had. Choose an organization and research their purpose, vision, mission, ethos and business strategy. Then, thinking as a design manager, make a list of all the areas where design already adds value to the organization. Using the research you have, choose three of these areas and put together a 10-minute presentation of (1) the value design has added to the organization, and (2) your ideas for adding even more value. Focus on the key ideas where you believe design can have the greatest impact, for example, the organizational culture, the profitability, or the ability of the organization to connect with future customers/users. Guiding Design Decisions Develop a list of stakeholders who would need to be consulted for one of the following projects: (1) a new school in the countryside, (2) a new restaurant in a city, or (3) a new vacation resort next to a nature reserve. In what way could the project information be designed and presented to each stakeholder ‘group’ – for example, in verbal, visual or written form – so as to increase stakeholder engagement in the early stages of a project consultation? Developing Good Working Relationships Conduct a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) on yourself, taking 10 minutes to make a list of points for each heading in a 2 by 2 matrix. Then, as a class, decide on 3-6 design managers whose role it is to put together a balanced team for a particular project. Each person can ‘pitch’ themselves for 2-3 minutes to the design managers, being open about their SWOT Analysis. At the end of all the pitches, it is the role of the design managers to ensure that, between them, each team is ‘balanced’, so that one person’s weakness in the team is balanced by another person’s strength. The focus should be on overall collaboration, and not individual team competition! Verbal Communication Show and Tell: Bring to class an object from your own home that is, for you, an example of great design. It could be as simple as a paper clip, or a more exclusive, branded or luxury product. Present to the class (or in groups of 2-3), taking no more than 3 minutes, why this object represents good design to you. If there is a personal experience or life story behind your thinking, share it with the group.

PART TWO: Managing The Design Process This is the stage where design projects and agendas are developed, and the focus placed on demonstrating how strategy can be made visible and tangible through design. At this stage, design management explores how design can be used to craft the presence and experience of an organization, and, in doing so, influence how the organization and its brand are expressed and perceived.

KNOWLEDGE

Giving Form to Business Strategy Design can be active at three levels within an organization. Firstly, at the level of corporate strategy, design expresses the vision, values and beliefs of the organization, for example, in its corporate identity. At the business unit level, design is used tactically to help achieve business unit goals, for example, the organization might conduct a design audit when entering new markets to benchmark the competition. Thirdly, at an operational level, design is present in the day-to-day operations, and in the refining of the product or service development process. Design projects and processes that reinforce the brand, add value, drive innovation and create competitive advantage will inevitably receive the greatest support within an organization. The end of a design project may result in an outcome, something that gives a finished form to the business strategy, but design is also a problem-solving process that can help the organization give form to, and shape, the business strategy. Whether design is engaged as a set of methods, a process or the implementation of a project, a statement of intent needs to be formalized and agreed between the client and the design consultancy, or the business unit and the design resource. This is known as a brief. THE CLIENT BRIEF The client representative is responsible for writing the client (or project) brief. It should describe what their organization would like to achieve, the market opportunity identified, an estimate of the budget and time allocated and any key deadlines. Client briefs should clarify needs and set the project’s parameters. As it is written from the point of view of the organization’s needs, client briefs inevitably tend to be quite analytical and driven by targets that need to be achieved. The client brief is given to the design representatives, typically the creative director and the design or project manager, for consideration, review and feedback. It is the basis for opening a dialogue about the client’s objectives and expectations, and establishing how design can help achieve these objectives.

Table 8: The Client Brief

Philips apply design in its broadest sense to express their mission and corporate visions. Philips design solutions are visible in their complete offer, from consumer electrical products like the Standard GS lamp shown here, to medical systems, domestic interiors and cars. Within the Philips organization their business strategy is deployed through research projects, external clients and partnerships. Image courtesy and copyright of Philips.

Philip’s Philanthropy by Design program helps to explore ways to support social innovation, The Fight Malnutrition Design project aimed to develop cost-effective and easy-to-use measurement tools and growth charts for monitoring malnutrition at home. Image courtesy and copyright of Philips.

Philips offer their design services to a wide range of clients. Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam) teamed up with Philips to create The Schiphol Innovation Gate. The concept is to create a passenger experience concept that is intended to improve well-being and airline efficiency by making the time passengers spend just before departure as pleasant and inspirational as possible. Image courtesy and copyright of Philips.

Philips Design Probes are far-future design concepts. They are not intended as production prototypes nor will they be sold as Philips products. They stimulate discussion around a range of issues and provide insights for future innovation. Fractal: Living Jewelry explores how LEDs can be used to make jewelry an extension of the body. Image courtesy and copyright of Philips.

THE DESIGN BRIEF After consultation and review, a design (or creative) brief is composed. Typically, this is written by the design or project manager, in close consultation with both the nominated client contacts and other specialists depending on the nature of the project. The design brief takes into account both the ‘business’ and the ‘design’ point of view, and fleshes out in more detail how the client and the design consultancy will work together. The design brief is the creative response to the client brief, and reflects the knowledge, skills and experience of the design team as well as the strategic objectives and business viability of the project. The design brief needs to be written in a way that inspires and motivates the design team to create great work that satisfies the client’s requirements, and it needs to translate data, statistical research and business jargon into information that the design team can put to effective use. Deciding what to include in the design brief (and what to leave out) will invariably be based on the specific project needs, but as an example the likely information it will include is: the business case; key findings; project goals, aims and objectives; background research and future aspirations; target audiences and end users; functional requirements and specifications; key project and process stages; timescales and deadlines; milestones, performance measures and project deliverables. Agreeing the design brief ensures the client is getting what they really want, although at this early stage they may not know exactly what that is, or what form it will take. The design team have a chance to assess the client’s needs, set out their objectives, define their approach and process, identify milestones, describe what is expected in response to the client brief and outline a proposed cost and timescale. The design brief forms part of the ‘contract’ between the client and the design resource. The design brief may well be revised or become more detailed as the design process evolves, so it is important that the client is involved and updated at all stages, and that the design team regularly revisits the agreement, and obtains client sign-off if any changes do occur. Good design managers have the project management expertise to assess the client needs against each of the project stages, and ensure the outcome is realistic and achievable within the costs and timescale allocated, and with the design resource provided. Consulting with the design team is one of the most important aspects of ensuring that the promises made to the client can actually be delivered, on time and within budget. Design managers must also take a view on the business objectives that their solution must address, how these relate to the decision-making processes within the client organization, and the best way to evaluate the cost–benefits and business potential of the design solution. This is also the time for the design manager to identify the client contact, stakeholders, team members, lead design consultancy or creative agency, sub-agencies and specialist consultants that also need to be involved, and to agree their roles, responsibilities, and the channels of communication.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: How best can designers work with organizations to create change? Can design connect the viewpoints of the boardroom and the customers in new ways? Or should designers be protected from ‘boardroom bureaucracy’? BUILDING THE DESIGN RESOURCE The design brief may also make links to the design policy and strategy of the organization, which can provide a useful and tactical ‘building-block’ approach to increasing design presence and awareness in the organization. Within a client organization, even one with an in-house design team, there may be many different design requirements. So, what systems can a client put in place to accommodate a widely varying need for design? The design resource will reflect the design needs of the organization and support its overall strategic goals. External consultants or agencies may be required if the company changes direction, or decides to work on a new project for which the skills and experience do not exist in-house. It is unlikely that any single design agency could address the requirements of every project within an organization, nor is it desirable. In order to maintain loyalty, adaptability and flexibility, many organizations create design rosters, which are lists of design service providers who have been pre-approved for consultation and potential engagement on a project. The roster allows for long-term relationships and trust to develop. Design companies on a roster can be approved through an open call invitation, reputation and previous successes, and are usually reference checked by an internal procurement department. Different consultancies will specialize in different media and styles, and having a variety, from the specialist service provider to the large, broad, one-stop service, provides a flexible and adaptable way to build an easily available design resource, without the expense and overheads of a large in-house design team. If the needs of the client organization change, or if the consultancy is not performing, they can be taken off the roster and a new consultancy found.

Yorkshire Water initiated a ‘Cool Schools’ campaign to encourage children to drink more water. The client brief was to create an exciting and reusable bottle that could be used alongside Yorkshire Water’s distinctive water coolers. Alloy Total Product Design consulted with the parents and pupils of a local school to expand this client brief into a design brief. Image courtesy of Alloy Total Product Design/Yorkshire Water.

The design brief combined both the needs of the client – that the Yorkshire Water brand should be strongly represented – and the needs of the end users: the school children themselves. The bottles needed to be manufactured within budget and provide a product that was completely unique to Yorkshire Water. The user needs required that the bottle was easy and fun to use, easy to clean, and could hold enough water to satisfy young appetites while not being too big for small hands. Image courtesy of Alloy Total Product Design/Yorkshire Water.

KNOWLEDGE

Increasing Awareness with Design There are many ways in which design can be used to increase awareness of a wide range of issues, both inside and outside a client organization. Inside the organization, there may be conflicting attitudes about design and what value it brings. Some organizations, for example Apple, Philips Design and Braun, have strong in-house design teams and individuals responsible for managing design. Others, such as British Airways and Orange, may rely heavily on external design resources, but may have internal design managers. Additionally, a number of the organizations, for example Starbucks and Microsoft, rely on a combination of in-house and external design teams depending on the nature of the project. Within an organization, the design manager may wish to increase awareness of design to build and grow an in-house design team, or to gain wider and deeper influence in strategic decision-making, especially with regard to marketing, new-product development and service innovation. On the consultancy side, the account handler and creative director may want to increase awareness in order to build a more formal, long-term relationship with the client, or be the preferred design supplier. Using design to increase awareness of broad, customer-focused issues, and raising the level of design awareness within the organization, means tapping into the motivations of all the stakeholders involved. INSIDE THE ORGANIZATION Definitions of design will vary depending on the background, training, experiences, and personal biases of the individual. Enforcing a single definition of the term is probably self-defeating, as the value of design lies in its multidisciplinary approach to problem-solving, its ability to manifest the strategic goals of an organization and its passion for taking a user-centered approach to addressing wider needs. Growing design awareness means embedding design into the mindset of the organization so that it can be seen as a way of thinking, not just a business resource; an investment, not an expense; and a set of problem-solving tools, methods and processes, not just a means of implementation. Design can contribute to idea generation in partnership with business units, functional groups, suppliers, individuals and customers. For the design manager, this may mean hosting internal training workshops and presentations in design awareness and design thinking for senior, middle, line and project managers. Using brainstorming workshops is another way to get representatives together to creatively and conversationally open up and facilitate a debate. These debates can draw on the viewpoints of internal and external stakeholders, suppliers and manufacturers, and customers and service-providers. People don’t always understand what design is, so demonstrating a range of design approaches can help explain the differences between design as a craft, as an aesthetic quality, as a creative process and as a catalyst for innovation.

‘Design Awareness has been cited quite often as an important attribute for managers. The problem is that there are two interpretations of the term. One form of awareness relates to the fact that managers should have the ability to judge aesthetic and other design related issues so they can evaluate the ‘goodness’ of a service for its intended market. The other form of awareness is that of realizing the nature of innovation and design activity and its role in contributing to organizational effectiveness. Both forms of awareness are required if managers are to make effective use of innovation and design.’ John Heap.

As early as 1953, Braun was keen to distinguish itself from its competitors in terms of design. At that time, design was seen by many manufacturers as an ‘add-on’, but Braun saw market potential for products with design distinction. Design is now a core competence within the company. Braun Design product ranges, such as the Impressions Design Collection shown here, combine exemplary clarity and functionality with innovative technology and quality without compromise. Image courtesy of Braun GmbH.

The Braun Collection shows Braun’s development in design and engineering via public exhibitions, events, case studies, archives, educational initiatives and the media. Their permanent collection contains over 300 exhibits of products, design models, sketches and documentary information, while special collections change every six months. The intent is to stimulate visitors with memories of the organization’s past and provide new insights and perspectives on design in general and Braun design in particular. The Collection is designed and realized by a team of Braun employees and external consultants, while the administration and organization is handled by a dedicated non-profit foundation. Image courtesy of Braun GmbH.

Braun’s headquarters in Germany, designed by Schneider + Schumacher, is an ‘architecture of transparency’, which is in tune with the Braun brand. The building raises awareness of the company’s organizational policy on design in a very conscious way. The building expresses Braun’s principles of innovation, quality and design, which can be experienced by its employees and visitors alike. Image courtesy of Braun GmbH.

With increasing pressure on organizations to go beyond incremental improvements and cost saving initiatives, the creation of added value is more likely to come from radical changes, and therefore, innovation. All companies are looking for ways to align design with innovation, and creativity provides a way for managers of design to position themselves and their team as both an alternative and a complementary means of thinking about a wide range of business objectives. A set of carefully considered design tools, methods, processes and meetings can help change mindsets and integrate innovative thinking into a whole organization. As an example, Kotler (2005) suggests that companies establish an ‘ideas-management system’, headed by a senior manager who works with a multidisciplinary ‘idea-management committee’. The committee has small project start-up budgets to investigate promising ideas. This sort of multidisciplinary approach is something that most design managers are familiar with. Offering to host an ideas workshop is a valuable way to share different points of view across business units, and raise awareness of design-related thinking. Whether working separately or integrally with other business units, design thinking can be disseminated into the culture of the whole organization. OUTSIDE THE ORGANIZATION For the design manager working with a design consultancy, it is worth investing time in improving the team’s understanding and awareness of the organization’s objectives at strategic, business unit and project levels. How decisions are made can appear confusing, so being clear about the wider context of motivations and drivers will help clarify matters.

For the design consultancy working with a client organization, conversations with the client are a way to understand more about the challenges they face, as an organization and as individuals. Design may then help provide the tools and processes necessary to gain the support of other stakeholders inside and outside the organization, perhaps, for example, by providing case studies that benchmark the client against their competitors.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: What other ways can design raise awareness of broader issues, and then address those issues? Is the way in which design connects to the business strategy understandable across the organization, by different disciplines, departments and functional units?

A Fortune 500 energy and aluminium company, Hydro commissioned Karakter to develop unique communications to raise awareness of its centennial celebrations. Karakter created a suite of ‘centennial identifiers’, photographing a series of circular objects from both nature and Hydro’s business to make up the number 100, this was a powerful way to express the link between Hydro’s business, nature and society.

To maintain consistency in Hydro’s visual language, Karakter maintained the same grid and layout it had originally created for Hydro’s corporate design system, setting the identifiers against a white or black framework to ensure maximum visibility within the vast range of environments they appear in. The corporate brochure shows how these principles were applied before (left), and during (right), the centennial year.

Karakter designed a host of centennial communications material using the new identifiers, which included a printed launch piece, a calendar, packaging, event materials, posters, invitations and more. In merchandise, the bond with nature was expressed through the combination of items that relate to the 100 identifier used – such as the sunflower oil and aluminium-basting brush shown here. All images courtesy of Karakter/Hydro.

KNOWLEDGE

Expressing the Brand through Design A brand is a powerful corporate asset. It provides both clarity and vision, and the brand mark (usually a logo) is a symbol of this clarity and vision. However, the meaning of a brand is not solely contained in an organization’s logo, or even its products or services, but in the power of the brand image formed in the mind of the consumer. People buy into the brands, brand values and brand beliefs that are most in tune with their own selfimage and the image of the lifestyle and peer groups with whom they wish to be affiliated. Historically, brands were a mark of ownership, consistency and a benchmark of quality or service. Now, according to Olins (2004), brands operate in ‘the emotional territory of people’s hearts and minds’. Brands represent not only the identity of the organization, but also that of its customers, and the language of design can bring this identity to life. Brands manifest themselves in the products, services, sites and experiences of an organization. In a brand-led organization, design can add value from the top down, through brand communication, identity management and making the brand both visible and tangible. Examples of brand-led organizations are Coca Cola, Virgin and EasyJet. Design can help build the reputation of a brand through customer touch points (places where the customer sees and experiences the brand). Examples of customer touch points include product designs, retail shops, offices, advertising, digital media and mobile apps. The act of translating a brand and its values into tangible and intangible products, services, spaces and experiences is called brand expression. The brand promise is a guarantee of the values and beliefs, and the quality and level of trust that the customer places in the organization. From an organizational point of view, the brand is the face of the company and represents its purpose, values and beliefs. Essentially, it tells people, internally and externally, what the organization is about. In a brand-led organization, the brand manager will frequently have design management responsibilities. They will be experienced at forming relationships with external design teams and ensuring that the design teams are translating the brand values into desirable and viable products, services and experiences. Brand managers too, are in a position to identify how design can support the strategic objectives and brand values of the organization, and so ensure that the brand image reflects what the organization is about. DESIGN-LED EXPERIENCES Some organizations are design-led; design is central to all of their decision-making processes. Some examples of design-led companies include Apple, 3M, Philips, Dyson and Sony. Design-led organizations tend to put the user at the center of their design processes and business offers. They identify a customer need from the bottom-up by observing user behavior and habits, and creating a product or service offer around any unmet customer needs that are identified. The unmet need acts as the starting point for innovation. The next step is to design a solution around the needs and desires of the user (and possibly co-creatively). The result is then offered in the marketplace as a branded

product or service. Often this can turn out to be a brand extension: a new product or service leveraging the value of the organization’s brand name to establish itself.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: What is the role of branding in relation to today’s business, societal and environmental challenges? How does this influence the way in which we manage brand identities? How can design enable brand experiences to be more culturally, emotionally and experientially rewarding?

The Benetton retail store in Barcelona has been specifically designed to express the look and feel of the Benetton brand. Image courtesy of Miguel Casanelles/The Benetton Group.

This image is taken from ‘James and Other Apes’, a Benetton Communication Campaign by James Mollison for Fabrica. Benetton frequently uses dramatic advertising and communication campaigns to express its brand. Here, Benetton chose to extend its reflection on our planet’s diversity, from the human race to our nearest cousins. The campaign shows pictures of orphaned apes that were confiscated from illegal traders. The apes now form the population of sanctuaries in Africa and Asia. Image courtesy of The Benetton Group.

Fabrica is Benetton’s Communication Research Centre, and was established to capitalize on thought provoking communication that unites culture and industry and that takes risks by investing in ideas and creativity. Fabrica’s work is characterized by a celebration of the creative process itself and not of its results. Fabrica 10: From Chaos to Order and Back presents ten years of ideas, projects, personalities, events and experimentation, through a gallery of images, videos and music. Image courtesy of The Benetton Group.

In a design-led organization, the design manager will be responsible for design-related decisions and responsibilities, working closely with marketing, research and development, manufacturing and innovation. They will ensure that in-house design teams and external consultancies are using the brand values as a catalyst for new or improved products and services, and approaching design in a way that translates coherently across the products and services, advertising and media, and the retail spaces and offices that represent the brand. DESIGN USED TO PROMOTE THE BRAND Integrating design into the organizational strategy is especially important when businesses attempt to reach out to customers through different channels, for example brand messaging across radio, television, customer services, retail spaces or social media may require different design approaches, but all must express the same, consistent brand values. If a brand is ‘stretched’ into a new area, existing brand recognition can be leveraged and design elements of the brand, such as packaging, advertising or websites, can be used to make the customer ‘recognize’ the offer as belonging to the organization. Every successful brand can become a platform for further extensions, for example Caterpillar, makers of construction equipment and machinery, now sell clothing and accessories to international urbanites. EXPRESSING WIDER ISSUES As well as expressing the brand values of an organization, design can be simultaneously used to cross cultural and societal barriers and raise awareness of wider issues. Many brands have successfully

positioned themselves to be synonymous with particular themes or human needs, for example, safety, literacy, quality engineering, and innovation. The Volvo brand for example, is associated with a key theme (safety), which is a powerful way to build customer loyalty and make a brand memorable. Benetton, on the other hand, has the reputation for sparking controversy by using provocative imagery in their advertising to raise awareness of global concerns such as world hunger, health and endangered species. These profile-raising, issue-led campaigns find a cause that design and other business units can then support. Raising awareness of specific global issues also raises awareness of the brand.

‘The power of design and innovation can actually reshape an entire brand or the marketplace in which it exists. In the past, designers focused on making one new product. Today, they create a much broader story, an experience that consumers remember which has far greater impact on the bottom line.’ David Rockwell.

Innocent, the ‘little tasty drinks’ company, launched a range of smoothies for kids. These healthy drinks are packaged in a way that expresses the brand, appeals to children, and are spill-proof. The brand, already hugely popular with adults, positions itself as being naughty but nice, and promotes the fact that their drinks contain no sugar, sweeteners, preservatives or concentrates. Image courtesy of Innocent Drinks.

Innocent, everything they do in a way that makes it easy for people to do themselves some good. In this instance, customers were invited to knit a small winter hat to put on Innocent drinks, in order to raise money for a good cause; keeping the elderly warm in winter. Innocent donated money for every knitted hat they received, and included ‘get knitting’ information on their website. Image courtesy of Innocent Drinks.

KNOWLEDGE

Initiating Design Projects A successful design (or project) manager will have the ability to raise awareness of design amongst key stakeholders, and further their knowledge of problem-seeking and solving methods and processes of design. By developing a better understanding and, ideally, experience working directly with a range of design tools, stakeholder buy-in is more likely. Design is a creative and rigorous process that can provide a fresh perspective for viewing organizational challenges. Designers rarely take a problem as a given, and by asking questions they explore the range of contexts, issues and agendas at work in any given situation. Often, a more viable solution is achievable by questioning assumptions and taking into account the varying needs and desires of different stakeholders, business units and users. UNCOVERING THE PROBLEM Once the key stakeholders are identified, and as part of the research and fact-finding process, the design team will examine the client and design briefs, and attempt to uncover the inherent problems and unarticulated needs. There are a number of tools and methods at the team’s disposal that will facilitate this. Brainstorming Brainstorming workshops usually involve the key stakeholders within the organization and are used as a means to gain familiarity, gather initial material and collect a variety of viewpoints from within the client organization. Brainstorming workshops tend to be hands-on, collaborative, idea-sharing processes, with many questions being asked, and a range of different needs (for example, organizational, customer or project stage) explored. Brainstorms help to define the crux of the problem or produce new ways to view it. Prototyping Prototyping describes the use of physical or digital means to simulate and test a design. Prototypes can be built to represent a specific stage in the process, or a final outcome. Dummy spaces, products, objects, scale models and 3D CAD models are all forms of prototyping and are useful tools for generating feedback early on in the project, and also raise latent issues that are not explicitly stated in the design brief. Each stakeholder is likely to respond to a prototype differently, as they will each have different needs depending on, for example, the function of their business unit or the age range of the target users.

‘My method has been to immerse myself in the issues, to reflect on them, analyze them, and wrestle with them, viewing them from all sides, in an act of philosophical exploration. I have tried not to be content

with taking the problem as given, but have always tried to question the question as it were, allowing my train of thought to take me in often unexpected directions.’ Stefano Marzano.

Live prototypes can be used to observe consumer behavior in everyday situations. The Philips HomeLab observes human guinea pigs to determine ordinary people’s responses to its ambient intelligence, which is embedded into a living space. It is the vision of a world in which technology, in the form of small, but powerful silicon chips, is integrated into almost everything, creating an environment that is sensitive to the presence of people and responsive to their needs. Image courtesy and copyright of Philips.

A key advantage of the HomeLab is that it is a fully functional home environment as well as a laboratory. This means that participants can live in the HomeLab for several days, which gives them time to forget that they are being observed, not only by the sensors that are built into the ambient intelligence systems but also by the Philips researchers from behind one-way mirrors. The HomeLab allows participants to become familiar with the environment and to settle down into daily routines that closely resemble those that apply in their own homes. Image courtesy and copyright of Philips.

Understanding the needs of others by acting out how they would behave in a given situation, and what products and services would be desirable in those circumstances, is a useful tool. Here, people role play consumers using bunk beds in an airplane. Image courtesy of IDEO.

Role Playing When approaching, for example, the design of a new airline check-in system, the design team might act out or role play the process of a passenger checking in. This is a way to understand what the experience is like for both the customer and the airline staff. A product concept for a new piece of checking-in software might be prototyped and physically built into a mock-up of a check-in desk. Acting out the roles can help the design team understand the design problem and so better inform their solution to it. Observation Using observation as a design method involves better understanding how people do things by watching their actions. When designing an improved train-ticketing system for example, types of observation may involve watching how people use ticketing machines in a station over the course of the day, to learn about the frequency of use (rush hour versus lunchtime, for example), the types of users (different ages and level of mobility), and the different types of ticket demands. Architectural Programming An architectural program is a method used at the beginning of a building project. It allows the design team and client to state the design parameters before the actual design process is begun. Using a systematic search to source the information needed to clarify, understand and state the design problem, the requirements that the building solution must meet can be outlined.

Table 9: The Five Step CRSS Architectural Programming Technique

Table 10: The Type of Information Required

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: How can we discover more about the people we are designing for? In what ways can we find out what is meaningful and relevant to them? How can design teams find out what products and services people will actually welcome?

As a means of gaining perspective into the wider context of a specific industry, Doblin, the design and innovation practice of Deloitte Consulting LLP, uses Innovation Landscapes®. These tools permit a view of the patterns of diversity, changes and challenges present in an industry over time, and show the overall terrain that leaders need to understand and manage. This helps an industry insider think differently and move in a direction that will provide stronger differentiation and greater return on an innovation investment. Here, trends in the pharmaceutical industry are represented for reflection, analysis and debate.

Electrolux’s Design Lab makes use of prototypes to test the functionality of its future products. Airwash is a waterless washing machine for the home of 2020. Eliminating the use of detergent and water, the Airwash cleans clothes with pressurized air and negative ions (nature’s cleansing agent). Its form is inspired by the waterfall, nature’s negative ion generator. The Airwash’s touch-light interface marries function with emotion, humanizing the often-mechanical experience of handling household appliances. Liberated from the laundry area, Airwash is a symbol of wellness and sophistication, designed for living spaces and focal points in the home. Image courtesy of Electrolux.

KNOWLEDGE

Design Methods Design methods help build trust in the client–design team relationship, because they allow members of both parties to explore the challenges presented by a particular brief or project in a loosely structured, but engaging way. Design methods also help the design team understand and define what they need to do, what processes they need to use and what the expected outcome(s) might be. EXAMPLE ONE: IDEO METHOD CARDS IDEO are a design and innovation consulting firm, and their method cards have been instrumental to the success of IDEO’s product, space, service and experience designs. IDEO’s 51 method cards are intended as inspiration for practicing and aspiring designers, as well as those seeking a creative spark in their work. The cards show some of the methods that IDEO uses to keep people at the center of their design processes. The techniques are not proprietary and have been adapted from a variety of established human and social research methods. The cards were initially compiled by IDEO to inspire their own design teams and demonstrate how IDEO have found them useful in real design projects. The cards are not a prescriptive nor exhaustive ‘how to’ for humancentered design, as new methods are being developed, adapted and applied all the time. However, the deck is meant to encourage users to try new approaches for making design useful, usable and delightful to people, and each card describes a method that can be used to inspire great design. IDEO’s method cards can help a team to plan a project, or just serve as a reminder of the various project approaches. For example, they can suggest ways to apply human-centered methods throughout all project stages; or they can be used to prove a point, or to challenge colleagues to seek insights in new ways. Or they can be used to inspire creativity, to communicate with a team, or to turn a corner. The method cards are divided into four categories, each group representing ways to empathize with people: learn, look, ask, and try. The Method Card Categories 1. Learn Analyze the information collected to identify patterns and insights. For example, by conducting activity analysis, character profiles, competitive product surveys or secondary research. 2. Look Observe people to discover what they do rather than what they say they do. For example, compile a day-in-the-life scenario, or shadow a consumer or record extended periods of consumer behavior using a time-lapse video. 3. Ask Enlist people’s help to elicit information that is relevant to your project. For example, ask a participant to create a camera journal, or draw their own user experience.

4. Try Create simulations to help empathize with people and to evaluate proposed designs. For example, become your customer, perhaps by paper prototyping or role-playing.

The IDEO Method Cards are divided into four categories representing ways to better understand user needs. The categories are: Look, Learn, Ask and Try. Image courtesy of IDEO.

Each method card describes a technique used to inspire great design. Here, an affinity map clusters elements that are related to transporting the family, which helped the IDEO team discover some significant opportunities for pushchair design. Image courtesy of IDEO.

Looking at what users do via a day-in-the-life scenario can be invaluable. Here, IDEO asked potential wearers of a drug delivery patch to document their daily behaviors including those that might affect the function of the patch such as getting it wet, or snagging it on clothing. Image courtesy of IDEO.

EXAMPLE TWO: THE DESIGN MANAGEMENT STAIRCASE Developed by Design Management Europe (DME), the staircase model is used for assessing design management capability within organizations. The four levels are: Level 1: Companies at this level have a limited, non-existent, or an only recently implemented design policy. Design is used on an ad hoc basis with limited targets and guidelines. There is little or no knowledge or experience available on how the company differentiates itself from competitors. Design activities tend to be unpredictable and yield highly inconsistent results due to a lack of clearly defined procedures. Level 2: These companies use design only to meet direct business needs, such as ad hoc style changes, product line extensions or product improvement projects. Design is primarily used as a marketing tool that adds value to the existing product offering through styling, packaging, marketing communication or visual identity. Design is neglected as a significant tool for developing innovation

or new products and services. Responsibility for design activities remains at an operational level; there is little or no collaboration between departments and minimal coordination of design activities. Level 3: These companies appoint a dedicated employee or department with formal responsibility for the management of design. This person or department acts as an interface and point of contact for designers, departments and company management. Design is used proactively and becomes a permanent feature of product development cycles. Level 4: Companies aspiring to be market leaders through design innovation eventually begin to embrace design management as culture. Design innovation refers to, for example, new products or services, an innovative communication or presentation style, a novel marketing tactic, or a new retail concept. These companies are highly design-driven and stand out because they have a differentiation strategy based on design. Senior management, whole departments, the company’s main business processes and the corporate culture itself are closely engaged with design. All four levels on the staircase model are further defined based on five factors influencing the design success or failure. The five factors are: Factor 1: Awareness of benefits. Lack of awareness of the possibilities and potential benefits of design keep it from being used effectively. Managers whose education and background have not included any design training, or who are dismissive of so-called soft assets (such as brand and reputation), are not likely to value design as a competitive asset, and the employees they manage naturally follow suit. Factor 2: Process. Is there a systematic policy for product development and innovation processes in place, one in which design is embedded from the start? Design management comprises a formal, not ad hoc, program of design activities, and when set up at a process level, it becomes a connected part of a company, and may also facilitate more effective cross-departmental collaboration. Factor 3: Planning. Design-aware companies develop a strategy for design and communicate clearly what design is supposed to achieve. When business strategies and plans include objectives for design, design activities can be aligned with the business or marketing targets. Factor 4: Expertise. The quality of available design staff (designers, design managers, advisors, multidisciplinary design teams, directorship) and the maturity with which tools and methods are applied. Factor 5: Resources. The extent to which a company invests in design projects, design staff and a creative working environment. This also extends to training budgets and design production facilities. The four levels and the five factors can then be put together in the form of a maturity grid and used to evaluate design awareness in a given company.

Design Management Europe (DME) is a network of partners across Europe that aims to demonstrate and promote the commercial benefits of good design management practices to both business and the public sector. As part of a research survey into the European SME sector, the design management staircase model was developed to assess design management capability within organizations. Through the annual DME Award, a substantial quantity of data and insight into the management of design has been compiled.

The staircase model and maturity grid are intended to help companies identify the skills and resources necessary to raise awareness of design and improve how design is actually managed. They are context-dependent, but it does suggest that (1) the higher a company’s level, the greater the strategic importance of design, and (2) the more design is engaged in a strategic fashion, the more likely the company is to grow. Although the staircase model is hierarchical, not every company needs to focus its strategy on the role of design as a driving force for innovation. Depending on the company’s nature, market position, or strategy, taking a Level 2 or Level 3 approach may be adequate.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: What other methods are there for finding out about the needs of users? How can design methods help an organization engage with other departments, disciplines and functional units?

KNOWLEDGE

Design Processes Design is a rigorous, cyclical process of enquiry and creativity. Design processes consist of a series of methods that are put together to suit the nature of each design project or question. Design processes have evolved from tried and tested ways of problem-solving and are continually refined by the designer or design team applying them to ‘real’ client projects. Most design processes mirror each of the designer’s steps when he or she is working on a problem. They define the problem; develop a better understanding of the problem; conceptualize the problem; detail a design solution and, finally, test or implement the solution. Design processes are not linear as there are many feedback loops built in to allow for the iterative nature of design and to accommodate the insights gained at each stage of the process. These approaches to problem-solving can then be further adapted, formalized and customized to suit the needs of a particular project or client. THE CREATIVE PROCESS Creativity, the act and art of creating, is an approach, skill, characteristic and talent that is increasingly demanded in how we address any situation, problem or opportunity, both in business and in life. The creative process itself is the series of events or actions we take in order to produce an imaginative, but relevant way of approaching a challenge. Csikszentmilyi (1996) has described the creative process as comprising five steps: preparation, incubation, insight, evaluation and elaboration. The Five Step Creative Process: 1. Preparation Immersion in a set of problematic issues that are interesting and arouse curiosity. 2. Incubation Ideas are churned around, below the level of consciousness, and unusual connections are made. 3. Insight Pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place. 4. Evaluation Deciding which insight is most valuable and worth pursuing. 5. Elaboration Turning the insight into something real.

Embarking on a creative process is often likened to a journey of discovery, a goal might be fixed, but how it is reached may be unknown at the outset. The ability to adapt to changing conditions encountered along the way, and to make mistakes and backtrack if necessary, is all part of this creative process of discovery. According to Austin and Devlin, creative problem-solving takes a nonsequential, non-linear approach, and does not readily follow clearly defined steps (2003). It is also frequently the source of new ideas and innovative thinking.

‘After you plant a seed in the ground, you don’t dig it up every week and see how it is doing.’ William Coyne.

China’s National Swimming Centre in Beijing, also known as the Water Cube, is the largest swimming center ever built. Enclosed within its blue water-bubble style walls are pools for Olympic swimming and diving competitions and seating for 17,000 spectators. The Water Cube marks a new beginning in design thinking. It responds to the idea of what a structure should or could be. The thinking has been spurred on by one question; ‘how does structure fill space?’ The answer in this case is based on a common natural pattern of organic cell arrangement, replicated in the bubbled structure of the Water Cube’s walls. Image courtesy of Arup/ CSCEC/PTW.

The 4000 bubbles measure as large as 7.5m wide and while seemingly fragile, the structure is actually very robust. The structure is clad with translucent ETFE, a tough recyclable material weighing just 1% of an equivalent glass panel. Image courtesy of Arup/ CSCEC/PTW.

Arup developed and patented SPeAR‚ (Sustainable Project Appraisal Routine) for use as a management information tool or part of a design process. For the Water Cube, the principle objectives for Arup were to deliver a range of sustainable features into the design concept while focusing on the building’s whole lifecycle, and identifying the scope for continual improvement of sustainability. The SPeAR tool was used to assess the successful integration of four key concerns in the Development Design Report, namely economic, social, environmental and material resources. Central to the design philosophy that underpins the Water Cube is the core objective of water conservation and the design of water efficient systems. Water in northern China is a valuable commodity and Beijing currently lacks a reliable water resource to meet existing and projected demand requirements. Image courtesy of Arup/ CSCEC/PTW.

‘Those who want to make artfully in business must constantly ask themselves whether impatience and yearning for certainty have curtailed important exploration and innovation – whether the impulse to compromise has undermined the fundamental coherence of the product.’ Rob Austin and Lee Devin. ITERATIVE PROCESSES The nature of design is that it is a complex interaction between the people and the decision-making processes involved in bringing a product or service to market. Design processes are difficult to standardize, in part because of their iterative, non-linear nature, and also because the needs of clients

and users are so different. In addition, real life, with its changing market conditions and customer preferences, is much more dynamic, chaotic and fuzzy than any standard model can fully accommodate and often, stages of the design process overlap. Iterations are a natural part of the creative design process, but of course a cut-off point must be reached eventually, when the design team commit to an agreed direction, and reduce the level of exploration and development of new ideas. When to set this deadline is a matter of both experience and judgement. Today, the design process is less about a sole creator or visionary. Instead, the designer, the design manager and team are one of many translators or mediators, all looking at the client challenge from many different perspectives. The team works together to understand the context and constraints of the challenge, with the aim of eventually proposing a viable and desirable solution within an agreed deadline. STANDARDIZED PROCESSES Processes that are standardized have a defined set of project steps, a timeframe and a known, or at least expected, outcome, one that complies with an agreed checklist of performance criteria. Standards raise levels of quality, safety and efficiency and certifying organizations and/or their products and processes provides quality assurance. Standardized processes can help, for example, find ways to optimize production processes or communicate performance results against time and cost issues. Standard definitions, measures and benchmarks all help the organization quickly assess and improve their performance and efficiency. Adhering to standard processes too rigidly however, can result in an uninspiring ‘assembly-line’ solution, where tasks are passed linearly from one team to another with little dialogue or debate. Standardized processes can ensure a project is finished on time and within budget, but the result may be uninteresting if the process of design and the creativity of the design team has been stifled by standardization. CUSTOMIZED PROCESSES A generic, standardized process model is useful for understanding and improving working procedures, and for initiating a client conversation about a particular design process, but eventually the model will need to be customized and adapted to suit the specific project, client and user requirements. Customized processes are more detailed, and so are better suited to specific/individual needs. They usually combine standard aspects with customized ones, which together form an appropriate custom-built model. DESIGN PROCESSES AS A SERVICE OFFER Design consultancies may sell their own design processes and expertise to business clients as a means to address an organization’s objectives. For example, IBM Business Solutions sell a number of

their processes as a consultancy offer. Similarly, it is not uncommon for design firms to repackage and sell their design methods as design innovation processes.

The iterative design process describes a methodology based on a cyclical process, where successive versions or iterations of a design are implemented. Source: Zimmerman, 2003.

As part of their design process, Dyson build detailed prototypes of their innovative products before manufacture, to ascertain the best design solution, and to provide a platform for debate amongst fellow design team members, engineers, business and marketing specialists, and, of course, the customers themselves. Image courtesy of Dyson.

Dirk Müller-Stolz, exterior designer of the MINI Concept Car, mocks-up a full-scale, two-dimensional prototype of the car. Taking the step of working at full-scale inevitably reveals new insights into the design process and therefore the eventual design solution. This is an invaluable way of soliciting feedback from other stakeholders. Image courtesy and copyright of BMW AG.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Plan of Work describes each of the key stages of the architecture design process. It is recognized throughout the construction industry as a model framework for project management. Source: Adapted from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Plan of Work.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: In what other ways can the process of design be used as a problem-solving activity? How do you budget for a creative process without compromising the results? What role can the design process play in creating the conditions for innovation?

Shown here are the key stages of a design process, as typically followed by a product design team. Providing an overview of the key stages in the form of a diagram helps the client to understand the whole design process. It also acts as a map for the design team and will remind them of the steps to be taken and at what stage their contribution is needed.

This diagram shows an overview of the design process for the creation of web-based services and applications. The diagram documents the design process itself as well as the key activities and deliverable results for each of the process’s stages. Source: Rollestone, 2003.

KNOWLEDGE

Competitive Advantage through Design In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, many organizations look for new ways to improve, add value, differentiate and innovate their products and services. Having competitive advantage is vital for organizations in over-saturated markets, and those trying to create new markets. Design thinking, processes and methods are practical ways to enable organizations to compete. There are a number of classic theories devoted to competitive advantage. Business expert Michael Porter believes that organizations must make a choice about the type of competitive advantage they seek, and suggests three possible strategies to achieve it: low cost, differentiation and focus. Marketing expert Philip Kotler believes that most consumers are primarily concerned with quality, service and value, and these are becoming standard customer expectations, not distinctive, marketshare winning attributes. Design is an obvious and practical way for organizations to make their products and services more distinctive. However, design and design management also has much to offer the product and service development process, from initial research ideas, to innovation processes, to supply-chain management, to the point of sale. In these ways, design thinking can and does enable valuable competitive and collaborative advantage for the organizations. CUSTOMIZATION AND COLLABORATION Customizing products and services is an invaluable way to achieve competitive advantage through design because it creates ‘unique’ offers for consumers. Ours is now a world of mass production; vast quantities of the same products roll off factory production lines throughout the world. But, with the emergence of new technologies, it is becoming more and more common to see ‘mass customization’; where the benefits of mass production (such as lower costs or increased distribution efficiency) are combined with the benefits of goods and services that are customized around individual consumer needs. Equally, collaborative processes that engage users and customers in the design process itself are increasingly common, especially with regard to the development of public services and social innovations.

‘No matter how good the product and service, and no matter how strong the brand, it must be supported by good operations systems. There is a desire for faster and reflective information that reflects the market, customers, designers, manufacturers, retailers to deliver better services to customers.’

Terence Conran.

Benetton focuses on meeting the needs of its customers as quickly as possible. Fast replenishment to better fulfill customers’ desires means retailers need to stock fewer items of each style, and can therefore stock more variety of goods on the same shelf space. Benetton have short-cycle, networked production techniques, and can dye products after their manufacture. Through information gathered from their retail shops and supplier networks, stock can be centrally replenished in any country from Italy. Image courtesy of The Benetton Group.

Through taking innovative approaches to their supply chain, Swatch is able to offer a broad product range, combining top quality with a highly affordable price. Image courtesy of Swatch.

Swatch exploits the idea of mass customization in their product components and manufacturing processes. Reducing the number of parts in their watches, squeezes out costs from the production process. Instead of the usual 91 or more parts needed to create a watch, Swatch succeeded in reducing the number of components to 51. Image courtesy of Swatch.

‘Millennials are more aware of society’s many challenges than previous generations and less willing to accept maximizing shareholder value as a sufficient goal for their work. They are looking for a broader social purpose and want work that has such a purpose.’ Michael Porter. SPEED TO MARKET Getting a product or service to market before the competition is a key form of competitive advantage, and one in which design plays a crucial role. Information flow, management and the actual logistics and operations of an organization will all involve the design of efficient and effective processes, both internally with design teams, business units and global satellite offices, and externally with suppliers,

partners and customers themselves. DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH DESIGN In a highly commoditized marketplace, differentiation – how one product or service stands out from similar products or services – allows customers to make a distinction between competing offers. Unique products, services and experiences can command premium prices if, in the mind of the customer, the difference is considered to be worth the extra cost. Different organizations will often choose to focus their offers on distinctive qualities or brand attributes. Design can communicate these attributes through brand expression: the style and appearance of the brand’s products and services, and the very manner in which the organization communicates its brand image and connects with customers. If the brand’s attributes are important to the customer, the product or service will be perceived as something that meets their needs and desires. Design is a valuable means of differentiation, one in which product or service design details become very important. The aesthetics, function, shape, in fact each and every design detail, will help to communicate the value people will place on the brand. The brand sets the customer’s expectation for quality and personal experience. DESIGN AND WORK ENVIRONMENTS Retaining highly-talented staff is an increasingly critical factor to the success of an organization, and providing high-quality working environments is another way that design can add value to an organization. Company buildings are assets that can reflect and reinforce the brand, and simultaneously strengthen the internal culture of the organization. Achieving a work–life balance and quality working environments are now more important factors than high salaries in staff retention. INNOVATION OR IMPROVEMENT? Successful products and services are not always innovations. Frequently, increasing market share may rely on incremental and continuous evolutionary improvements, rather than revolutionary or disruptive innovation or invention. This is often the case in service design, where feedback solicited from customers and users can form the basis for improving customer experience, increasing satisfaction and potentially building customer loyalty by being responsive to customer needs.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: What systems can be put in place to ensure senior management and internal stakeholders are kept up-to-date with external developments and competing offers? How can design help to reduce costs within the supply chain?

Employees at the London office of this global architecture firm work in a self-designed office environment named by Inc. Magazine as one of the ‘World’s Coolest Offices’. It was critical that the office space provided a space that would support, nurture and inspire staff creativity, and take into account the mental and physical comfort and wellbeing of the staff. The space is a showcase of work and talent, featuring a company picnic green, collaborative working areas and ways to host both public and private events. In addition, the design takes an environmentally conscious approach, resulting in the UK’s first LEED Gold accreditation (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). The structure, for example, uses recycled material and locally sourced material to cut down on carbon emissions produced by transporting it from far-flung areas. Images courtesy of HOK / Hufton + Crow

Case Study PRACTICE

Kajima Design Europe for JVC

The new JVC headquarters building. It is located on the outskirts of London. The master plan reveals a structured layering of functions within the boundaries of the site, from warehouse to workshop and service distribution to the headquarter building, expanding into the landscape beyond.

Table 11: KDE’s Key Design Objectives

THE DESIGN PROCESS IN ACTION Kajima Design Europe (KDE) is a creative team of architects, designers and engineers, which provide services for all stages of the building process. When asked to redesign the headquarters of the Japanese consumer electronics brand JVC, KDE’s project team creatively addressed a set of complex challenges associated with the existing site, which had been JVC’s London base for more than 30 years, and brought in external specialist skills to supplement the project team. The JVC site was a collection of contrasts that had to be brought into balance. To the north of the site was a reservoir and wildlife sanctuary, while to the south was a busy, noisy motorway. With longstanding emotional and logistical ties to their existing location, it came as a shock when JVC discovered, in the early stages of site investigations, that they had been sitting on a brownfield site, which contained substantial deep pits of carbide lime. The design solution that allowed JVC to remain on the site would have to address its environmental responsibilities, the contrasting aspects of the site conditions, and contribute to the regeneration of the area. KDE’s first task was to address the brownfield issues and to make safe the site. Working with a number of external design team partners and environmental and regulatory bodies, the lime containment was addressed and the site secured, so maintaining the investment value and planned usability of the site. The next task was to evaluate the way in which the buildings were used. JVC’s current and likely future operational requirements had outgrown its existing arrangement of offices and warehouses resulting in numerous inefficiencies. In addition, the company’s headquarters building no longer expressed the style and sophistication of the JVC brand, nor its future aspirations. KDE began the design work by viewing the project constraints and the site conditions as both an asset and a necessary part of finding a truly contextual design solution.

The site plan demonstrates that the more a development fits into the existing context, infrastructure and natural conditions, the more flexible it can be to changes in the future. This affords the opportunity to maximize the potential of the investment.

THE DESIGN RESPONSE KDE proposed to demolish almost all of the existing JVC buildings and build a new administration center to house various corporate departments, a new showroom and a staff restaurant. An additional large single warehouse and two smaller units would accommodate the vastly increased product storage, and allow for future flexibility. JVC were to stay on site throughout the two phases of construction. The first phase would temporarily relocate staff to one building, complete construction of the main administration building, and begin construction of the warehouse complex. The second phase would complete the warehouses and the landscaping. Situated, as it was, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, afforded the project an environmental heart. KDE’s design of the new ‘face’ of JVC would be a window onto this natural asset. The new administration building would accommodate the offices over the four levels, on the building’s north side, a glazed façade would allow for excellent natural light and give staff and visitors unobstructed, open views of the reservoir. By locating the building closer to the reservoir, it would become a focal point for the design, and would create a working environment where the staff had a much more immediate relationship with the nature reserve. The administration building’s ground floor entrance and reception lobby were to expand into a dynamic double-height space and showroom, which would also serve to accommodate the differences in the site’s plane. The staff restaurant was to visually extend into the landscaped area to the north, and this would create a hub of activity on the ground floor.

The new warehouses would provide an environmental buffer to the noise and air pollution from the motorway, and would shield the administration building, accessible landscaped areas, outdoor spaces and walkways, this would serve to improve both staff safety and vehicle maneuvering. Rationalization of JVC’s operations into fewer warehouse buildings also allowed for vast improvement in their logistics and storage capacity.

The scale and orientation of the cladding profile provides a sense of proportion to the new administration building.

The façade of the main administrative building, which faces a busy and noisy motorway, displays a jewel-like presence at night.

The neutral palette of the 6building materials and a soft, industrial aesthetic were carefully chosen to reflect the JVC brand, express the individual building functions within the architectural composition, and to complement the contrasting surroundings of the motorway and the nature reserve.

The KDE design team was composed of a range of internal and external service partners such as architects and engineers. The team had to interact inwardly with the client (JVC) and outwardly with a range of government and environmental bodies. All images courtesy and copyright of Kajima Design.

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN Three key steps were taken in KDE’s design process, which resulted in a more sustainable design solution. The steps allowed JVC, a major organization in the area, to remain in their existing location and continue to enhance the local economy. Firstly, the orientation of the buildings would not only maximize the site’s potential, but would also minimize the environmental effects of removing excavated material. Secondly, the existing change in level across the site, disguising a disused underground car park, was modified to reduce the importing and exporting of soil from the site. Through careful demolition and construction phasing, the disruption to JVC’s operation was minimal, allowing them to continue with business while construction took place and preventing any costly and time-consuming relocation. Finally, mechanical ventilation was controlled through the location of core elements and cellular rooms to the rear of the main administration building; this was effectively an environmental buffer to the sun,

air pollution and traffic noise. WORKING WITH THE TEAM The project aroused public interest and had to be in keeping with regulations of a number of environmental bodies. These groups worked in partnership with KDE and the construction team to resolve all aspects in the most mutually beneficial manner, and ensure that the plans for the site fully accommodated the need to obtain planning permission and address sensitive environmental issues. Engineering firm Buro Happold sought in situ treatment and containment alternatives to removing waste materials from the site, as part of an environmentally sound, sustainable and cost-effective solution. Simultaneously, the new buildings were to be developed while the site itself was being physically stabilized. Further significant obstacles lay underground. Two large sewers and a number of electrical cables ran under the site. KDE wanted to build in this area, but if they diverted the pipes they would have to assume responsibility for the pipe’s contents. To mitigate risk the warehouse was positioned and built over the drains, which retained the status quo. The process was a constant challenge to understand, accept and manage the conditions of the site, to reassure the planning authority that their requirements would be met, and to balance the costs and viability of the project. John Chapman, Design Director of KDE, comments that ‘this really was a case of a project made possible by everyone coming together right from the start of the process allowing us to steer it forward, explain the difficulties, offer solutions and develop it in a way that was beneficial to everyone involved’. Through successful teamwork, the project result is a stylish business park that is in harmony with its surroundings, and a landmark building which provides an inspiring work environment for JVC’s employees. The project relied heavily on the success of the relationships formed between the client, the design team, the public and the environmental organizations involved, illustrating the complexities of managing creative projects with a large and diverse team of people.

CASE STUDY

The Honda Zoomer

The Honda Zoomer, scooters, ‘making city life easier’.

CUSTOMIZING THE DESIGN AROUND CONSUMER NEEDS Honda’s Zoomer was born in Asaka, Japan. Created by N Projects, a group of forward-thinking designers, whose client brief was to create a bike that would adapt to the varied lifestyles of today’s youth. N Projects’ design response was to make the Zoomer as bare as possible so that

owners could customize the bike according to their individual needs. According to Mr. Tateishi from N Projects, ‘it is possible to make a bike adapt to users, users shouldn’t have to adapt to the bike’. The Zoomer is designed with extra-wide tires and dual headlights, and is powered by a quiet, fuelefficient 50cc engine. Its plush seat, which is contoured for comfort, can be easily adjusted to seven different levels, while under the seat, a ‘barebones’ approach to chassis design has created a huge storage space to carry anything from skateboards to camera tripods. At the heart of the Zoomer is its liquid-cooled, four-valve, four-stroke single-cylinder motor, which benefits from the latest programmed fuel-injection system; the Zoomer was the first small capacity motor to be fitted with such an advanced fuelling system. Although the engineering and performance of the Zoomer are exceptional, it is the aesthetics and attitude of the bike that are winning over other brand-loyal customers. The Zoomer’s fat tires, bugeye headlights, raw chassis and minimalist design signals something quite different and unique. Owners can customize their Zoomer, making the bike even more personalized, with a wide range of optional ‘hop-up’ parts and accessories, including radiator covers, a rear carrier and racing foot rest. A choice of different saddles, paint jobs, frame colors, racks and chrome parts, as well as a range of performance-enhancing engine parts, are all available and many of these parts are matched to the Zoomer’s color options of red, black, yellow and green. Since its launch in 2001, the Zoomer has achieved a considerable following in Japan, the United States and Europe. The key to its success is the Zoomer’s ultra-cool, minimalist urban styling, which provides a base for a very individual machine that is fully customizable via a range of accessories specifically created around the needs of their target audience of young, urban consumers. For Honda’s UK launch, a limited edition of 100 Zoomers were released, and potential customers were informed that they would have to hurry as stocks of the ‘hip and zippy little 50cc scooter’ were in very short supply. Wanting to make their own mark in the local market, Honda (UK) bought into the Zoomer culture by modifying the Zoomers with chrome bodywork, nitrous oxide injection, extra lights and even a playable Sony PS2 with mini-screen under the seat. An online magazine for ‘the coolest scooter around’ was also created (www.zoomerzine.org).

The Honda Chiswick retail environment is designed to raise brand awareness, both by day and by night. The shops are attracting a new type of consumer; design savvy urbanites looking for ways to deal with traffic congestion in the city.

PROMOTING THE BRAND As part of their UK promotional campaign, Honda gave Zoomers to people they felt would represent their brand image and customize their bikes in a highly creative way. The key was to appeal, through peer group and brand association, to a target market of design-savvy young urbanites. Although giving away scooters is not profitable, the campaign proved to be a phenomenally successful marketing and brand-promotion exercise for Honda. The scooter class is one of the fastest growing segments of Europe’s motorcycle market. To help further promote the Honda brand, four new scooter retail environments were launched in London. The design of the shops followed the ultra-cool, urban styling of the bikes, and carried the wide range of scooter accessories, with which owners could uniquely customize their newly purchased Zoomer.

London interior designers Jump were responsible for the concept design and implementation of a series of small scooter shops. Jump’s design reflects the idea of urban transport with a backdrop of point-of-sale displays, graphic effects, mirrored fittings and light fixtures that are shaped like road signs. All images courtesy and copyright of Jump/Honda UK.

Interview Fabio Issao, Strategic Design Director, Mandalah Conscious Innovation

With a degree in Advertising from Mackenzie University (São Paulo, Brazil), and founding-partner of three design studios, Fabio is now the Strategic Design Director at Mandalah, where he has been for the past four years. In his role he develops projects on innovation, branding, design thinking, business modeling, service design and brand strategies for a diverse range of global and local organizations. Tell me about your background I was born in São Paulo, Brazil, with a Japanese heritage from my grandparents. As my father made his career at Vale, one of the world’s biggest mining companies, my family had the opportunity to live in many different cities in Brazil, from the extreme north to the southeast, where I experienced a diverse range of cultures, people and habits. One of my earliest memories was sitting with my dad, also an excellent illustrator, as I tried to copy his strokes and forms, we both were breathing in silence and self-communion. Papers and pens have always been great companions for me, tools to free my imagination and exercise creativity. The belief that everything was possible in illustration encouraged me to explore this and other visual languages, such as

photography, sculpture, painting and, later on, information design. I studied Advertising and shortly before graduation, launched my first business, a graphic design firm called Lume. Following that path, I’ve started two other design studios (Flag and Camisa10) with different partners, constantly searching for new tools, techniques and languages. All in a DIY way. I learned to develop long-term relationships with clients, plan and execute projects, take care of finances and every little task a business requires to keep moving. Mandalah appeared as a client, and we began a deep and enthusiastic dialogue that helped me to re-shape my understanding of generating value for clients and society as well. Two years later, I was invited to join the team in their São Paulo headquarters. Since 2010, my role is to infuse a design-oriented approach to strategic projects at Mandalah. It might be a strategic plan, a co-creative workshop for clients, the creative direction of deliverables or simply to help people and organizations clarify their business purpose and role in society. What exactly does Mandalah deliver? Mandalah is a globally conscious innovation consultancy that helps organizations all over the world to innovate through their products, services and strategies, focusing not only on ensuring their profitability, but also ensuring that their business activities incorporate a human element, promoting good things to society as a whole. We take a ‘Conscious Innovation’ approach because we believe in shared value, where everyone stands to gain: business, people and the society. Therefore, we focus on the innovation that exists at the intersection of Purpose and Profit, enabling business and the economy to develop while at the same time adding value to the lives of people and the systems around us. What role does design play at Mandalah? I believe design is a way of seeing and understanding realities, a vision that allows us to connect the parts into the whole, enabling us to identify the essence that underlies those interactions. More objectively, design has become one of our most relevant tools to leverage the value of our outcomes. It helps us with insight and idea generation, strategy development, consolidation and implementation and also, in finding the most appropriate way to communicate findings and recommendations to our clients. This may result in a new business strategy, a new brand strategy, new products and services or a new organizational strategy – or a combination of these. How do you usually work on Mandalah projects? Our starting point is the human element, that’s the reason why we use the letter H at the end of our name. We’re evoking, all the time, the social aspects of products, services, businesses, organizations and, of course, clients and other stakeholders, in order to ensure we’re elucidating the real purpose that guide people through particular ways of behavior. Through a systemic yet simple approach our methodology, which we call ‘Innovation for Impact’, combines research (Inspire), creativity (Connect & Create) and implementation (Impact). We developed research and strategy for global industry players such as repositioning a new Ambev non-alcohol beer brand in the Brazilian market, the digital strategy and positioning for AIG Brazilian market entrance, global research for GM on the future trends for urban mobility, repositioning Nike’s brand in Rio de Janeiro’s market and its global strategy for the World Cup

2014, research on South American women’s buying behaviors for Pepsico, the co-creation of a new cosmetic brand Amó and the design of an open-innovation network for Natura, among many other examples. In the field of education, we helped ESPM, the biggest Ad University in Brazil and Colégio Bandeirantes to redefine their future vision of education for the next 20 years. Also, there’s a strong focus on helping Brazilian start-ups (Bidu, Olook, Eureca, Oppa) with their strategic plans and positioning. More recently, we opened a Mandalah branch focused on Public Policies, due to our expertise in the fields of social movements, education, culture and urban mobility, that led us to develop and articulate fertile dialogues with both society and government. What trends have you identified over the last years in the field of design? We have discovered, like other disciplines such as Biomimicry, Systems Thinking, Integral Theory and Complexity Theory, that design and its variants are tools to help us change the way we see, feel, experience and think about things that are no longer fulfilling society’s human needs. As long as we keep the focus on solving truly human needs, design will remain a powerful way to shape the future of our world. If we observe things as they are, we can also acknowledge that everything we know can be improved. It might be about an upgrade or reform, commonly known as incremental innovation, or moving forward to a disruptive, paradigm-changing solution. There is no greater tendency, in my opinion, than to improve the status quo around us. What are the key challenges and opportunities in Brazil? The majority of big cities in Brazil is facing the challenges of sustainable growing, which implicate the need for structural revisions in many aspects: economic, demographic, social, education, public policies, urban mobility among others, in order to succeed and keep prospering along the next years. In the social scenario, awareness of our cultural values (creativity, joy, adaptability) is emerging stronger than ever, since the Brazilian nation is becoming more mature. Therefore, the opportunity lies in addressing our joyful creativity far beyond thoughts and words, but rather in actions and solutions for our dilemmas. Knowledge and social and digital technology are accelerating the need for clearer purposes and the path to transformation.

Chloe Martin and Rosie Frost – Global Innovation Project Producers, The Innovation Collective

Chloe Martin is founder, and Rosie Frost associate partner, of London-based The Innovation Collective, an agency of innovation creatives who specialize in project management, events and creative project support services all over the globe. They help clients grow their brands, products and services through insight, fresh thinking and inspiration. Tell me about your background and how you came to set up The Innovation Collective We both have backgrounds in innovation, having previously worked at ?What If! – the world’s largest independent innovation agency – for over six years. We worked with a variety of clients across all sectors developing innovation solutions. Chloe’s background is in visual arts and after leaving university she applied for and secured the role of creative coordinator at ?What If!. Chloe subsequently worked in a variety of creative and organizational roles until leaving in 2008. The wide range of skills she amassed gave her the confidence to go freelance and join the growing network of ‘Not-ifers’ (ex What-ifers) working collaboratively outside the company. In 2012, Chloe set up The Innovation Collective as a way to harness the power of her network, work more closely with the talented people she knew and loved, and achieve a more desirable work–life balance. Rosie studied design management before joining ?What If! where she worked as a producer and inventor (both the project management and strategy sides) for over six years before joining Chloe as associate partner of The Innovation Collective. Together, we work directly with brands, consultants and innovation agencies from all over the

world. What does The Innovation Collective offer clients? We offer a range of project management services which means we help with every step of the innovation process including planning, research, insight, ideation and concept development… everything from fundamental project logistics to creative design and output. Clients struggle to innovate internally for a variety of reasons, so an outside agency can really add value. It’s our role to help them approach a challenge in fresh and inspiring ways. We do this by providing an array of insightful stimuli designed to provoke new ideas… from beautifully presented category research, global product trawls and vox pops to expert interviews, special events and bespoke consumer experiences. We believe brands get deeper insights from genuine consumer interactions – spending a ‘day in the life’ with them while commuting to work, picking up the kids from school, having breakfast or even accompanying them to work. These human experiences are really important. Uncovering hidden gems and deeper insights about consumers’ lives beyond simply purchase behavior allows brands to position themselves in ways that are more relevant to their world. We also help clients approach a challenge from a more ‘left field’ perspective, for example, connecting them to experts who can re-express a challenge or offer their personal industry learning can lead to some innovative solutions. What aspects of your roles are most rewarding for you? Helping disengaged teams engage, helping a project team discover the possibilities in their product or brand again and of course knowing they had a really fun time getting there! Also it is very powerful to see people stretch themselves and overcome a belief that they are not a ‘creative’ person. Everyone is creative – we just pigeonhole ourselves into pre-defined job roles that mean ‘we are or aren’t’ something. Simple behavior training and guidance on how to land a good idea is enough to dispel this myth while creating a safe, informal and fun environment for people to thrive in. This is something we do best. The right culture and environment is extremely important for creativity and, unfortunately, traditional corporate structures don’t often help expansive thinking to thrive. However, we’re seeing a huge shift in awareness of how important culture and environment are. How important are people, and collaboration in particular, to how you work? The Innovation Collective is a network of associates that focus predominantly on creative project management, but we’re a small part of a far wider innovation network that thrives on collaboration with others both inside and outside our industry. Collaboration gets you to newer and better ideas faster. It also allows you to act big even if you’re small. By nurturing a network of trusted professionals, you can widen your product offering without expensive staff overheads. We believe people ARE your biggest asset in an organization – they are your brand and they create your culture, so they really should be at the heart of every decision you make. Increasingly, clients are buying people – not agencies – so allowing smaller, more interesting and diverse start-ups like us to emerge. It’s important for us to work with people who share the same vision and values as we have. We’re passionate about what we do but we also have interests beyond work, so we look for people with a wide range of skills and passions that can feed not only The Collective but also our

souls! Can you describe the associate models with which you work? Associates operate with a distinct business model, although it is more common in the creative industries where we work as ‘project teams’. Working as associates gives us more fluidity – we have more choices in the type of jobs we take on and a great sense of freedom and control. It also means we’re doing it for the right reasons and can regularly check our work–life balance. Refreshingly, there’s no hierarchy – we build a project team tailored to each job which can be determined by factors such as: the challenge, the client, the outcome needed, team member specialisms and past category experience. We have minimal overheads (and no office), preferring to use private members’ clubs as a work space. These clubs tend to have an informal vibe and attract entrepreneurs and start-ups, allowing us to network with other like-minded people and extend our network even more. It also means we behave differently at work because we’re not confined to an office or expected to conform to a fixed company hierarchy. What key qualities are needed for roles such as yours? Innovation is a fast-paced, fun world. Every project challenge, client, sector and team is different, so being able to adapt and work with lots of characters is a core skill. Good people management is key but most importantly you need to work well under pressure. The ability to turn things around on a very tight deadline, as well as being able to adapt and find a creative solution in the moment, is essential. Working 9-5 has become a thing of the past – you need to be comfortable with no fixed routine, long hours and workload peaks and troughs. You will also be expected to manage your state through high and low periods of stress. An endless curiosity and passion for discovering new things and having varied interests will keep you on the pulse of the latest trends and movements – which is vital when you want to inspire clients. What is your view on maintaining the balance between creativity and project management? Planning and creativity need each other in equal measure. There are times in the process when you will need to be either expansive or reductive in your thinking. Detailed process planning actually allows you to be more creative; to rip up the day plan and go off the beaten track. This ‘plan’ is underpinned by an aligned agreement of where you need to get to and when. This gives you permission to play with the how you get there! Planning is also important for a happy project team and client. Agreed roles, stage gates and deliverables reduce anxiety and act as an anchor. If clients are confident in your methodology, you can play around and be more creative in the how you go about achieving a great outcome. With madness there is always measure. What factors influence why you work together so well? We both have great trust in each other, a shared vision of how we want to grow the business, respect for work–life balance, are hard-working and committed to ‘getting on with it’. We’re both driven, so when not working on live projects we’ll be looking for new ways to shape our offering, bouncing ideas each other or finding new things in the world that we can share with our clients. What advice do you have for project managers?

Rigorous planning is what enables you to be adaptable in the moment. You may need to change plans or direction at very short notice, so anticipating possible risks or variables is key. Project managers always need to be two steps ahead of the process and have a few backup plans ready! Trust and rapport with your project team is essential: keeping them updated with progress (before they ask for it) and finding a quick, calm solution in the moment. Lastly, be human, connect with your clients and be someone they look forward to working with.

KEY SKILLS

Managing Creative Teams Getting the most from creative teams relies on good communication, delegation and leadership skills, and valuing and respecting the different styles, approaches, talents and skills of all team members. Teams that work well together exhibit high levels of collaboration and trust; they like working with each other. Formally agreeing roles and responsibilities is important (so everyone knows what they are doing and what is expected from them), as is matching the right people and personalities with the right project (so that people are actually able to perform the tasks). However, it is the informal conversations that occur, and the actual ‘chemistry’ of the team, which will stimulate the sort of creative results the organizations are looking for today. Learning to be comfortable with a certain level of imprecision is part of being a design manager. Design is all about iteration, exploring and revisiting ideas. Stifling creativity by micro-managing, controlling and dominating, or steering a solution in a particular direction before the design team has had the chance to fully uncover the problem and explore new ideas, are all detrimental to the nature of the creative process. The key words for anyone responsible for managing a creative team are freedom, focus and budget. The freedom to allow time and space for divergent thinking, the focus to then encourage convergent thinking, and a realistic awareness of the budget in terms of both time available and costs allocated.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: What different ways are there to find the right designer to complement an existing design team? How would you go about finding and engaging a whole design team to carry out a specific project? TEAM-WORKING Combining the right people, personalities and skills into project teams that will work well and within tight timescales, is a significant challenge. In the current climate, design is more about team performance than individual achievement, and working within a design team can hold distinct advantages. Projects can be broken down into clearly defined tasks, roles and responsibilities, and then assigned within the team as appropriate. However, every team member should retain equal responsibility for the outcome of the project, and for completing his or her task on time (as some team members may be relying on one person finishing a task before another can begin). Negotiating and facilitating, cooperating and supporting, looking for win-win solutions and congratulating team members for a job well done, will inspire positive team working. STRUCTURE, GUIDANCE AND LEADERSHIP Design teams work best when there is structure, guidance and leadership. Structure means agreeing roles, responsibilities and tasks, the timing of design reviews and decision-making processes, and project goals, deadlines and milestones. Design managers often have to exercise judgement and compromise between honoring the client agreement and trusting the team’s creative ability. If the structure, budget or timescale is detrimental to the creative process, clear communication with the client will be needed in order to negotiate the benefits of an extension. In other situations, the design manager may need to exercise formal or informal disciplinary measures in order to prevent individual team members undermining the overall goals and timescales of the project team and the client relationship. Guidance means keeping the team informed of changes, sharing information, providing feedback, offering constructive criticism of design ideas (as opposed to destructive criticism of individuals), and giving praise where praise is due. Providing guidance also means encouraging initiative and responsibility, drumming-up enthusiasm when morale is low, maintaining the quality of creative solutions, and encouraging the team to communicate effectively and considerately with each other and those outside the immediate team. Design is a collective process and as such someone needs to be in charge. Due to the differences in how designers and managers communicate and operate, design managers need to provide leadership, promoting the abilities of the design team and taking responsibility when the situation so demands. Conflict is a natural part of the creative process, but it needs to be dealt with quickly and decisively so as not to undermine the overall team goals. Bringing roadblocks and conflicting agendas out into the open and dealing with them positively will allow the team to move forward once again.

Joyn is more than just office furniture: it is a management instrument in an era of a changing work culture because it combines a variety of room functions on one single level: the platform. Its mobile and modular structure spontaneously adapts to changing requirements and technologies. Joyn reflects the dynamism of the modern office. It recognizes that many of the tasks that used to be part of daily office routines are now handled at home or on the road. The office is therefore a central hub for the intensive interpersonal exchange of information. Image courtesy of Vitra.

Joyn is the culmination of Vitra’s 40 years of office research, combined with fresh insights from French industrial designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. It is an open system that can dynamically adjust to changing demands. Rather than impose one way of working, Joyn supports many. The design encourages mobility, mixing and natural collaboration between employees. Image courtesy of Vitra.

St Luke’s threw out the traditional, hierarchical arrangement of teams grouped by function or discipline. Instead multidisciplinary teams work together collaboratively to explore the specific needs of each client in dedicated brand rooms, such as this one for Clarks. When clients themselves are invited into the brand rooms, they have a sense of ownership for the unfolding ideas by being involved in the process. Image courtesy of St Luke’s.

KEY SKILLS

Facilitating the Design Process Design methods and processes provide a structured way of performing specific tasks. Their success relies on making sense of information and research, hunches and suppositions and the constraints and contradictions found in any design problem. The planned approach may vary in reality somewhat due to the iterative nature of the design process and new discoveries made by the team in the process of addressing client needs. It is a matter of experience and good judgement as to whether a design manager needs to bring the process back on track, or question the design process in relation to the brief without actually stifling the creativity of the design team. Facilitating the design process requires a good people person that can listen and understand disparate department cultures and their associated agendas. Design managers usually have a good understanding of the client’s business agendas, and can help the design process by keeping the team abreast of any changes happening within the client organization, particularly with regard to the client’s vision. The design manager plays an important role in making sure information flows to the design team, whether about changes within a client organization, or information on new materials or processes. Translating business terms to designers, and explaining design terms to clients, promotes clear communication and understanding on both sides. DESIGN REVIEWS Held at intervals throughout the design process, a design review evaluates the project against the criteria in the brief and the agreed key stages. According to Hollins and Hollins, lack of communication between people from different occupations is especially rife in large companies. ‘People quite often do not understand what information the other needs to do their job, and they do not understand how one person’s decisions can affect the work done by others’ (1991). Design circles – small groups from throughout the organization put together to review design – can help alleviate these problems. For example, design reviews are a common occurrence within Apple’s creative working processes. Apple employees talk incessantly about deep-collaboration and cross-pollination. Essentially this means that products do not pass from team to team, and there are no discreet, sequential development stages. Instead, Apple’s design process is simultaneous and organic. Products are developed by all departments simultaneously – design, hardware, software – and in endless rounds of interdisciplinary design reviews (Grossman, 2005).

Design circles can be used at all stages of the design process to help improve communication and facilitate decision-making. Small groups from throughout an organization can come together to review the design. Groups of larger sizes than nine individuals tend to break down into sub-groups, which will lead to less effective communication and decision-making. Members of the design circle will change depending on who is best suited to meeting the objectives or a particular stage of the design process. Source: Hollins and Hollins, 1991.

For larger projects, supplementary design circles can be formed around the main design circles, with lines of communication as indicated in this diagram. The design manager should be a constant member of the main design circle, and should provide feedback to those design team members that are relevant to the project, but are not in the main circle. Source: Hollins and Hollins, 1991.

STIMULATING WORKING ENVIRONMENTS Design managers need to seek ways to safeguard the creative process, and to shield the design team from the unproductive comments of others. Creating the right working environment for the team also creates the necessary conditions to aid the design process and creative thinking. By nature, designers are reflective beings and need to go through periods of divergent (debate and dialogue and lateral thinking) and convergent (processing ideas on one’s own) thinking. These different thinking and working styles require different environmental conditions, for example, open-plan and lively spaces for stimulation, versus quiet areas for concentrated thinking. SMART OBJECTIVES Making multiple choices and decisions, and accommodating the varying demands of others, makes it important to plan and prioritize workloads, over the short and the long term. Setting objectives that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable realistic and timed), can guide the decisions made by design managers and help team members be more effective. It is also a powerful way to motivate teams to achieve outstanding results. Once the goals of any task or project are defined, the order of priority can be established. The task can then begin, one step at a time.

Table 12: Smart Objectives

New types of working environments to cater for the changing ways in which we live are emerging. Impact Hub provides ways for a rapidly expanding global community of more than 7000 ‘Impact Makers’ – individuals, collaborators and entrepreneurs committed to making the world a better place – to support and inspire each other through (1) Community, (2) Spaces, (3) Events, (4) Programs. The focus is: ‘Inspire, Engage, Educate and Connect’ to make a positive impact in the world and solve some of the biggest problems of our time. Images courtesy of ImpactHub.net

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: How can design managers lead, and support the design of products and processes that stand out, emotionally connect with consumers and add value to the business? In what other ways can design support management, marketing and innovation?

KEY SKILLS

Developing Collaborative Cultures Organizations that encourage their employees, stakeholders and shareholders to share resources, ideas and innovations are often the ones which deliver products, services and experiences that their customers actually want. Design managers, because of their familiarity with both design and business, are well placed to act as catalysts within organizations, by contributing to new initiatives. In addition, design managers are also in a position to form the ‘glue’ between business and design, influencing the way that units can work together in new and surprising combinations. Engaging a variety of stakeholders in the creative process facilitates and integrates different disciplines, functions and divisions. FUNCTIONAL TEAMS The conventional, and rather hierarchical, approach to design teams dictates that each function or discipline, such as designers, project managers or account directors, should work in isolation. Design teams set up in this way are good for sharing discipline-specific knowledge, as team members benefit from a cross-fertilization of ideas from colleagues working with different clients and in different industry sectors. Within a client organization, functional business units such as marketing or finance departments are established so that people from each area work in a self-contained way. The way the units work is focused around the hierarchies, lines of authority and conventions of the business and its culture; people from different disciplines meet and work together in team and client meetings. Working in separate business units creates focus, but business units by default do not allow for the crossfertilization and knowledge of ideas from different units on a day-today basis. CLIENT TEAMS In a design consultancy, individuals from a range of disciplines or functions can be organized to work together in specific client teams. The advantages of client teams are that its members can immerse themselves in the project problem, and maintain a level of confidentiality away from other client teams. As teams are interdisciplinary, the client problem can be viewed from different perspectives simultaneously. Another benefit of client teams is that they are isolated from functional units and other day-to-day business concerns or distractions. PROJECT TEAMS In a client organization, people from a range of disciplines or functional units can be organized to work together in specific project teams. Having people from a variety of backgrounds in a project team can generate the all-important creative spark. In the words of Rockwell (2003), it’s not about ‘getting people to sit in a room and agree with you…it’s about getting enough voices in a room that

are dissimilar, create some friction, and use that friction to make a decision you wouldn’t have made otherwise’.

QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION: In what other ways can design managers help build collaborative cultures, and inspire team members to lead by design? DESIGN AND INNOVATION Is it beneficial to develop a culture of innovation throughout an organization, by creating a separate innovation team, one that is remote from day-to-day business activities? Or does the act of collaborating in day-to-day business concerns actually stimulate new responses to organizational challenges? In some organizations, design operates as a separate resource (the design team); in others design is embedded within several different resources (for example, marketing and new product development). In either case, collaborative cultures have healthy levels of trust and communication, both within and across divisions and teams. Powell has observed that ‘a company is made up of people whose informal relationships are more important than their formal ones’. There may be formal reporting structures and working hierarchies, but it is frequently ‘at the nitty-gritty interpersonal level, that hundreds of decisions are made every day that are ultimately more important than those few made at the top’ (1992).

The BMW Group debated the merits of division-oriented versus project-oriented organization, and developed a concept where associates within technical departments join project teams for the duration of the concept phase. Then, in a subsequent implementation phase, the associates return to their original technical departments, but still maintaining their close links with the project team. Image courtesy and copyright of BMW AG.

Creative brainstorming methods are taught to employees by organizations such as Whirlpool and Toyota. Suggestion boxes are also provided by these organizations to encourage new ideas or improvements from any of their employees. Companies like these are said to be operating in the spirit of kaizen, a word taken from the Japanese work ethic of everybody improving all the time. In this approach employees are seen as potential innovators.

KEY SKILLS

Visual Communication The ability to represent ideas visually is key to the design team’s ability to communicate with clients, and the success of a project. Visual presentations can take many forms, from thumbnails and rough sketches of initial ideas, through to finished representational drawings and digital renderings of a product or concept. Visualizing ideas is a form of thinking that designers use to come to terms with a design problem, to explore the issues involved and to gain familiarity with a particular type of content or context. It is also one of the key ways in which the process of design works by exploring ideas and testing and prototyping different solutions. Designers and their clients go through a process of exploration and elimination of what does and does not work. Anyone needing to communicate abstractly would do well to gain confidence in visualizing, sketching and paper prototyping. The ability to draw is critical for designers as it allows them to capture and communicate their ideas in the process of designing; to create final presentation drawings that visualize the end-result; and to communicate within a team conversation or client meeting. Drawing is a means of research and analysis and of checking and testing inventive ideas. We draw to communicate, capture a fleeting thought or idea and to record and represent information. MIND MAPPING Mind maps are tools that allow you to generate ideas quickly. Originated by Tony Buzan, mind maps are non-linear representations of abstract words, colors and images, which allow the free flow of ideas by organization and association. To mind map your idea, take a large piece of blank paper and some different colored pens, start with a central word or image, then branch out, putting key words or images on connecting lines. Specific examples and creative associations can be accommodated, and links are made using lines, and associations with themes or categories are made by use of different colors. By clustering themes around associations and links, similarities and differences between them can be identified and evaluated. Mind maps are an excellent means for generating a wealth of possibilities that, through brainstorming and review, can illustrate and suggest unanticipated relationships and potential opportunities. WHOLE-BRAIN THINKING The two sides of our brain contain two distinct forms of consciousness. The right side is known to process information holistically, and the left analytically. The right brain is decisive and controlled, it breaks words and thoughts apart. The left brain is random, creative and unstructured, it blends words and thoughts together. People have a natural preference for brain dominance and for hand dominance.

Both sides of the brain play a role in our day-to-day activities, each making a different contribution. Managers are frequently stereotyped as being right brain, while designers are often labeled left brain. Successful design managers have the ability to see things from both the design and the management perspectives. Tapping into different thinking styles as necessary and improving whole-brain thought processes, can help in the quality of decision-making when it comes to design-related situations. The following exercise will help you tap into both sides of the brain, to take a ‘whole-brain’ approach to situations.

‘Thinking does not have to take place in words. Nor are concepts limited by the availability of words to describe them. Thinking can take place in images and feelings which are quite definite but too amorphous to be expressed in words. People often have to think in practical, messy ways in order to solve problems and bring things about.’ Edward de Bono. Exercise 1: Whole-Brain Thinking 1. Mirror writing Draw a line vertically down the center of a page. Then, holding a pen in each hand, mirror-write your name. 2. Double doodle On a large sheet of paper, draw with both hands at the same time, in out, up and down. This relaxes the arms and the eyes. 3. Figure of eight Draw the figure ‘8’ three times with each hand, then three times with both hands together. DRAWING Drawing is a process. It is about representing an idea, or series of ideas, of how something will look or the format it will take, but it is also a form of visual thinking, a way to make decisions in the process of creation. For those skilled in sketching, the best way to draw is quickly, to get the idea down on paper and record it while it is still fresh in your head. You don’t have to be able to draw well to communicate an idea (stick men are fine), but the practice does help you to see better, and to notice things. The following exercise will help free your eye and your mind from habitual ways of seeing. Exercise 2: Ways of Seeing 1. Core shapes Look at an object nearby and visually break it down into triangles, circles, squares, lines, curves or

dots. 2. Upside-down drawing Upside-down drawing can free us from purely viewing an object, say a chair, and not the series of shapes from which it is made. If copying another drawing, merely turn the page upside down and get started. 3. Opposite-hand drawing This will free you from habitual ways of drawing and seeing. It is an excellent way to subvert the controlling, dominant hand–eye coordination and experience seeing differently. COLLAGE Collage is a technique of visualizing an idea using given or found images. A useful client exercise is to put a stack of magazines on a table, and ask them to cut out pictures and form image boards that represent their perception of a situation or customer need. The visuals then act as a prop around which insight and understanding can be gained. Often, the significance of the choices, and the way clients describe them, can reveal latent needs that are not explicitly described in an initial brief.

‘For Leonardo, drawing was an instrument of research and analysis, a means of checking and testing inventions. His sketches became teachers in their own right.’ Irma Richter. PRESENTATIONS Standing up in front of a group of people, many of whom may be unknown, and presenting work can be fairly daunting. There are however, a number of preparations that can help things go smoothly. First, identify your audience. Who exactly are they? Each person may require a different level of language, vocabulary and formality. Identify what they are expecting from the presentation. Think about things from their point of view and be empathetic about their expectations. Ask yourself, what they need to know and keep focused on what information is actually required. Second, assemble your presentation material. Talking and presenting with visuals to hand will give you and your audience something to focus on. It will then become easier to plan or stage your presentation in a step-by-step manner, and describe or explain the thinking behind each step. When presenting, using prompt cards is better than reading off a page or screen, as it allows for making eye contact and a more spontaneous sounding delivery. If presenting in a group, an elected team member should first outline to the audience what the team is going to talk about, introduce each member of the team by name and briefly say what each of them will talk about.

Remember to be systematic about the order in which you present your work. Stage your presentation visuals (whether in a digital format or large boards pinned up on a wall) in a rational order, and go through them one by one. Finally, it is always good practice to sum up at the end of the presentation. ARTICULATING THE NATURE OF DESIGN WORK For people without a background or training in design, it can be difficult to understand the value that good design thinking can bring to an organization. Client presentations are a good opportunity to provide insight not only into a proposed design solution, but also into the nature of the design process itself. When presenting a design project, the project presentation should have a rationale, which explains the design team’s approach to the brief, the nature of the process followed, and how the solution was arrived at. Preparation is the key here. First, review the brief to ensure that its requirements have actually been addressed, and communicate your presentation in a way that demonstrates you have understood the brief. Quoting directly from the brief shows you are aware and have paid attention to the business needs of the client organization. Second, outline how you approached the brief and the design direction you pursued; the way the design functions and the appeal or qualities that align the design solution with the client’s brand or mission. Tell the story of your creative process in a way that will generate enthusiasm and excitement about the design solution, and then, go into detail about particular aspects of the solution, for example, the layout, format, or materials used. Finish the presentation with a summary of why you believe the design solution achieves the objectives set in the brief, and if possible touch on the value design can bring. Remember to take into account the expectations of your audience, and use language they will understand.

KEY SKILLS

Key Skills Exercises Managing Creative Teams In teams of three, alternate taking the role of the design manager and two designers in the design team. The two designers will role-play that they have a ‘personality conflict’ and refuse to work together. The design manager must facilitate a discussion with them both for 15 minutes, and at the end of the conversation, all three must reach an agreement on whether to (1) work together collaboratively as a team or (2) resolve the conflict by transferring one member to another team. Facilitating the Design Process In groups of 3–4, spend 10 minutes looking at a local newspaper and mark stories that present either (1) a social problem, (2) an environmental problem or (3) a business problem with post-it notes. Then, focusing on three of the stories you found most interesting, spend five minutes per story debating and brainstorming ‘what if?’ design could help with this challenge? Finally, focusing on one story of your choice, develop a pitch for why someone should fund you to conduct a scoping study to look at this challenge in greater detail. What are the opportunities for design? What are the benefits for society (or the environment or business)? You may use the Triple Bottom Line (People, Planet, Profit) as a framework for your presentation. Developing Collaborative Cultures In discussion groups of 3–4, and with each individual having a different background (cultural, discipline, skills, level of experience), discuss what the most important aspects of process and project success look like from your point of view. How could this be used to generate a list of personal, team and project goals for evaluating the success of the collaborative process of working together, as well as the eventual outcome? Visual Communication Using only bubble diagrams, flow diagrams, symbols and image maps, describe the different stages in the process of design without using any words. You may choose a particular design process (for example, product design, brand development – from, for example, a particular company website).

Part Three: Managing the Design Implementation This is the stage where design projects are delivered. The focus of this stage is placed on the process and practice of managing projects. Once a project has been completed, the delivery of it can entail further stages of design management, such as developing guidelines and manuals that will, for example, maintain the design, or translate it for a global marketplace. At this stage, the design focus is placed on the management of design agendas, projects and people.

KNOWLEDGE

The Project Management Process In this context, project management is about how to translate design strategies and processes into a finished result. This entails planning and coordinating the people, stakeholders and resources necessary to get the project built, on time and within budget. Maintaining a good client relationship throughout this process relies on clear, effective and frequent communication, a good design brief and agreement of defined roles and responsibilities. There are a number of questions that must be addressed, for example, what is the scope of the project? What activities, tasks and resources are needed? How much time should be allocated to each step, and what will the cost be? Identifying these needs forms the basis of good project management. For a design manager operating as a project manager, it involves taking ownership and responsibility for the client relationship and how design decisions are communicated. The ultimate goal for all involved is to achieve the best end result possible, within the timeframe and budget available, and to maintain a positive working relationship throughout. COST, TIME AND PERFORMANCE Putting together a schedule of how a project will run, and making sure that it stays on track, is not easy. Design is an iterative process, and many trade-off decisions need to be made in response to the issues and concerns raised during the lifetime of a project. In addition, in response to the conflicting demands of numerous stakeholders, compromises may need to be made. For the project manager, strong leadership, good judgement and the ability to make informed decisions will be needed to balance the demands of cost, time and performance of the end result. Poorly-managed projects often result in delays and high costs, whereas well managed projects are more likely to be implemented on time and within budget.

‘The two main resources that affect creativity are time and money. Managers need to allot these resources carefully. Like matching people with the right assignments, deciding how much time and money to give to a team or project is a sophisticated judgement call that can either support or kill creativity.’ Teresa M. Amabile.

Table 13: Measures of Quality, Time and Cost

Projects must be managed to maintain an appropriate balance between time, cost and performance, which are the three key influencing factors of any project. Trade-off decisions and the implications of each factor will need to be evaluated against potentially conflicting demands (for example, reducing cost and raising the quality) from a range of different stakeholders and contributors.

Translating design strategies and processes into finished results involves many different people making a number of trade-off decisions between time, quality and costs, right to the very end of the project. Here, Marek Adamczewski and some of his team from MARAD Design collect a ‘designer of the year’ award from IWP Warsaw for the rail transport bus 218 MC, reflecting the fact that, in the world of industrial design today, product design is no longer an activity of a single author; it requires a diverse team of people with different skills and specializations, all of whom contribute to the product development process. MARAD Design effectively became the external R&D center for PESA – Poland’s largest manufacturer of passenger rail vehicles. Image courtesy and copyright of IWP/AKPA/MARAD Design.

PROJECT PLANNING When planning project implementation, and in consultation with the design team and the client contact, the design or project manager estimates the amount of work involved on a project and defines the terms of the contract. Roles and responsibilities will then be formally assigned, both within the client organization and the design team. At this point, confidentiality clauses and non-disclosure agreements can also be included, as appropriate, to the needs of each party. Broadly, project implementation planning can be deconstructed into five key areas of activity. Firstly, the design or project manager should ensure the client and design teams agree and understand the project brief, and what will actually be delivered. This is achieved by breaking down the design or project brief into manageable project stages. The project manager must make sure that the design methodology, process, development and implementation stages are mapped out in the sequence in which they must occur. Secondly, the design or project manager should breakdown what needs to be done within each project stage into smaller tasks and activities, prioritize the tasks and estimate the time needed to complete each one. He or she will also need to identify relationships between tasks and determine what activities need to occur before another can begin. These interdependencies should be monitored as delays can have serious knock-on effects to later project stages.

Thirdly, project roles, responsibilities, lines of communication and team-management procedures will need to be identified. The project team should be set up and the project or design manager will need to make sure all parties are aware of their responsibilities, as well as ensure the time estimated for each stage, and the duration allowed for each task, is realistic. Fourthly, the design or project manager should identify any additional resources or stakeholder involvement that will be needed to complete the project. Key milestones such as deadlines, reviews and presentations should also be identified. These will serve as useful points to evaluate actual project progression against the project plan. Project review meetings allow the design or project manager to monitor progress, both internally with the design team, and externally with the client team, as well as in combined team meetings. Finally, the project or design manager should set up a project file and ensure the team understands the system for information flow, documentation, record keeping and administration. The project manager is responsible for making sure information flows between the design and client teams, and for mediating decisions, providing leadership and direction and making informed decisions at key stages. Everyone involved on the project should be aware of how his or her roles and responsibilities fit within the overall project plan.

‘Good communication in project management has four characteristics: ensuring that all sides understand the problem and are fully briefed; ensuring that all sides understand each other and are talking the same language; ensuring that all sides are always fully informed, sharing problems and solutions; and encouraging all sides to share experiences and knowledge, especially on details, procedures and knowledge.’ Dick Petersen.

Volkswagen’s retail moving-in identity guidelines for its car showrooms include suggestions on how to delegate responsibility for managing their identity standards. The champion system consists of a team of key people drawn from within the organization who are responsible for ensuring specific areas of the retail standards are implemented and maintained. Image courtesy of Volkswagen/Integrity Brand Programming.

Each of the delegated roles, or champions, are responsible for different tasks and activities of Volkswagen’s moving-in day action plan. Image courtesy of Volkswagen/Integrity Brand Programming.

PROJECT PLANNING TOOLS There are a number of tools that will help a design project manager plan and track the works. Commercial project-management software includes applications like Microsoft Project, Basecamp or Filemaker. A design industry standard however, is a Gantt chart. This form of bar graph is a working document that lists each of the project stages and the tasks to be completed, in the order that they must be completed. The Gantt chart also highlights any dependencies between different activities and stages. In any project there will be tasks that cannot be carried out until a previous step is completed, for example, an interior designer cannot develop the design of a specific retail space until the site itself is surveyed for accurate measurements. Information highlighted in a Gantt chart includes: a prioritization list of activities, the likely duration of tasks from start to finish, the duration of intervals between tasks, links and interdependencies in relationships between tasks, critical and non-critical tasks and key project milestones. A Gantt chart is a plan for how a project should run in an ideal world, and does not necessarily reflect how the project will run in real life. Regular reviews to assess progress will be necessary throughout the project; key stakeholders may go on vacation or become ill, and client contacts can change. Gantt

charts provide a focus for monitoring progress, anticipating how resources are managed, and minimizing the chance of pitfalls and delays. PROJECT MANAGEMENT BENEFITS Good project planning and management can make a big difference to whether projects run smoothly and are ‘on’ time and ‘on’ budget, or fall into ‘firefighting mode’ and other difficulties. For design consultancies, sound project management can also provide operational benefits and in some instances, a crucial competitive advantage. For the client, good project management and planning is a reassurance of how design operates and delivers results, and how the design process and project progress can be communicated in a transparent and accountable manner.

QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION: What, specifically, can a design manager do to help lead and support the process of design? Consider this from the point of view of planning, budgeting, communicating and educating.

Gantt charts are critical to the process of managing projects. This task list and time plan are from Volkswagen’s retail moving-in identity guidelines for its car showrooms. The list outlines 12 key tasks that must be undertaken by the brand manager and the regional construction manager to ensure moving-in day goes according to plan. Image courtesy of Volkswagen/Integrity Brand Programming.

Twiki (a structured Wiki) is a collaborative software platform, knowledge management system and database application used in project management. It is open source and can be used on the Internet or a company intranet to manage documentation and project planning for teams of hundreds of people in various locations all over the world. By enhancing communication within and between organizations and automating workflows, it can help transform any organization into a lean and agile enterprise. It can also be customized to use alternative development methodologies such as personas and user stories. Image courtesy of Twiki.org.

KNOWLEDGE

Project Management in Practice Bad project management is the main reason for client dissatisfaction with design and why clients take their business elsewhere. No project ever goes exactly according to plan, but what happens if the project is going off track, over time and over budget? Managing the client’s design expectations is an important part of how successful a project is considered to be. As an iterative process, design encourages the integration of new discoveries, opportunities and constraints identified during each project stage. This is a process that requires each team member to be comfortable with continual change. Monitoring progress regularly, and communicating effectively with the client and the design teams, will inspire confidence in both the process and those involved with the project. During the course of a project’s lifetime, a number of circumstances will inevitably influence how closely the proposed project plan maps what is actually happening. Good project managers are flexible and adaptable in the face of unforeseen circumstances, yet remain objective, balanced and realistic in how they respond to the client and design challenges that arise. CRITICAL PATH The critical path is used to track progress of the project implementation. It identifies those tasks that must occur on time and in sequence for the final project deadline to be achieved. Project managers will be responsible for monitoring actual progress against the proposed schedule, for controlling the project, and steering it back on track if necessary. Three steps must be taken when tasks, activities or external events prohibit things going according to plan. Firstly, the original project plan needs to be saved as the baseline version. Secondly, the project plan needs to be regularly and honestly updated so that it reflects the progress actually being made. Thirdly, the baseline plan should be compared to the updated one, and, if they do not match, an appropriate course of remedying action can be taken. RISK MANAGEMENT AND AUDITS All business and creative enterprises involve taking a risk. Risk audits identify where problem areas are most likely to crop up on a project, and propose what should happen in the event of one occurring. If things start to go wrong, or a project deadline is not going to be met, various responses can be considered and the wider implications on time, costs and resource allocation estimated. The original project scope will be de- and re-scoped in response to the changed conditions and in an attempt to get the project back on track. Weak points will be identified and solutions proposed. For example, in client organizations with many internal stakeholders, client sign-off may take longer than originally estimated, delaying a part of the design process from meeting its deadline. This may be

resolved by reducing the number of stakeholders that can approve the design, or perhaps by extending the time allowed at each stage. By monitoring actual progress of the project against an agreed schedule, potential delays can be proactively brought to the attention of the client and the design team. Proposing a solution at this stage reduces the risk of the delivery date incurring actual delay, but in any live project a level of compromise will still be needed. If the priority is to meet a deadline, the client and project manager can increase the size of the project team, which may mean increased costs. If it is important to keep the project on budget, it may be agreed to extend the deadline for completion but alter the material specification or reduce the size of the project team. Decisions must, where possible, be made in consultation with the design team, to gauge the impact on the design process itself.

Inditex, one of the world’s largest fashion distributors, has over 2800 retail outlets in 64 countries. Its largest retail chain is Zara. A key element of Inditex’s operations are the fashion stores themselves, which are carefully designed so as to be inviting to customers, and are used by the company to collect information that is then used to adapt their business offers to meet customer demands. Shown here is the Zara store in Casablanca.

Inditex’s risk-management model is based on flexibility, and the ability to adapt their offers to meet customer desires in the shortest time possible. For Inditex, time, above cost, is the main factor to be considered. The way in which the organization manages its internal and external processes with stakeholders and suppliers, enables Inditex to shorten turnaround time and achieve greater flexibility, which reduces stock, and therefore the number of items left unsold, to a minimum.

Inditex’s logistics system, which is based on software designed by the company, means that the time between receiving an order at Inditex’s distribution center to the delivery of goods is on average 24 hours for European shops and a maximum of 48 hours for American or Asian stores. All images courtesy of Inditex.

‘There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable action.’ John F Kennedy. SCOPE CREEP When the tasks and activities defined in a project brief or scope of works grow beyond what has been agreed between the client and the design resource, it is referred to as scope creep. Designers can unwittingly agree to carry out additional design or redesign work in response to a client request, without being fully aware of the implications on the original agreements in the design brief. A good project manager will act as the first line of defence against scope creep, and will work internally with the design team to estimate the time and resources needed to carry out any extra work, and then present a proposal to the client for consideration. A design team member faced with a client request for extra work outside of the original scope of works should always refer the client back to the project manager. This has the added benefit of keeping budget negotiations away from designers,

allowing them to focus on the creative design thinking for which they have been hired. Scope creep should not be viewed as a bad thing provided it is responsibly managed. Often, the growth of a project from the design brief creates additional opportunities for the design resource to win more work and so generate more income. The client team can also benefit by addressing additional organizational concerns through already established design projects. COST EFFECTIVENESS According to Borja de Mozota (2003), managing the project budget requires the control of three types of costs: the type of payment (fixed or hourly rates, royalties or variable rates), the actual budgeted costs, and cost effectiveness. The client is most likely to measure cost effectiveness in terms of what they consider to be value for money, and what they are getting in exchange for their investments of time, money and resources. Cost effectiveness can also include the benefits of long-term relationships, where trust is built and design teams develop familiarity with, and are well able to accommodate, the working conditions, personalities, and the constraints of the company culture. REGULAR REVIEW MEETINGS Good project management should create regular opportunities for clear and open communication, both with the design team and the client team. This can happen daily through informal conversations and through review meetings, held regularly and frequently, to assess and monitor progress. The design or project manager plays an important role in the review meeting as they negotiate on behalf of the design team, leaving the designers free to concentrate on project considerations. They also manage the client contact with the design team, encouraging the opportunity for design discussion and additional project commissions, while simultaneously reducing potential conflicts over scope creep and hasty promises of results, which the design team may not actually be able to meet. As well as keeping the client abreast of the project schedule, the project or design manager should also keep the design team informed of the changes within the client organization that could affect the project.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: In what ways can design delivery be improved to get the best value from the organization’s investment in design? In what ways can design add, or create, value within the delivery stages? POST-PROJECT REVIEW Reviews held after the completion of a project are useful for both the client and the design consultancy as, with the benefit of hindsight, there are always better ways to do things. Independently or together, both sides can acknowledge key achievements, identify areas for improvement and learn from the process. In addition to the project outcome and the performance measures and metrics that will indicate the successes (and failures) of the project, the relationship between the client and the design consultancy itself can be reviewed. In this way, the client can become a more effective user of design, and the consultancy can become a better provider of design solutions. For the consultancy, a better understanding of the client organization increases the chances of their being engaged again; long-term relationships based on trust and previous project successes encourage clients not to move their business elsewhere. Post-project reviews are also the place for clients and consultancies to negotiate how to promote the success of projects, without breaching either party’s confidentiality agreements.

Innocent take advantage of distribution and delivery as an opportunity to promote their brand. Innocent’s delivery trucks, or ‘Cow Vans’, have horns, eyelashes, udders and a tail. Each truck has designed specifications, in this instance, a name and a button that, when pressed, makes the ‘moo’ sound of a cow. Image courtesy of Innocent.

This is part of Volkswagen’s point-of-sale guidelines for its showroom cars. Volkswagen specifies the position of the demonstration car’s promotional graphics. Image courtesy of Volkswagen/Integrity Design Management.

KNOWLEDGE

Social and Environmental Responsibilities The materials specified and the production processes used in the design and delivery of products and services is increasingly under scrutiny by share and stakeholders, consumers and clients, pressure groups and government bodies. Design can, and frequently does, play a role in contributing to environmental and social problems, but taking a responsible approach to design brings the opportunity to shape a more environmentally and socially aware future, and leads to valuable differentiation and competitive advantage amongst increasingly demanding and emotionally involved audiences. Companies that do not take a long-term view are missing important and rapidly shifting trends. Corporate accountability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) agendas are part of a global move to do the ‘right’ thing. These agendas can advocate change and transformations within organizations and regulatory bodies if they go beyond public relations exercises, and become embedded in the ethos and ethics of the business. Design decisions will be made consciously and unconsciously and responsibly and irresponsibly, within the total lifecycle of a product or service. Environmentally aware design seeks to reduce the material and energy used and waste created at each stage in the development process. Socially aware design seeks to broaden the accessibility and inclusiveness of people able to make use of the products and services on offer, for example, by incorporating disabled access to buildings. Design managers play an important role in sharing the flow of information on new sustainable materials, techniques and processes. They also monitor changes in legislation and financial incentives, for both the client and the design team. For example, consumer trends indicate that people are willing to pay more for ‘ethical’ (healthier, safer, environmentally friendly or socially responsible) products and services. Many existing business models are based on a 200-year-old view of industrial society, and the impact of these models is now being called into question because of their effect on the planet and the ecosystem as a whole. Legislation can attempt to enforce new behaviors, but it is more likely that the growing regard people have for the environment and society will drive changes and result in more ‘conscious’ designs. SOURCING RAW MATERIALS Products and services are made with materials chosen to satisfy a number of factors, for example aesthetics (do they look good?), function (do they work?) or costs (can we make a profit?). Increasingly, customers want to know more about a product, how it was made, where it was made, who made it and under what working conditions. In short, is the product or service environmentally and socially responsible? Regulatory bodies are in place to monitor and control the flow of where raw materials come from, and many products, services and suppliers now carry kitemarks or other guarantees of quality, origin

of materials, and ethical trading standards (such as the Fairtrade, Timber or Soil Association stamp marks). Designers play an important role in the process of sourcing and specifying both materials and suppliers, and the subsequent effect that these decisions have on natural resources. Organizations such as The Body Shop actively source ingredients based on the quality and purity of materials, and in the knowledge and support of healthy and sustainable working conditions. In an increasingly competitive environment, this can become a real selling point for product and service differentiation.

Specifying the use of environmentally-friendly materials and systems can bring additional benefits in terms of financial savings and government-sponsored tax breaks. Genersys supply, distribute and install solar panel technology and solar power applications. By harnessing the limitless and free energy from the sun, the solar collectors in the heating systems of each panel provide hot water, space heating and air conditioning, for individual households and businesses alike. Image courtesy of Genersys-Ireland.com.

Terra Plana’s Worn Again shoes are made from an assortment of weird and wonderful reused materials, from coffee bags and t-shirts, to jeans and surplus military jackets. These disused materials have been creatively re-crafted, so that each pair of 99% recycled shoes is full of history and personality. Image courtesy of Terra Plana.

One of Muji’s three product development principles is to select materials to keep costs down and quality high. Muji use industrial materials (often materials that are ignored by other organizations) which can be bought at low cost and in bulk. Here, Muji have re-used yarn for one of their t-shirt ranges. Image courtesy of Muji.

PRODUCTION PROCESSES Design can make manufacturing and production processes more efficient, whether through refining existing workflows or setting up a whole new system from scratch in order to reduce massive environmental burdens. For example, the manufacture of a tiny 32Mb memory chip for a mobile phone or digital camera requires more than a liter of fossil fuel, 32 liters of water and 72g of chemicals, which can include corrosive hydrogen fluoride (Harris, 2006). Companies such as Nike are moving towards closed-loop production processes (where no waste is produced as a by-product of production), and setting specific design challenges and constraints to address social and environmental concerns, with the added benefit that efficient production processes help keep manufacturing costs down. Businesses are part of any community, and as such need to be responsible and accountable for their actions and their local and global impact. Detrimental environmental impacts can be reduced, for example, through sustainable processes and working relationships, addressing ethical responsibilities and disposing of waste appropriately, all of which can enhance the customer perception and reputation of a brand globally as a green, socially responsible, organization. ENVIRONMENTAL COST Environmental costs and the amount of natural resources used to produce a good or service is an increasingly influential factor in our purchasing choices. Design has a direct impact on the energy and

resource consumption of the products and services we buy and use. For example, Whirlpool is redesigning its washing machines to use less energy and water, and Honda continually innovate to engineer more environmentally-friendly cars, typically through the use of hybrid electric motors, greater fuel efficiency and less damaging emissions. Design can also raise social and environmental awareness by communicating broader issues to consumers, including well-designed instructions that illustrate how to use the product in an energy-efficient way and that can motivate users to think about wider environmental debates. For example, the electricity wasted by people leaving televisions and videos on standby can be reduced through designing inefficiencies out of the system, through allowing good design to influence our habits and behavior, and through adapting the technology to be more responsive to our daily patterns of living. END DISPOSAL In a move towards a zero waste society, organizations are looking at their internal systems, including their design and development processes, to find new ways to be more responsible for the total lifecycle of the products and services they create. Historically, goods and services were sold for profit, and owners were wholly responsible for disposal of the goods beyond their usable life. Now, with shifts in consumer and societal preferences and in acknowledgement of environmental challenges, taking a long-term view of how to deal with waste is a valuable competitive advantage. Packaging is a major contributor to unnecessary cost and waste, both in manufacture and transportation. Redesigning, and even rethinking the necessity of packaging, is a challenge that can be addressed through the design of, for example, refillable bottles or totally recyclable packaging. Design can bring enthusiasm, excitement and opportunity in finding ways to ethically and sustainably differentiate products and services, making disposal part of the whole ‘life story’ of the brand.

QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION: What are the design challenges of creating sustainable products that consumers actually want?

Muji’s P.E.T. bottles are recyclable and refillable, and their modular sizing and square shape makes them functional and practical. The simplicity of Muji products derives not only from their minimalist style, but also their ongoing commitment to the use of utilitarian materials and rational production processes. Image courtesy of Muji.

This lightweight, foldable, and collapsible pair of speakers is also by Muji. Muji’s packaging is simple and uniform, to emphasize the natural qualities of the product as well as minimizing both cost and waste. Efficient production processes prevent wastage and costs are kept to a minimum through constant inspection at every stage of the production process. Image courtesy of Muji.

ColaLife uses the same principles and networks that Coca-Cola and other commodity producers use, to open up private sector supply chains for ‘social products’ such as oral rehydration salts and zinc supplements. Kit Yamoyo is an anti-diarrhoea kit that contains 200ml sachets of oral rehydration salts, zinc, soap and an instruction leaflet. The packaging acts as a mixing device, a cup and a measuring device for the water needed to make up the salts, as well as a storage device for the made-up salts. Ten Kit Yamoyos fit into one crate of Coca-Cola and make use of the unused space between the bottle necks. Images courtesy of ColaLife.

KNOWLEDGE

Design Policies, Procedures and Guidelines Documenting an organization’s attitude to design helps everyone engaged in the business understand how design operates at the various levels within it. This documentation usually takes the form of design policies, procedures and guidelines, and these are useful building blocks for embedding design into the way a company thinks and acts, both strategically in the long term and in its day-to-day choices and decisions. They help connect the engagement of design to the organizational goals, decision-making processes within business units, and to the implementation of design projects. Design policies, procedures and guidelines define the objectives, processes, and metrics against which design decisions can be made. They are useful tools not only to describe how to go about engaging design services, but also to establish exactly what design services are needed in the first place. Whether design gets used or misused largely depends on the organizational attitude to design, and how well these policies are defined, documented and communicated. Engaging design services and setting up design projects should only be done after proper consideration of a range of matters, as lack of awareness and preparation can sabotage good intentions for design. Equally problematic is the issue of achieving a successful design outcome, only to have no measures in place to protect all the initial investment of time, money and other resources. Oakley comments, ‘Too many companies make the big mistake of rushing into design projects without first considering the implications of what they are doing. It is even true to say that managers sometimes get so carried away by their enthusiasm for creating new or improved products and services that it may be only after many months of hard work that they realise they are heading in quite the wrong direction.’ (1990). Getting the most out of investments made in design is in everyone’s interests. DESIGN POLICIES Design policies guide an organization’s long-term strategic objectives for design. They explain the thinking behind why something has to be done a particular way, and give broad outlines for making design decisions. According to Cooper and Press (1995), a design policy defines the meaning of design within the organization, and serves to reinforce the brand and vision. It sets the framework for the procedures to be followed when using design, and will likely also involve setting up design standards on quality, legal and environmental criteria. Design policies are equally relevant in both organizational strategies and government policies. The SEE Platform (Sharing Experience Europe) is a network of 11 European partners engaging with governments to integrate design into innovation policies and programs, so helping to foster innovation among SMEs and deliver user-centered solutions for products, services, society and the public sector. In effect, good design policies can and do enable wider policy priorities to be realized. DESIGN PROCEDURES

Design procedures detail what needs to be done internally to successfully engage or ‘procure’ design services or initiate a project. In some organizations, hiring design skills is like procuring any other goods or services, and proper internal procedures need to be in place before anyone can make the purchase or engagement. Design procedures might include the formal documents and contracts needed to engage design consultants and agencies, and may also outline the processes for tendering, bidding, formulating a roster, supporting in-house design teams, forming partnerships, allocating budgets and signing-off procedures. In principle, design procedures improve the ability of the organization to contract design resources effectively and efficiently. As such design managers should help to set up these procedures, as they will ultimately define the criteria under which services will be procured, evaluated and compared, and how design will be measured by the company, in terms of money spent versus value added.

Comprehensive brand guidelines can be developed as a true manifestation of an organization’s brand and as an everyday tool for the creation of its communication materials. In their work for NICE Systems, Karakter designed six volumes, each addressing a key topic in the implementation process: brand basics, brand architecture, photography and writing, print communications, and electronic applications. Image courtesy of NICE Systems/Karakter.

To ensure consistency across all applications, brand guidelines not only provide practical information about how to create an on-brand piece, but also serves as an inspiration for the reader through the chosen format, typeface, colors, photography and layout. This spread about the NICE color palettes illustrates how they provide a distinctive visual impact if used correctly. Image courtesy of NICE Systems/Karakter.

Karakter developed a graphic device to express the idea of ‘uncovering hidden value’, which is at the heart of the NICE brand strategy. Using a photographic style featuring camouflage scenes from nature, the device consists of an outline of two squares that serve as both a focus mechanism and a framework for titles, creating an effective combination between photographic and graphic elements. Image courtesy of NICE Systems/Karakter.

DESIGN GUIDELINES Design guidelines outline how to translate an organization’s brand vision into its products, services, spaces and experiences with which the end user comes in contact. They are created to ensure the consistent application of design across all customer touchpoints. Design guidelines can include, for example, the use of logo, color and type for graphic design, the interface and experience for digital design, the layout of a physical space, or visual merchandising for a retail environment. The guidelines will also outline the organization’s approach and attitude to design, in order to put design in the context of its overall goals. They may also set out a framework within which to make decisions about the application of design in a specific context. Design guidelines can be communicated visually and verbally, in digital or printed booklets. They are especially useful when working with external design consultancies, and form a useful starting point when rolling out a regional or global design solution. They are also useful when an organization is involved in a franchise or third-party arrangement, where the representation may be difficult to control and brand consistency is crucial. MAINTAINING AND MONITORING THE DESIGN Design investments need to be looked after, just like any other asset in the organization. Commitments made to fund and build design projects also need to include provision for the upkeep and maintenance

of the project. Upon completion, projects may be handed over to clients, with accompanying maintenance manuals, instruction books or other help tools. These provide advice on looking after the design asset, whether it be a product, service, digital interface, building or retail space. Such advice might include tips on upkeep, maintenance and aftercare, supplier contacts, and where to go for help with a particular aspect. Using customer after-care principles and following up on what has, or has not, worked well, is a form of valuable learning for all parties involved, since return on investment can be improved by analyzing the design outcome and making recommendations for future projects. Frequently, clients will engage a design ‘guardian’ from either inside or outside the organization to ensure the use of design is consistent with their brand image.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: What steps can a design manager take to ensure that design policies are used by all relevant stakeholders, inside and outside the organization? How can design policies be made more accessible?

Tauw is an international company of consulting engineers who design and measure for the development, implementation and management of the built and natural environment and infrastructure. Eden Design & Communication put together a set of design guidelines to help consistently communicate Tauw’s values of being independent, open and innovative. Image courtesy of Tauw/Eden Design & Communication.

The Tauw logo consists of picture trademark and a brand name. The guidelines describe the relationship between the trademark and the name as one that is fixed and unchangeable. Image courtesy of Tauw/Eden Design & Communication.

Tauw’s design language is based on vertical and horizontal elements. The vertical bar represents the company standard and the horizontal bar signifies the landscape. A recognizable graphic element for Tauw communications is the purple vertical bar running on top of colored backgrounds or photographs. Image courtesy of Tauw/Eden Design & Communication.

The guidelines visually and verbally describe how the company’s language can be used. The width of the vertical bar can vary, but it must always run from top to bottom. The horizontal bar runs right across the page, but its height can vary. The vertical bar is always on top, creating a layered effect. Image courtesy of Tauw/Eden Design & Communication.

KNOWLEDGE

Translating Global Design into Local Design Companies wanting to expand their customer base often have to transcend geographic borders to increase their revenue and market share. Many companies with global reach (so called global brands), make the mistake of using a standard, uniform approach in all locations when their brand is rolled out. This can initially appear to make sense in terms of cost savings – it is cheaper to have a standard, non-customized model solution to implement everywhere and anywhere – but it is more expensive in the long run. A customized approach, one adapted to suit specific countries, regions or cities will bring many benefits to the organization. Design managers often play a key role in helping to translate global brands into locally and culturally relevant products and services. Organizations need to think about what channels are appropriate for reaching new, growing and emerging markets. Communication channels such as the Internet cross geographical and political boundaries, but cultural boundaries still need to be carefully addressed. Accommodating variations in the way that different cultures do and see things is vital in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. Design plays a key role in reflecting and adapting to these cultural differences, while simultaneously representing the strength and integrity of the brand image. Often, it is this cultural sensitivity and understanding of local and regional conditions that dictates whether local stakeholders adopt and buy-in to the company, product or service on offer. LOCAL CONDITIONS Local insight and knowledge play an important part in the adaptation of a brand to respect local differences. When considering the design of an advertising campaign, retail shop or point of sale, for example, sensitivity to local tastes or customs will be especially important in a market that may be already served by well-established and preferred organizations. Certain colors, words and behaviors can have symbolic meaning. For example, in Russia red is associated with beauty, whereas in South Africa it is the color of mourning. It is well worth paying attention to local conditions, and how a branded product or service offer can be fine-tuned to suit them. Although alteration may be required, it should be done within the framework of established design guidelines and retain the spirit of the brand. One way that companies and brands operating internationally can ensure they don’t appear as the homogenous face of a global brand is by making a difference to lives locally. Organizations that are seen to benefit local stakeholders – employees, local communities, social and environmental representatives – can gain valuable competitive advantage and marketplace differentiation.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: What cultural, economic, societal, environmental or political challenges do design managers face when working in different regions of the world? How can advance preparation help?

To communicate Coca-Cola’s brand values at kiosks on Shanghai’s famous Bund, Studio Red designed and built attention-grabbing structures with dynamic visual styling to create a branded consumer experience for the millions of pedestrians who pass by them each day. The kiosks, by their design and function, communicate Coca-Cola’s brand values of refreshment, freedom, and celebration. Studio Red developed a signature style for these kiosks that reflect Chinese architectural traditions and offer a globally relevant product experience. Image courtesy of Studio Red at Rockwell Group.

Localization is essential for any global brand wanting to connect with local audiences. The design for the McDonald’s restaurant in Guangzhou, China was created to appeal to Chinese consumers by taking into account some of the local cultural traditions and familiar habits of the people. The restaurant design plays on Chinese themes. For example, the large round tables that can seat 10 people are a symbol of ‘togetherness’, and are at the heart of McDonald’s new slogan in China: ‘It’s good to get together’. McDonald’s would like to position itself as a hub for meeting others and socializing. The intent is that, as China gets more affluent, these concept restaurants feel like an aspirational destination. The design is more upscale in feel than other McDonald’s restaurants, and traditional Chinese objects have been playfully used in the design. The hanging lights are styled on the bamboo baskets used for steaming food, and a giant abacus serves as a room divider. Courtesy and © 2014 McDonald’s.

GLOBAL DESIGN GUIDELINES Global design guidelines provide a fast-track solution for the successful launch of branded products, digital services and retail environments. Using global guidelines ensures that brand values are consistently and accurately communicated in any location worldwide. The challenge when expressing global brands is to reflect the brand essence in all international occurrences, while simultaneously respecting local differences. Ultimately, the success of any project will rely on the quality of the brand experience, and the understanding that the local brand representatives have for their local environment. Most global organizations form partnership agreements and strategic alliances with local agents, consultancies, service providers, thereby gaining expertise and insight into these markets. Collaborating directly with the local people is also an insight-building experience. Global design guidelines provide advice on how to translate the company image in different regions. For example, retail design guidelines may include advice on choosing locations, building types and spatial requirements appropriate to the offer and target audience, information on local vacations, customs, and trading conditions, exterior and interior design principles, materials, fixtures and fittings to use, site-delivery criteria, products and services on offer. They may also include best practice on launches, showcase events and connecting locally via mainstream and social media. Guidelines often show good practice examples of successful implementations. Illustrating different examples of how products and services have been designed, redesigned or otherwise customized will ensure that anyone using the guidelines can understand the thinking behind the design decisions made. It also encourages a level of independence and local autonomy, provided, of course, that any local decisions are made within the parameters of the agreed global design guidelines. This is often a

judgement call requiring knowledge of both the brand and the local market, and is frequently a place where design managers are asked to play a leading role as brand guardians. LOCAL STAKEHOLDER INVOLVEMENT Multicultural, global corporations, often benefit from the cross-cultural differences within the organization. Understanding different behaviors, senses of humor, courtesies and working styles is crucial for global organizations operating internationally to successfully integrate local workforces with global transplants. For example, if an American national is working in China, or a Chinese national is working in America, each side will need to be aware of and show respect for cultural differences, therefore reducing the potential for misunderstandings.

‘Society, consumers and products are all changing radically – and with them the nature and scope of design. We are moving from local orientation to global orientation, from predictable to unpredictable consumer behavior, and from highly tangible, even cumbersome products to those that are tiny and barely more than packaged information. The advent of digitalization affects the design of all products and services, whether they are themselves digital or not…. While the globalization enabled by new digital technologies is leading to a deeper appreciation and enjoyment of cultural diversity, it is not doing away with the need for products and services to be seen as having local significance.’ Stefano Marzano. Starting up an overseas operation or a local unit of an organization usually goes through three phases. Firstly, local staff who possess insights into the area act as cultural advisors to the global company representatives who set up in the new location. Secondly, partnerships are formed, where global teams and local teams work together. And finally, the local resource develops a level of autonomy and decision-making power, referring to the global head office for advice. For a global brand to be locally successful, local market demand must exist, and a new loyal customer base must be built. Design connects locally in terms of business offers, and also through cultural offers. One of the best ways to connect business and culture locally is to tap into the existing networks of local stakeholders such as employees, suppliers, agents, consultancies and local trade associations. This way, local information and knowledge can be shared formally and informally with global organizations, creating opportunities and incentives for both sides. As an outside organization going into a new market, trust is more likely to be built if there is local stakeholder involvement and collaboration. For example, from a design point of view, there may be local community events, social

media or sponsorship opportunities available that may help embed the organization positively into the local mindset.

Heineken, one of the world’s largest breweries, asked Amsterdam-based design agency Eden to develop a new global visual identity to increase the organization’s recognizability and to amplify the coherence between the various operating companies at home and abroad. Image courtesy of Heineken/ Eden Design & Communication.

After various design phases, a brand-parent approach was opted for. The worldwide corporate identity was based on the brand identity of Heineken’s beer label, but with a more corporate look and feel to it. Image courtesy of Heineken/ Eden Design & Communication.

In collaboration with former Eden employee Lucas de Groot, an extensive type family was developed for the identity scheme. The online manual IdentityWeb was an important tool for the worldwide implementation of the new visual identity. Image courtesy of Heineken/ Eden Design & Communication.

KNOWLEDGE

Measuring the Success of Design The success of a design strategy or project will inevitably be different for each of the stakeholders involved. Marketing, engineering, sales and product development will have different ways of thinking, prioritizing and evaluating what they mean by ‘success’. Whether a project is judged to be successful or not will depend on the business objectives, project aims and end goals defined in the brief, and the performance criteria against which success will be measured. Value can be measured by, for example, looking at the direct bottom-line impact (profit or loss), or by looking at the impact on the value of the brand (customer perception). To measure the success of design – whether design thinking, consultancy or projects – the criteria for assessing value must first be agreed amongst all the stakeholders involved. There are many different metrics for measuring success: commercial value, emotional and sensory benefits or perhaps economic, cultural, political results. In business, there is often a drive for quantitative measurements that are taken over short-term, quarterly timescales. These ‘hard’ criteria include development costs, capital budget, profit margins, units sold, annual growth in sales and increase in market share. Design often sits more comfortably with qualitative measures, or ‘soft’ criteria, such as organizational learning, improved processes, better company image and easier communication. The hard truth is that most CEOs want to know three things about any business expenditure, including design: how many sales have been generated? How much profit has been made? And what shareholder value has been created? EVALUATING THE SUCCESS OF DESIGN SERVICES When organizations buy-in design expertise to resource the delivery of agreed programs and projects, they are procuring design services. They do this because they have a strategic goal that needs to be addressed, and do not have the resources internally to staff the project. Companies bring in outside consultancies to work on a design project for a range of reasons that don’t always equate easily into immediate or direct financial benefit. For example, companies may need access to consultants with specialist skills; or those that can bring new creative processes, energy and enthusiasm to an internal team; and companies can benefit from having an objective, outside perspective. Consultants may be highly influential and beneficial to an organization, yet often their activities can appear to be invisible and difficult to quantify. Design managers procuring design services often have to develop a strong business case to justify the hiring of the consultants and produce evidence at the end of the project to show that value has been somehow realized in a transparent and accountable way, often to satisfy both internal auditors and the CEO. Establishing and agreeing the criteria for what a successful outcome would be, at the beginning of a project, is crucial. If this is not done it will be difficult to evaluate the project, as no metrics will be in place against which to measure success. Measuring performance using criteria agreed in the early stages can influence how successful others think the project has been, as the ‘hard’ data will

substantiate what has been achieved.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: What alternative metrics can we use to measure the success of design? If design is successfully integrated into business strategies, how can we measure its effectiveness?

Creative Barcode assists creatives to protect ideas prior to formal trademark, design registration or patent application. The system securely protects concepts (visual and written), against theft, plagiarism, use without permission or any other misappropriations. The barcode legally demonstrates ownership of original source. A unique Digital IP Tag registers the work quickly and easily, and a trust charter creates a binding trust agreement once work is shared. Image courtesy of Creative Barcode/ Mellor&Scott.

Brand names must be registered to be protected. Belsham was created out of the names of the two founders – Krzysztof Bielski (BEL) and Alexey Shamutdinov (SHAM). Additional benefits and ‘added value’ were later realized: in Italian, ‘bel’ sounds like ‘bell’ (nut) and ‘bello’ (beautiful). ‘Sham’ is the western star in the shaft of the Arrow, suggesting energy and good drive for the company. The brand name conveniently suggests products and services that are beautiful and healthy: BELSHAM food, BELSHAM cosmetics, BELSHAM home and BELSHAM fashion. Image courtesy of Ah&Oh Studio / Belsham.

Anti Copying In Design (ACID) is a trade association for designers and manufacturers with a diverse membership from individuals to multinationals and spanning many industry sectors. ACID is committed to creating a safer trading environment for designers by encouraging respect for intellectual property within corporate social responsibility. ACID Action successfully lobbies for design law reform, contributing towards the IP Bill in 2014. ACID’s key objective with the launch of ACID MARKETPLACE is a safer online, commercial trading framework, enabling originators to fully exploit and maximize their IP rights. Image courtesy of ACID, www.acid.uk.com.

MEASURING VALUE FOR MONEY The reason it is difficult to measure value for money is because no standards exist for quantifying all the added-value benefits that design can bring to an organization. In addition, many of the benefits of the design process will be reaped gradually over time, so imposing financial measures too early could be misleading. A Design Council report points out, ‘the relationship between money spent and deliverables produced is rarely linear. Most of the tangible results will appear towards the end of the project. It might worry the person managing the project budget, when 80% of the money has been spent and only 20% of the deliverables are visible’. Design managers can help establish the performance criteria and procedures under which services can be evaluated, compared and made accountable. MEASURING THE BENEFITS In business, measuring value usually equates to defining value for money, and working out how company shares are performing in terms of profit and loss, but there are other ways for measuring value and performance beyond the financial spreadsheet. Some models attempt to put sustainable development at the center of running a business. A number of banks use the Equator Principles, which evaluate the social and environmental risks of the business proposals they fund, including the impact on local stakeholder communities. The Triple Bottom Line is a framework for measuring business performance along three sets of values: economic, environmental sustainability, and social responsibility (or profit, planet, people). Organizations embracing Triple Bottom Line accounting usually need to expand the traditional corporate reporting framework to take into account not just financial outcomes, but also environmental and social performance. The UK’s National Health Service, for example, is developing a model that puts patient safety at the center of running a health system or service, where benefits are measured on the improvements made to the patient care experience – and the number of lives saved. PROTECTING THE VALUE OF DESIGN

One way to put a value on design, and get design valued within an organization, is to register creative output as intellectual property. Properly protected and exploited, intellectual property and other intangible assets such as names, images, concepts, designs, music and writings can generate additional revenue streams and increase the value of how design is perceived within the organization. For example, by registering and protecting an idea for an innovative new product or service, other companies wanting to offer the same product or service will have to enter a licensing agreement or royalty arrangement. Protecting creative and intellectual assets is a valuable form of competitive advantage as other companies will be prohibited from copying, manufacturing or otherwise ripping off the offer. Intellectual property can be registered in the form of trademarks, copyrights, patents, licensing agreements, design rights and transfer of ownership.

‘Measuring success in innovation by looking at the size of the R&D budget is like figuring out how successful a song (or a film or a book) will be by measuring how long the creator took to write it.’ Vivek Kochikar. MEASURING OUTCOMES Different ways that design success can be measured include: awards, peer and press reviews, improved brand image and customer perception of the organization, improved product and service quality; improved user experience, better customer service and communication, increased brand awareness or improving client or customer satisfaction. Design success can also be measured in terms of reduced costs, reduced waste material produced as a by-product of manufacturing, reduced overheads and reduced customer ‘churn’, which is a term used to describe the defection of loyal customers of a product or service from one organization to the competition.

The iF Design Award is a mark of design excellence, evaluated in relation to the key criteria of design quality workmanship, choice of materials, degree of innovation, environmental friendliness, functionality, ergonomics, visualization of use, safety and brand value. The iF quality seal is recognized worldwide. Image courtesy of the iF Design Awards.

The Intellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Office which is part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). It helps stimulate innovation and raise the international competitiveness of British industry through intellectual property rights (IPR). These rights are: patents (which protect the technical and functional aspects of products and processes), designs (which protect the visual appearance or eye appeal of products), trademarks (which protect the origin of products or services), and copyright and related rights (which include unregistered design right and rights of performers). The Intellectual Property Office’s main business is to grant patents and register designs and trademarks in the UK. Image courtesy of The Intellectual Property Office which is an operating name of the Patent Office.

KNOWLEDGE

Reviewing and Revising the Design Strategy Successful projects and design outcomes will inevitably affect an organization’s approach to design. Provided the value of design can be measured, demonstrated and advocated in a way that stakeholders throughout the organization can understand, these successes will sow the seeds of future projects, design involvement and working partnerships. Design managers play the central role in reviewing the design strategy, and providing the evidence and recommendations for its revision. In this way, step-by-step, design can move closer to the ‘heart’ of the organization. For example, in the 1950s, Braun began to see the market potential of ‘defined’ products and began to differentiate itself from its competitors by means of product design. A corporate design philosophy began to emerge, with innovation, quality and design at its core. After Dieter Rams joined the company in 1955, Braun Design became solidly established and increasingly influential. Their approach shifted from functionally driven to being user-centered, with simplicity and attention to detail as important elements in realizing this vision. Today, Braun continues to be a global leader in design. Its brand values remain at the heart of the organization and drive all levels of the business. Braun and Braun Design – the corporate strategy and the design strategy – share the same foundations.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: How can design most effectively help lead business to new markets, new customers and even new attitudes and behaviors? What new organizational structures could enable more effective design leadership? INTEGRATING DESIGN Looking at how to integrate design into business is more challenging for organizations that do not think of themselves as being design-led. However, as Raymond Turner (2013) points out, one of the most useful characteristics of design is that it is easy to see, touch and experience. It can be related to in so many ways – factories, showrooms, products, services and transport – and therefore has the potential for clearly manifesting the strategic direction of the company. Whether design is already embedded in an organization, or brought in from the outside, there are several best practices for design managers revising the design strategy and raising the profile of design. Firstly, and most importantly, they should look at the success of design within the wider context of the organization, and from a consumer perspective, in order to identify other ways that design thinking can help the business. The design manager should, ideally, report directly to the CEO (as opposed to another business unit, such as marketing), and should also look for opportunities to promote success and raise the influence of design throughout the organization. Secondly, the organizational approach to design should be reviewed and any changes to it should be recommended in a language that everyone can understand. Finally, the design manager should take a long-term view and allow time and space for designers to explore how future contexts might drive the design of new products and services. This can be achieved by trend spotting and seeking news ways that design might creatively and innovatively respond to wider changes.

Whirlpool constantly reviews its approach to design, and continually collaborates with customers to discover ways that design can make a difference. The company believes that innovation and design fit naturally together, and view design as something that should be embedded within the company, not just an aesthetic afterthought. In this example, Whirlpool Europe’s global consumer design group presents its vision for ‘in.kitchen: design landscape for a new, built-in experience’. Image courtesy of Whirlpool Europe.

This image shows ‘Built Out’, Whirlpool’s modular approach to building ‘out’ from the heart of a central appliance, instead of building in from the walls of the kitchen itself. Through design initiatives like these, Whirlpool is creating a distinctive look and feel that successfully differentiates the organization from the competition and, crucially, increases profits. Image courtesy of Whirlpool Europe.

‘Innovation is not only about creating new and better products, but also about developing better systems and new business concepts. IKEA, SW Airlines, Virgin… invested in new ways to run old industries and have been profit leaders. Marketers play a critical role in suggesting their potential, and refining their features and launch plans.’ Peter Drucker.

Case Study

Sprunk-Jansen and Ping-Pong Design

The Sprunk-Jansen logo

PUTTING HERBAL TRADITIONS BACK ON THE GLOBAL MAP WHERE THEY BELONG Erik Sprunk-Jansen founded Sprunk-Jansen in Copenhagen in 2004 as a herbal medicine brand with a simple vision – to put herbal traditions back on the global map where they belong – and to work alongside modern methods in harmony with it. Sprunk-Jansen’s distinctive products are based on the knowledge and use of medicinal plants in traditional herbal medicine. This long-standing tradition is known as a rich source of medical and plant wisdom, being the original basis of today’s modern pharmaceutical medicine. Erik’s personal passion for natural remedies, and for working in harmony with modern synthetic medicine, is at the heart of the brand. ORIGINS As a widely respected visionary and head of Lundbeck A/S, a major Danish pharmaceutical company, Erik was well used to stumbling across people, scattered around the world, experimenting in herbal medicine. They all had one thing in common: their failure to get their product to a bigger audience. He was also familiar with the extremes of the medical market – from the clinical arrogance, sterility and soulless products of the pharmaceutical sector to the other extremes of the frumpy, and rather unsophisticated alternative remedy scene. The proposition for the Sprunk-Jansen herbal medicine brand was simple: ‘try it, maybe it’s for you’. The intent was to be personal and inviting, and not prescriptive or pushy. With the driving mission of putting herbal traditions back on the map where they belong, the company have since developed a range of safe herbal products, dietary supplements and creams that can help every one of us lead a healthier life. A SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY After retiring from Lundbeck A/S, and in the process of researching his passion for ways to combine ‘science and herbal wisdom’, Erik’s career took a new direction. His expeditions in

search of rediscovered remedies took him from a greenhouse in a Palestinian desert, where ancient recipes from old Arabic scrolls were being recreated, to a secluded spot in Normandy, where the mating waters of a special oyster were being used to create nose drops. There was nowhere he was not prepared to go to add to his collection of nature’s secrets and ancient wisdom. The business opportunity was to bring quality supplements to market worldwide through research and strategic alliances. The products developed are based on the knowledge and use of medicinal plants in the centuries-old Greek–Arabic herbal tradition. The intellectual property behind the products rest in the parts of the plants used, the concentration of the active ingredients, extraction method and rigorous testing protocol. As well as researching historical documentation and traditional uses of the ingredients in ancient and indigenous cultures, the company conducts clinical studies on the actual formulas, including their synergetic properties. All Sprunk-Jansen products are proven with efficacy and safety data published in peer-reviewed journals. CREATING A WHOLE NEW BRAND OF REMEDY Erik approached Ping-Pong to create a brand identity with a different approach to make his products stand out. With the personal and inviting proposition of: ‘try it, maybe it’s for you’ as a starting point, Erik’s idea was to create an umbrella brand under which to market these products. He had originally planned to call the new brand Clever-ceutical. However, Clever-ceutical raised far too many associations of ‘big pharma’. This new brand was neither pharmaceutical nor alternative medicine. Together, the decision was made to position the brand as complementing, rather than competing with, conventional medicine. Inspired by the way Celestial Seasonings (herbal teas and infusions) handled its packaging, Ping-Pong developed a narrative look and feel that captured SprunkJansen’s spirit of discovery. A key part of the identity is the butterfly – known for its ability to seek out and find the best in nature. In the same way, the company wanted to seek out the best plants and remedies in the world to create their product range. Deciding to use Erik’s surname, the herbal medicine brand Sprunk-Jansen was born. PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND GROWTH Sprunk-Jansen offers herbal supplements and topical creams for a range of health issues, including formulations for weight loss and metabolic issues, male and female libido, and skin. The company also offers a variety of services to educate retailers about Sprunk-Jansen’s unique product range. Educational materials, in-store training, webinars and demos are available, and for retailers hosting events, Sprunk-Jansen provide co-op advertising, free samples and other event promotion material. A dedicated spokesperson is also available for special consumer events, guest appearances and interviews. After launching their unique remedies based in ‘science and herbal wisdom’ in 2004 (and in the

USA in 2008), the company has continued to grow its network of distributors and retailers. SprunkJansen LLC remains committed to strategic and inventive marketing to the retail community and consumers.

A key part of the identity is the butterfly – known for its ability to seek out and find the best in nature. In the same way, the company wanted to seek out the best plants and remedies in the world to create their product range.

As part of the business plan to grow their distribution and presence in retail stores internationally, point of sale displays were designed to promote visual awareness of the brand and encourage sales of the products. All images courtesy and copyright of Sprunk-Jansen.

PRACTICE

The Silken Group

The Silken Group was the first hotel chain in Spain to bet on the unique concept of designer hotels. All Silken Group hotels are architecturally outstanding buildings, thanks to their collaborations with acclaimed architects and designers. Zaha Hadid’s design for the first floor of the Puerta America Hotel is a space of remarkable fluidity and interplay of daring lines.

For the rooms on the eleventh floor of the same hotel, Javier Mariscal and Fernando Salas used a broad palette of colors on the floors and walls, which provoke different sensations, and convey liveliness and imagination.

A NEW HOTEL CONCEPT Founded in Spain in 1955, The Silken Group identified a gap in the Spanish hotel market and undertook the opportunity of filling this niche by offering modern, high-quality hotels of distinctive personality. The group’s hotels use design to add value to their organization by their association with prestigious architects and designers. Each Silken hotel has its own bespoke identity and personality, thanks to these collaborations. The Silken Group have hotels located throughout Spain (a total of 3600 rooms in 26 hotels throughout the country), and are continuing their expansion internationally. Their mission is to offer ‘the best hotel service in the best rooms, with the highest standard of customer service, from the best team of people’. As a business goal they focus on the quest for a new hotel concept, aiming to offer clients a new dimension in services and facilities to make their stay more enjoyable. The Silken Group understands that not all guests expect the same things from a hotel. Its facilities and services are adapted to ensure that their guests’ needs, whether they are business or pleasure, are catered for.

The Italian architect Teresa Sapey has saturated the underground car park with color, creating an emotional stimulus in her quest for ‘freedom’, and preventing the car park from being an ignored urban space. Paul Eluard’s poem Freedom provides inspiration for the simple iconographic code on the walls that lead guests through the garage. The motifs are a finger pointing to the exits, people running with a dog, a person in a wheelchair, all of which have been rendered by mixing words from the poem.

A COMMITMENT TO DESIGN Following their commitment to be at the forefront of technology, design and architecture, the group’s hotels are characterized by modern facilities and painstaking attention to design and architectural detail. The importance of design to The Silken Group is evident in their professional collaborations. The

Silken design brief describes the commitment to signature their hotels as an all-embracing concept, and one in which the designer must think through each and every detail of the hotel, right down to the seemingly insignificant, and to consider them as a whole. Beauty and functionality coexisting in harmony is central to the group’s hotel concept and each of their hotels is renowned for its use of advanced technologies and environmentally friendly design. HOTEL PUERTA AMERICA The Hotel Puerta America has become the group’s flagship hotel, and the benchmark for its future standards. Located in Madrid, it was conceived as a homage to the world of design. In total, an international team of 18 architects and interior designers were commissioned to design and develop each floor of the 12-storey, 360-room hotel. The hotel was envisioned to be a meeting point for creative freedom and The Silken Group produced a cultural manifesto that unified world-class architects and designers. Each possessed different disciplines, cultures, beliefs, nationalities and race, and all were encouraged to let their imaginations run riot. The goal was to offer each architect and designer the opportunity to best reflect themselves, their work, their culture and their way of viewing the world. As such each designer’s concept for different aspects of the hotel was totally unique.

The exterior of the Puerta America Hotel designed by Jean Nouvel, playfully expresses the concept of freedom; which was the cornerstone of the project. Guests can enjoy the changes in colors provided by the awnings and the words of Eluard’s Freedom, which covers the façade in various languages.

In Zaha Hadid’s room design, guests will feel as if they are in a space almost out of science fiction, yet paradoxically, it is also accessible, within an arm’s reach. The doors are lit with LED strips that illuminate messages on the doors, allowing guests to indicate whether or not they want breakfast, or to 8 be disturbed.

The hotel’s Marmo Bar is a single 8.25m unit made of white Statuario Venato marble from the Carrara quarries. The original piece of marble weighed around six tons and was the first element to be installed, even before the hotel’s façade, due to its enormity.

The bathroom in each of Zaha Hadid’s rooms is a single structure from floor to ceiling that changes color according to the room. The waste-paper basket is a deluxe design created exclusively for the hotel.

Arata Isozaki’s bathrooms in the rooms on the tenth floor hark back typical Japanese traditions; the wooden bathtub and shower are placed together, and the use of a shoji panel.

‘An idea of freedom comes true, a gathering space merging different cultures and ways of interpreting architecture and design. A masterpiece that awakens guests’ senses, that breaks the mold by using different colors, materials and shapes.’ Jean Nouvel. THE DREAM TEAM Jean Nouvel was commissioned to design the hotel’s façade, its penthouse apartment and suites on the twelfth floor. Nouvel highlights the importance of creating links between freedom and pleasure, and his work on the hotel aimed to capture a crossroads between art and architecture, which would allow guests to experience exceptional moments and create small worlds for people to enjoy. SGA Estudio, a multidisciplinary design team with extensive experience in construction projects, was responsible for developing the design for the structure and the hotel plan and layout.

Felipe Saez de Gordoa laid the foundations for the space upon which the other architects and designers would work. This ‘dream team’ of architects included Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, David Chipperfield, Plasma Studio, Victorio & Lucchino, Mark Newson, Ron Arad, Kathryn Findlay, Richard Gluckman, Arata Isozaki, Javier Mariscal and Fernando Salas, John Pawson, Christian Liaigre, Teresa Sapey, Harriet Bourne and Jonathan Bell, Arnold Chan and Oscar Neimeyer. AN IDEA OF FREEDOM COMES TRUE Attention to detail is one of the hallmarks of a Silken hotel. As well as the experience of high quality, excellent service and comfort, guests are encouraged to ‘search for new forms, to interact with them, to touch, to see, and even to breathe and smell’. Innovative thinking can be found in the unusual specifications of materials and the refreshing combinations of art, design and architecture of the Hotel Puerta America. On its twelfth floor, for example, Jean Nouvel has designed 12 suites that are purely devoted to pleasure. The rooms feature a system of sliding panels with rails on the floor and ceiling to allow guests to organize the space as they wish. Effectively, the guests can act as architects of their own room, reorganizing the area to suit their own tastes. Design successfully adds value to every aspect of the design, from the quality of the materials and finishes to the choice of relationships and design collaborators invited to ‘leave their mark’ in a way that enhances the overall personality of the hotel.

John Pawson, who designed the hotel’s lobby and meeting rooms, has created, in his words, ‘a space to encounter peace and quiet in the heart of the hotel’. The design harbors the reception area in a semicircle, thus sheltering the guests from constant motion passing through the area.

Architect Kathryn Findlay collaborated with the interactive designer Jason Bruges to turn the eighth floor lobby into a ‘space guests must play with, must discover for themselves’. Fiber optics in the Memory Wall capture guests’ movements, only to later project a distorted image of them over the panels made with points of color. All images courtesy and copyright of The Silken Group.

Interview Brian Gillespie, Principal, Digital, Continuum

Brian Gillespie is a Principal at Continuum and a leader in the Digital Strategy and Design practice where the team’s goal is to design multi-channel, multi-platform service and product experiences that build great relationships between businesses, consumers, customers and users. At Continuum, Brian has worked with diverse clients including Sprint, American Express, Samsung, Healthbox, and Audi. Can you tell me about your background? Prior to joining Continuum, I held leadership roles in the area of strategic design at MediaCatalyst (Amsterdam), Isobar and Molecular. I led the creation of global digital experience strategy and design for clients as diverse as JPMorganChase, Rentokil Initial, Yamaha Motors Europe, Fidelity Investments, Alico, and adidas, including the original user experience of the miCoach personal training system. I hold a MBA in Design Management from the University of Westminster, London. I am a member of the Advisory Board of the Design Management Institute (DMI) and in 2013 I chaired the highly

successful North American Design Management Institute (DMI) Conference on ‘Experience Innovation’. Can you briefly describe your current role and responsibilities? With the support of a great team I am currently managing Continuum’s digital practice. Until recently the practice, along with our Environments team, grew under our Service Design practice umbrella. Our view of how to deliver service design has become much broader and essentially includes all of our practices at Continuum. It has freed the digital team to focus on both its core strengths and also its collaborations with all of our other practices. How has your career evolved over the years? My first true exposure to how digital business was changing our lives was back in the pre-dotcom multimedia days when I had the opportunity to work with a small start-up in Cambridge, USA. With our own proprietary software, and initially working with 16 colors and then a 128-color palette (talk about constraints!), we were creating interactive multimedia ‘Activebooks’ for consumers desiring to learn how to plan their financial lives. This group of folks morphed into my first dotcom era service agency, when experience design really began to take shape as a multi-disciplinary digital design practice. As the initial dotcom era drew to its fabulous close I decided to step back and look at all we had wrought by studying for the University of Westminster’s MBA in Design Management program. This transformed my thinking and set me up well for a long stint at Molecular and later Isobar in Boston, when (User/ Customer) experience design began to digest the lessons learned in the dotcom era and started to mature. Of course the proliferation of new devices, new platforms, the growth of social media, and mobile computing meant that we have had to continually innovate the practice. After a brief stint in Amsterdam I came back to join Continuum at the beginning of 2012. What are the challenges you have faced in terms of integrating digital into design and managing across teams, clients and departments or ‘silos’? During my last few years at Molecular/Isobar I had the opportunity to work with adidas on the first two versions of their miCoach personal training service. The team was a global multi-disciplinary design network that worked together to deliver what was essentially a product/service/communications platform for building the adidas brand. The global dispersion and distinct design cultures within each partner made what was already a complex design management challenge even more so. I could not help wondering how a firm like Continuum would have tackled the design challenge. It already had in house most of the disciplines we needed to create the experience. A foundation in industrial design and various engineering skills has grown to include brand, environments, service, and digital practices as well as a very creative strategy team. The fact that the company has had 30 years to build this has ensured a culture of collaboration. Recent organizational changes have further flattened us to encourage greater collaboration. Like brand, digital has become one of those unifying themes that bind not just the customer experience but also the underlying products, services, and communications that it is comprised of. My fundamental mantra is that digital connects; that it is the glue that binds the customer experience, it provides the pipes and tubes that flow the data and information that forms the lifeblood of contemporary service ecosystems.

So digital is key to a good customer or brand experience? Digital is one of the keys to a great customer or brand experience. Designing a successful customer experience needs a balanced partnership with other key stakeholders in delivering the experiences. Because the power of digital is its role as integrator, as a connector of experience, it places a lot of responsibility on its teams to get it right. The evolution of product/service delivery has seen companies move from single channel to multi-channel to cross-channel and now the latest nirvana omni-channel. Omni-channel is the complete and seamless integration within and across channels that delivers what appears to the customer as a seamless, integrated, consistent branded customer experience. Certainly the retail industry is pushing the boundaries here… it has to in order to compete with Amazon and companies like Nordstrom, and even Best Buy, which are in the forefront of omni-channel experience delivery. It is the flow of data and information between channels and devices and across contexts partnered with excellent human interactions that delivers the best contemporary experiences. Are there particular design processes Continuum use when working with clients? Process is such a moveable feast of flexible parts! Our core strategy process is the foundation for much of our work but we are not slaves to a fixed form. Because our digital practice has been a core part of our service design practice our process for digitally-oriented projects has evolved as a mash-up of service design, traditional user experience design, and agile design/development methods. As service designers we look at both the back of house and front of house experience, from the teams and systems that delivers to the channels and points of interaction that customers experience. Apart from standard activities like persona development, journey mapping, and experiential prototyping, the ultimate tool to understand the scope and complexity of experience is the service blueprint. Our blueprints are becoming central not just to integrating the experience but also to integrating the teams we put together to deliver the experience. Can you comment on the importance of the transition from strategy to implementation? Much of our pure strategy work at Continuum focuses on identifying opportunity areas for our clients to explore new business. The front end is fuzzy, our goal is to remain agnostic about the solution throughout the process, and often the opportunity areas we identify are painted in very broad strokes. This is what I call a ‘strategy for strategy’ project, versus a ‘strategy for design’ or a ‘strategy for design and implementation’ project. With pure strategy work, the follow on design work may occur months later and a second phase of delivery-oriented strategy is often required to dig deeper into the opportunity areas declared valuable to pursue. This work relies more on Build to Learn approaches, with varied prototyping, than the original strategies’ Learn to Build approach. Ideally the team will have a strategist from the original team who can lead the design team through a strategy immersion or calibration phase in order to absorb the intent of the strategy. What did you learn from the recent ‘experience innovation’ DMI conference? From a personal perspective, that I really enjoyed the challenge of chairing an international conference! The subject has been so close to my heart as long as I have been doing this work and it was a thrill and an honor to be able to invite my favorite rock stars to present their latest thinking on this. I did realize by the end of the week, despite all the variety of people and content addressing the subject, that we had just begun to get started. We could run a very interesting and

cutting edge conference on this topic every year! In addition, we did not really explore the topic sufficiently within the context of design management. We talked a lot about design thinking and design doing, but not enough about the implications on design managing. Next time! If you could chair another DMI conference, what would the theme be? I confess to being a bit of a process geek and could imagine a conference that explores how cutting edge companies are tackling the challenge of reinventing process to design for this connected and integrated world we now live in and that continues to evolve at an incredibly rapid pace. This is also a challenge, and an opportunity, for how we educate designers. How will design education keep pace with the rate of change in our world, to craft young designers capable of addressing the challenges of designing for this ever more connected and dynamic place in which we live?

Colette Liebenberg, creator of Colette Liebenberg Design Tell me about your background

Colette set up her design consultancy in 2014, a year after having her second child. Previously she was global design manager for Unilever and head interior designer for the real estate company DTZ. ‘Innovation and excellence’ are the main drivers behind Colette’s business – a venture set up in the middle of the English countryside based on her wealth of skills and experiences. Colette offers a service to global corporations in providing global design guidelines, workplace strategy toolkits, space audit reports and design procedures as well as offering a comprehensive concept design service. Colette loves the concept design process and being involved in creating, directing and orchestrating beautiful environments. I studied Interior design in Johannesburg, South Africa and then joined a small interior design studio called Louis Steyn Designs. I worked at a drawing board on translucent film and all drawings were done by hand, in pen and ink. Our clients were primarily Casinos, children entertainment groups and restaurants.

I decided to go traveling for a year and surfaced in the UK. There I was offered a work permit, after having worked for the Japanese construction firm Kajima for six months. Previously, I had worked only briefly for a small architecture firm in London on a three-month contract. I had to learn extremely fast how to use AutoCAD and become proficient in my design and space planning skills. I worked on massive restructuring and change management schemes for the PFI (Public Finance Initiative) project for the Health & Safety Executive (UK), as well as delivering space planning and interior design packages. After four years with the Architecture department, I left Kajima and worked my way up from interior designer to senior interior designer to eventually heading up the department for the global real estate company DTZ. At DTZ I was mainly involved in design management, interior design, workplace strategy and creating global design guidelines. The role of maintaining and monitoring design changes was key for my global clients in ensuring the design guidelines were constantly up to date. Working alongside some excellent project managers and quantity surveyors, I learned the details and importance of construction project management, cost management, and the tender process (creation, issuing, reviewing and interviewing for tender returns). So not only did I have experience of design management in practice but I was also learning vast amounts on project management. At DTZ I established an excellent network of furniture suppliers, dealers, M & E consultants, lighting designers, architects, graphic designers and landscaping experts. I am particularly proud of the work completed globally for Yahoo!. As lead designer, I had already delivered the ‘workplace of the future’ concept in Switzerland, France, Barcelona, Tel Aviv and Haifa as well as creating, reviewing and updating the ‘workplace of the future’ global design guidelines. After almost a decade at DTZ, I was offered an opportunity to join Unilever, as the Agile Global Design Manager. I was leading the design strand of the unique Agile global team that specialized in providing innovation and excellence in service for all Agile workplace projects. At Unilever, I developed the Agile Global Design guideline document, the space audit report, space standard templates and toolkits and supported the global workplace projects, providing advice and guidance aligning to IT, Facilities Management, Procurement, Sustainability, Security, Branding, Communication and Real Estate Strategies and Policies. Together with the Agile Project and Process managers, part of my role was to implement, test and review the toolkits and standards, making sure they offer best practice. Tell me more about the Agile workplace team It was this team that had been formed to drive Agile into all global Workplace projects. All policies and procedures needed to align to the overarching Unilever brand. The brand aimed firstly to be a leader in sustainable living, secondly a growing profitable business, thirdly a leading brand producing innovations that continues to improve people’s lives and last but not least, creating great places to work, with great people. The internal strategy ‘The Workplace Approach’, provided a formalized and structured approach to the Agile workplace projects and also provided stage gates as to when each stage of the project needed to be approved. Our internal website ran as a central hub of information for the project

team and all project members had access to download the relevant tools, policies, procedures, guidelines and project guidance in order to run and implement a successful Agile project. This set up allowed project teams, members and external Project managers to quickly upscale to the Unilever ‘Agile’ way of working, saving time and money. What are Unilever’s Agile principles and how have they influenced you as a designer? Agile is a working standard in its own right. Unilever’s definition of Agile is ‘to allow people to work anywhere, any place, so long as the business needs are met’. Extensive and unnecessary travel is discouraged, and Innovation and Technology is encouraged, allowing people to work so flexibly. Unilever has invested heavily in technology, such as tele-presence rooms and conference facilities which allow instant face-to-face communication without leaving the environment (and reducing our carbon footprint). Agile workplaces are designed around activity rather than individuals. Sustainability and delivering against the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan is one of the most important items on the everyday ‘to do’ list. It is hard not to adapt some of these Agile principles in my current business venture. Technology will drive the ultimate decisions for selecting the most efficient computer software and systems support for the design services and process, webinars, communication, flexible working and BIM (Building Information Modeling). The process of creating interior design packages must ultimately align to the external architecture and be easily rendered, effortless and cost effective. The Agile principle of sustainability and brand has also been adopted. I now ensure that the materials and finishes selected for projects are sourced from equally knowledgeable suppliers and in the same way Unilever want to make a bold statement, I too will be making a bold statement amongst the competition. What steps did you take to set up your business? The first step, and the exciting part: I converted one of the rooms in my house into an office, redecorated and painted the main wall into a large blackboard. On this wall, I set out my business design strategy, actions, aspirations and goals required. I have planned out the entire venture in the same way I would set up a project. Visually seeing this map everyday keeps me inspired and ignited to create a successful design venture. It is truly amazing how design management slips into the set up process without even realizing it. Already I have investigated marketing, branding, sales, design services, social and environmental responsibilities and Agile working, and I am constantly thinking of new ways of how I will measure the success of design once a project is completed. The website design, layout, logo, name, business list, for example, all fall into the design management strategy. Who else supports you, in terms of partnerships and alliances? I will be affiliated to BIIDA, the British Institute of Interior Design who will support me with advertising and marketing space, and I will make use of my existing large network of clients as well as the ever-growing social media network. I also have a Design Mentor in the industry. How will you be working with Global clients if you are based in the countryside (the West Country)? One of the main reasons I decided to set up my own business was to be closer to home so that I do

not miss my children growing up and secondly to work flexibly and decide which projects to take on. The global market is growing at a massive rate and employees are now accustomed to working remotely. Global design guidelines, tools and procedures can be created by working closely alongside facilities management teams, the service delivery directors and brand consultants. Companies now want to discourage unnecessary travel, so they empower local staff to get involved on local projects. This helps me work remotely and allows me to set up design presentations and meetings online to present to the global teams. However, in the case of interior design construction projects, it is imperative to have site meetings, especially during the construction stage. What skills do you think are important for a design manager? My background experiences are in interior design, working on international commercial workplace projects and gaining management experience ‘on the job’ while working with clients and project teams. I was fortunate to have worked alongside some excellent project managers who taught me valuable management skills. Having skills such as design, project planning, communication and presentation skills, diplomacy, empathy, and the ability to understand people and their behaviors, are all key for the job.

‘Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.’ Peter Drucker.

KEY SKILLS

Management and Leadership The qualities that make a good leader are not necessarily the same qualities that make a good manager. In design, the terms design ‘leadership’ and ‘management’ exist to differentiate between these two approaches. Both management and leadership roles involve balancing the day-to-day goals with the long-term ones, and mutual respect for the different strengths, roles and responsibilities of everyone involved. In each case, it will at times be necessary to manage upwards to achieve results, whether increasing a particular project budget, or changing whole company structures to spur creativity throughout the organization. Some design managers may find themselves transitioning from a management role to a leadership one, which inevitably will involve giving up certain responsibilities and adapting to new ways of performing and leading by setting a ‘winning’ vision and then inspiring others to understand and deliver it (Landry 2004). MANAGEMENT In general, management is about day-to-day operation, and relies on people who know how to get the job done, deliver on time, to budget and specification. In the design business, it is traditional to promote designers to managerial positions even though design training typically does not provide the full range of management skills that are necessary to cover the people, project and business management challenges faced. As Patterson notes ‘like people becoming parents, managers are transformed through experience. Designers, as they take on management responsibilities, go through the same kind of shift in their world view’ (2001). Organizations should provide training, support and encouragement to allow designers to move into management positions. Most business managers are already busy running day-to-day business operations. They don’t always have time to put together proposals for embedding design thinking into their projects. Design managers can make it easy to bring in design resources by, for example, ensuring that design policies and procedures are in place, and that a variety of different design skills are engaged on a roster or retainer, for ease of access. Design managers can also help form a strong business case for engaging the design resource (or design thinking in general) as a catalyst for user-centered innovation within a particular project or strategic goal. LEADERSHIP Leadership is about setting and driving vision, and taking a long-term view. People who are brilliant leaders are not necessarily good managers or good team players, nor particularly adept at day-to-day operations. However, a leader that explains how long-term goals can benefit individual business units, and individuals themselves, is more likely to motivate others to cooperate. Different types of leadership exist, and within any organization or any role, different styles may predominate at different times. Pearson (1998) identifies six approaches to leadership: advocacy (campaigning for better conditions), pioneering (initiating new ways of thinking), strategic (leading from the front), servant (leading by helping others), visionary (creating new visions of how things could be) and

transformative (initiating change at many levels).

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: In what ways can designers, design managers and design leaders work together to gain more influence and autonomy for design within an organization? What new responsibilities will this necessitate?

‘Leaders have authority, that they can choose to delegate, for example, the execution of a clearly defined task or making project decisions. Delegating authority is different from delegating responsibility. Authority, from the Latin for “advice”, “persuasion” or “encouragement”, is about “influence with people”.’ (Denyer 1972).

The Danish company Bang & Olufsen (B&O), manufactures a highly distinctive and exclusive range of audio-visual products that combine technological excellence with emotional appeal. They work with many individuals that lead and manage different aspects of design. B&O’s design work is carried out by a small number of freelance product designers, and only those designs exhibiting the distinctive B&O quality are considered for production. Here, the limited edition BeoVision 10-46 Chanterelle on easel stand with BeoLab 6002 Chanterelle on floor. Image courtesy of Bang & Olufsen.

David Lewis was one of the key designers working with B&O, and provided creative leadership in the form of new product ideas and proposals. Within B&O, the department responsible for facilitating external design services and integrating them within R&D and management is called ‘Idealand’, and acts as B&O’s innovation mechanism. The design manager for Idealand combines management and leadership roles, working with B&O’s internal decision-makers and management teams and the external designers to decide which of the ideas will go into production (Cockerille, 2004). Image courtesy of Bang & Olufsen/Solkaer.

The company values of performance, design and craftsmanship drive the company. All design decisions are made under the guidance of the company’s vision: ‘the courage to constantly question the ordinary in search of surprising and long lasting experiences’. This is B&O’s BeoSound 2 Bag. Image courtesy of Bang & Olufsen/Morton Lassen.

KEY SKILLS

Leadership and Advocating Design When leading design teams, thinking like an entrepreneur can certainly help promote the value of design, since an entrepreneurial mindset is the best one for identifying new opportunities where design can add value and make a difference. Once these new opportunities are identified however, design managers then need to follow them through, and help to successfully exploit the ideas in the context of the organization and the market. To do this requires a good understanding of which design ideas can deliver the most value to the organization, how any design asset can be protected, and what ideas and assets should be exploited. The goal is to turn design ideas, assets and opportunities into commercially, and increasingly, environmentally, viable ventures, products, services and experiences. PROTECTING DESIGN ASSETS Design and designers work comfortably with the idea-generating processes that can result in the creation of valuable design assets. In most countries, legislature will exist to protect designs from being copied or otherwise exploited against the wishes of the originator of the work. Designers normally hold moral rights to a design, and will charge a flat fee to a client for its one-off use. For multiple use of the design, a legal contract detailing the terms for the rights of use should be agreed. Additional protection of creative outputs and ideas can be sought by registering intellectual property (IP), for example copyrights, patents and trademarks, and registering designs in different geographical areas (national, regional, international), or business sectors. Protecting design assets makes good business sense in that it can prevent costly legal battles in the case of infringement. It is also a good way to get design valued within an organization, since intellectual property (IP) is considered a valuable asset for generating additional revenue streams. Design teams within organizations are valuable assets. Recruiting for an expanding team can be an expensive process, so attracting, hiring and keeping the best staff is key to creating and maintaining a strong design resource that delivers exceptional results. EXPLOITING DESIGN ASSETS Once adequately protected, design assets can be commercially exploited. This can be achieved by setting up third party licensing agreements, royalty payment agreements, international business relationships with manufactures abroad, or by selling rights to new geographical locations where expanding market opportunities have been identified. Other sources of funding and investments can also be solicited, both inside the organization (different business units), and outside it (government grants and trade bodies). Currently there is a growing trend for design-led organizations to build relationships with universities and colleges by setting up knowledge transfer partnerships (KTP), consortiums and research clusters as a means to leverage the value of design research and education within the industry.

‘Autonomy around process fosters creativity because giving people freedom in how they approach their work heightens their intrinsic motivation and sense of ownership. Freedom about process also allows people to approach problems in ways that make the most of their expertise and their creative thinking skills. The task may be a stretch for them, but they can use their strengths to meet the challenge.’ Teresa M. Amabile.

As well as having internal design teams, BMW also have an ‘external design house’, DesignworksUSA. The reputation and quality of work delivered by DesignworksUSA keeps them in demand with both BMW and other external clients. BMW acquired DesignworksUSA because they wanted to enhance their knowledge about the world of their customers, to look beyond the motorcycles and cars and understand the forces shaping the lives and desires of their own clients. BMW also wanted more than just a strong design supplier or a permanent in-house partner, but a group that would understand the cultural trends and contexts that BMW cars and motorcycles exist in. Image courtesy and copyright of BMW AG.

This is DesignworksUSA’s Munich studio. To make sure that DesignworksUSA functions outside the BMW ‘world’, they operate as a profit center, and therefore must continually sharpen their design and business practices to remain competitive. BMW require DesignworksUSA to apply themselves to the design considerations of a diverse range of customer experiences. This encourages crossover thinking and skills,

Table 14: Staff Recruitment

‘Organizations are about people, and in order to get the best out of people, you have to create an environment where people will thrive.’ St. Luke’s Communications Ltd.

Vitra’s company headquarters in Birsfelden, Switzerland, and their manufacturing factory in Weil am Rein, Germany, have become meccas for architecture lovers all over the world. Vitra is renowned worldwide for commissioning distinctive architecture that encapsulates the innovative and design-led image of the organization. Illustrious architects such as Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid, Nicholas Grimshaw and Alvaro Siza have all realized significant designs at the invitation of company head Rolf Fehlbaum. The buildings are true design assets that celebrate the organization’s innovative and design-led image. Image courtesy of Vitra, (photographer: Thomas Dix).

Vitra’s Design Museum in Weil am Rein, was designed by Frank Gehry. To accommodate extensive public interest in the buildings on the Vitra site, the museum offers regular guided architecture tours in numerous languages. Image courtesy of Vitra, (photographer: Thomas Dix).

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: In what other ways can company lead by design? Are there other design assets within an organization that need to be brought to the attention of senior management and the organization as a whole? How could this be done? VALUING THE DESIGNER Investors interested in making an investment in a design consultancy will look at the design team (the human resources) and the client list (people for whom the consultancy delivers projects) and then will establish if these design assets are of value, and if they are likely to deliver a return on investment (ROI). It is therefore important to protect and value all those involved in the design process. This can be done in two ways. Firstly, the design manager can manage the relationship between staff costs, staff levels of experience and the value individuals can actually bring to a project. It is tempting to employ less experienced designers in an effort to keep staff costs down, but having experienced (and therefore more highly paid) staff can be worth their added value in terms of productivity, efficiency and their ability to mentor less-skilled designers. Secondly, design managers need to protect the morale and productivity of the designers. Creatives often thrive when working within defined parameters, restrictions of time and budget can spur designers to think inventively within the resources allocated. However, too much restriction over a prolonged period of time can undermine motivation and morale, and lead to long hours, high stress levels and possible burnout. A successful design manager will instil a sense of challenge and trust, and agree realistic delivery schedules in consultation with the designers.

Vitra’s buildings, such as their manufacturing hall, designed by Nicholas Grimshaw, visualize their philosophy towards design, and are part of the company’s heavy investment in high-quality work environments for their valued employees. The buildings help create a culture of creativity and send a powerful message to the outside world by putting their work ethos into practice in order to realize their own ideas on the ideal work environment. The building’s interior and furnishings are used to invite and encourage mutual collaboration amongst employees. Image courtesy of Vitra, (photographer: Thomas Dix).

KEY SKILLS

Written Communication Writing varies in style and purpose, from the formal to the informal, and from being entertaining to being a forewarning. Writing, as a form of communication, has the ability to capture complex information accurately and succinctly. The written documents themselves become a very useful form of agreement between people, as well as a permanent record. The reminder to always get it in writing makes good business sense, since each of our backgrounds will influence how we interpret a situation or conversation. Each of us will inevitably draw different conclusions if things are not clarified. The type of written business correspondences to be used will frequently be determined by the cost, speed and accuracy needed. Emails are faster to write than letters, and can be sent simultaneously to any number of people. Faxes are more expensive and time consuming to send, but do provide a fairly instantaneous hard copy of a document or design detail which may be critical. Mailing a letter may sometimes be the most appropriate method as delivery, for example, can be recorded. WRITING LETTERS In the context of design and business, letters are a formal record of the correspondence between two or more people. The exact level of formality will depend on the nature of the relationship between the people involved, but as a written record, a letter can become a legal document if circumstances so require. The most common purposes for sending a letter are to obtain information or action, to persuade, sell, clarify, enquire, answer a question, and to create an impression of ourselves and our organization. Letters usually follow particular guidelines in terms of format (opening, main body, action point, concluding remarks, close and signature), salutation (title, name, form of address and level of familiarity), and structure (paragraphs, indentation, layout, position of address). When writing a letter, always leave enough time to plan, draft, review, check, read, edit and send. Consider the overall image the letter is making. Is it communicating what you want it to? The beginning and the end of any correspondence (the open and close) is likely to be what the recipient will remember and, more importantly, is most likely to judge the letter by. People form impressions based on how they read, encode and decode information, and this process, although not fully within the writer’s control, can be steered in a positive direction by being aware of the impression that is created.

‘To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself... Anybody can have ideas – the difficulty is to express them

without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.’ Mark Twain. WRITING REPORTS The purpose of a report is usually to inform, provide answers to a question, or provide the evidence necessary to help sell an idea. Reports are a factual documentation of a business situation, and are based on thorough research and analysis that is assembled in a presentable, organized and useful way. The most common purposes of business reports are to monitor and control operations; to implement policies and procedures; to comply with regulatory agencies; to obtain funding; to document work for clients; and to guide decisions. Thinking about the intended audience for the report will guide the level of information included about the wider business context, and what words and terminology may be unfamiliar and therefore need to be explained. Visuals and diagrams can be a very useful way to give an overview of a particular aspect, and frequently can communicate a great amount of information to people from a range of different backgrounds. Reports should open by identifying who commissioned it, what its purpose is, and the questions the report is intending to answer. Use of heading and sub-headings will quickly allow the reader to obtain an overview of the report and identify the main conclusions. Report formats will vary depending on their purpose, but typically will include a cover, title page, commissioning letter, foreword, synopsis or executive summary, table of contents and list of illustrations, introduction, report findings, conclusions, recommendations, appendices and a bibliography. QUALITY OF COMMUNICATION Poor grammar, spelling and punctuation is distracting and confusing, and can create mixed messages about what is actually meant. Always aim for clarity, succinctly getting to the point in a way that is most appropriate to the recipient of your correspondence. Keep your sentences short so as to allow the recipient to read, decode and assimilate the information more effectively. Read and proofread your correspondence before sending it, and if possible have someone else in your team proofread for clarity and legibility. Is your letter readable and understandable, or incomplete, overly complicated or unfocused? If you’re not proud of it, don’t send it. Any documents leaving your team will always present an image of how you operate. Maintaining a high standard of presentation in terms of paper quality, neatness and accuracy helps convey a good impression of an individual, and team, which cares about attention to detail. The language and vocabulary used in written communication should be specifically chosen so that it is appropriate to the intended audience. For example, technical descriptions or foreign words may need to be translated to provide meaning in the context of the project. In general, always use a

thesaurus or dictionary to find just the right word, and specifically, keep up to date on the vocabulary relevant to existing and new debates in design and business, to ensure you use the right word in the right context. The recipient of your correspondence may be from a different target audience to the one you personally represent. Being able to see and communicate things from an objective point of view, with empathy for a client, audience or end user, is a valuable skill to have when analyzing entirely different market sectors. STYLE OF COMMUNICATION Seeing the situation from the recipient’s point of view, not your own, is often the best way to achieve cooperation, buy in and agreement. A useful exercise is to imagine what it would be like to receive your letter. Does it present the message and attitude you want to convey? Is it direct, succinct and to the point, or direct, aggressive and rude? Words are powerful weapons that can help to build, or break, relationships. Being empathetic means seeing the recipient as central to the message you are trying to convey, and identifying what may be of concern to them. Think about the appropriate form of address for the correspondence. Using ‘you’ makes your writing more immediate, and more interesting, to the reader. Saying ‘the design team will finish working on the problem by Monday’ has a different tone to ‘you will have a solution from the design team by Monday’. There may be other times where written correspondence serves as a carrier of good or bad news. In daily business dealings, most correspondence contains a mix of positive and negative progress, and how this is communicated will affect the level of trust and confidence a client, for example, places in a design team. Positive phrasing focuses on what can be done, rather than draw attention to what cannot be done. The use of active voice (where the person performing the action is the focus of the sentence) and passive voice (where the person performing the action becomes the subject of the sentence) is a useful method of accentuating a positive message, or reducing blame in a negative message. As an example, ‘the CEO announced a profit’ is active voice, whereas ‘a loss in profits was reported’ is passive voice. Writing can leave an impression of who you are so remember to take a few moments to read through what you have said, and the way in which you have said it, as this is time well spent. It is not possible to ‘unsend’ a piece of written correspondence once it has been delivered.

‘The ability to express thoughts and communicate information in clear written English (or another language) is central to the work of a design consultancy. Clients often feel out of their depth or unqualified to make aesthetic judgements, but they will be influenced by the quality of written work and the quality of service coming from the consultancy.’ Liz Lydiate.

KEY SKILLS

Key Skills Exercises Management and Leadership Make a list of the personality traits that are best suited to being a Manager and being a Leader. Leading and Advocating Design Good project management skills entail keeping a client informed of how a project is progressing in terms of time (are things going to schedule?), quality (will it meet design expectations?) and cost (is the project over or under budget?). In many cases, to keep projects that over-run on schedule, decisions must be made on whether to alter the design quality or the budget. Similarly, to keep a project on track in terms of quality, decisions may need to be made about extending time and cost. And, to keep costs on budget, decisions may be needed in terms of quality and schedule changes. In groups of three, take turns role-playing the Client, the Project Manager and the Observer/ Listener (and note taker). The Project Manager has called a meeting (or initiated a phone call) with the Client to discuss a decision that needs to be made by the client, on which of (1) time, (2) quality or (3) cost the client wishes to compromise. The Project Manager must present the benefits and drawbacks of each, so that the client can ask questions and make an informed decision. Written Communication In 100 written words, describe what design management means to you, citing one good example from a company you admire that represents good design management, and briefly, why it is a good example.

18 Views on Management Design management is an intricate subject, but there are clear guidelines that design managers can follow to manage the investments made in design to maximum impact. As the role of design in the world continues to broaden, organizations are increasingly viewing design as something that is integral to their decision-making processes. The design management strategies that enable design to influence organizations and their place in the world are also the tools that can challenge organizations to question their role, purpose and responsibility in business, society, the economy and the environment, as well as in people’s everyday lives. To follow are 18 points of view from leading individuals in the field, on what design management constitutes for them.

18 Views on Design Management

DARRAGH MURPHY Partner DUCO Paraná, Brazil I have asked many design leaders what their top tips are for managing design, and several themes are consistent in their advice: strong leadership, a clear brief, nurturing creativity, working within parameters and flexibility. This generation of design managers did not receive any formal training in design management but gained their valuable tacit knowledge from the trials and tribulations of building successful businesses. The tips have served these design entrepreneurs well and many can benefit from their insights. However, as design is gaining recognition as an essential part of business success, company executives are expecting professional, accountable and credible management practices for design. When it comes to making key decisions on the role of design in businesses, design professionals and their managers have only a few, if any, external references to support their specific performance and plans. This is a common requirement for management of all disciplines, levels, sectors and organization sizes; it should also be the case for design. One of the key challenges for design professionals in industry is qualifying the importance of design and justifying the practices and conditions necessary for design to fully contribute to an organization. The creation of objective tools based on hard data and metrics would remove an element of guesswork from the decision-making process and can instil credibility in the design profession. We have been busy developing such tools to support design managers and hope that they will become a valuable tool for a new generation of design managers.

DEB MRAZEK Design Management Consultant Portland, Oregon, USA A good design manager needs to be able to speak the language of design and business; one area of particular challenge is that of metrics – how and what to measure in assessing design’s contributions, and doing so in a way that informs future investment and resourcing decisions. Often a design manager uses metrics to tell the story of the value of design – and why designers should be hired by an organization. As the use of design in the organization matures, a design manager then uses metrics to describe the magnitude of design’s contributions – why investing more in design will benefit the business. Eventually, as design becomes a competitive business advantage, design managers move to more sophisticated metrics systems that inform investment decisions – how much of what type of design expertise should be invested on which projects, to have the best overall benefits for all. Rather than suggest there is a design metric holy-grail, I would instead advise design managers to develop a metric system using a ‘designer-ly’ approach. (1) understand what metrics matter and which your team can influence (2) select the ones that can be measured and highlight what is unique about your team (3) design and build the collection system (4) organize the results into meaningful visuals and stories (5) share the results and (6) refine as you go. This approach has allowed me to wisely invest my teams’ efforts in a way that has the biggest impact on future business success. I’m looking forward to the day when there are common case studies, tools and frameworks, shared across the design management community, ones that will make design metrics a common set of tools in the design manager toolbox.

NICK LOCKINGTON Creative Director Imano (Mobile Specialist Design Agency) London, UK Imano’s clients face the challenge of a consumer that expects to be able to access information and services from any device at any time. They’ll expect a fast and easy, but ideally satisfying, personal and contextual experience. I find that one of the greatest challenges as a creative director is to ensure a project keeps vision of its true goal. There are a lot of comparisons to this risk of ‘mediocrity by a thousand opinions’ to the challenges you can face maintaining a good design process. As a designer with an education in Design Management I believe that its principles should be instilled throughout a company, and critically, as a creative director running a design team, I believe every designer must have these principles ingrained to their core. Design Management, to me is a way of thinking rather than a job role. I’ve found the best way of doing this is to ensure the designer is actively involved throughout the entire process. This increases their responsibilities (a good thing) and their workload (not good, yet worth it) but importantly it means that they have a complete understanding of how to achieve the project’s true goal. Put simply – it means they can apply common sense to the challenge. These principles may seem obvious, but in the thick of a challenging project, lots of small, independently innocent decisions can easily cause ‘ignorance by a thousand compromises’. Leaving you in a position where common sense is very hard to come by.

RITASUE SIEGEL Design Executive Search, RitaSue Siegel Resources LLC New York City, New York, USA We find visionary, people-centered Design Leaders and Managers for our clients, who are competitive, global organizations, or aspirants, coming to terms with a new economic order, a diverse population with a disparity of cultures and education, a multigenerational workforce with differing needs, and customers and employees connected to a digital universe demanding their attention and enabling them to create and share. Design Leaders evangelize and excel at telling stories that demonstrate design’s value and the benefits of cross-fertilization, cumulative knowledge, and discovering opportunity. As today’s organizations change, they engage in leadership realignment throughout the hierarchy and across functional lines. Design Leaders are increasingly a source of information, knowledge and understanding to upper echelons of organizations that strive to find leaders at home with cross-business and functional collaboration. Designers’ collaborations with engineering, marketing, IT, psychology, research, language, strategy, anthropology, finance, and other relevant specialists like scientists (and other designers), have been essential to transforming businesses, products and services. Organizations engaged in or emerging from major change have become increasingly complex, resulting in more corporate functions and operating units and a need for processes to enable complex collaboration. Design Leaders, inspired by data obtained from ethnographic research, are motivated to bring beauty, simplicity, and clarity to people’s lives. They can lead organizations to develop frameworks and use designers’ skills and ways of thinking to take advantage of change, keep their customers loyal, maintain their focus on customers, and provide what their employees need and want to engage in delivering the organization’s mission.

WERONIKA ROCHACKA Design Management Consultant Warsaw, Poland I remember hearing the term ‘design management’ for the first time when I worked at the Design Council in London. At first, I was struck by the fact that you can really ‘manage’ the design process in a company or organization. Then I realized that design management means so many different things to different people. There are still some more or less academic debates whether ‘design management’ is the right name. Shouldn’t we be calling it ‘design leadership’? Or ‘design strategy’? When I investigated a little bit more into it, I realized that depending on your background, be it design, business, technology, social sciences etc., design management will have a slightly different meaning to you. My thinking was highly influenced by the work we did at the Design Council. To me design management is about figuring out how to best apply design in a company or an organization to make it work better, i.e. deliver better value for its customers, users, clients but also – employees, managers and owners. I find it fascinating that you can manage design in a manufacturing company but also in a small local café or a service based organization. I do believe that design management, similarly to service design, is a ‘total’ term uniting all different design disciplines, focusing them on achieving the main goal – the improvement. I am also excited to observe that in developing countries, such as Poland, both business and public sector are now starting to see the value of design. And more and more they are willing to develop design management strategies to make themselves more effective, efficient but also different.

MAGO-MULANGWA MAJID Media Might Ltd. Kampala, Uganda Design within the business context has always been about problem solving: meeting a need by gathering insights from clients, stakeholders and potential end users. Clients come to us at Media Might for design and communication services. Within the East African context, design management is perceived to fall within marketing and then brand management. However, branding and the management thereof are increasingly taking center stage. This is being driven by the increase in multinationals, and the agencies that service them, opening up in the East African market. Many are expanding from the South African market or the Kenyan economy and stem from the thriving telecom, financial services or FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) sectors. Examples include MTN, Stanbic Bank, P&G, Game and Shoprite Stores, and agencies with diverse international portfolios – Saatchi and Saatchi, SCANAD and Ogilvy. All these factors have ‘raised the bar’, so much so that public sector organizations like the Ugandan National Social Security Fund are rethinking who and what they are, and are engaging these more competitive and experienced companies with their diverse design and brand management insights. The same trends are arising at SME Level, driven by the East African Community being forced to analyze how and where to compete. How do they create and deliver better value to their customers? A question design managers are uniquely placed to answer and often better than other departments in what are very often ‘siloed’ organizations. As an example, design audits are cross cutting in their assessment of an organization’s current state of affairs, and interdepartmental benefits can be derived from the considerations uncovered during the audit process.

DARREL RHEA Founder and CEO, Rhea Insight Seattle, Washington, USA Design Management has seen enormous change. As business embraces the value of design, the scope of responsibilities available to Design Managers increases. The role of Chief Design Officer has become established in many of the world’s largest organizations, placing design and creative leadership at the executive level. As a result, career opportunities for Design Managers have grown dramatically, as have the business world’s expectations of our potential impact. Finally, Design is being offered a seat at the table. But for this trend to continue, designers need to deliver on these expectations to drive positive change. Big challenges face us. Our definition of design and our professional design practice continue to evolve dramatically, expanding our definition of Design Management. We find ourselves shifting from a focus on managing design’s contributions to print and interactive communications, product development, services etc., to managing the application of Design Thinking to help design the organization itself. Designers are being asked to design business models, business processes, structures for decision-making, and even organizational culture. We are helping define the core identity of the organization, and being asked to drive innovation and change. Not all Design Managers will be interested in expanding their role; there will always be an important job to do in traditional domains of design. But those who have ambitions for these newer roles will need new skills, tools, sensibilities and even a new vocabulary. Design Managers will need to adopt continuous learning to deliver on the expectations of business that we have worked so hard to create.

MARILYN DIETRICH Junior Manager Product and Communication FREITAG lab. Ag Zurich, Switzerland In my role as Product and Communication Manager, I initiate, lead and coordinate all aspects of the product lifecycle, from production and operations to brand communications and sales. I manage the design resources across various disciplines, and effectively apply design methodologies to achieve operational objectives. FREITAG is a design-driven company, yet despite this I must continually champion the value of design and its contribution within decision-making processes. I do this through the process of keeping stakeholders informed and assessing their ongoing needs. In my experience, it is always worth taking time to explain circumstances so as to facilitate discussion and build trust and understanding. This raises awareness, reduces conflict and nurtures agreement and commitment to a project – and to design overall. I strongly believe a design manager is the one to implement, exploit and live the design strategy as defined by the design leader. This is possible when the design manager understands the connection between the organizational goals and how design can play a part in their delivery. It is also important to have the necessary skills and empathy to bring the design strategy to life in the organization – whether at a strategic corporate level, or at an operational project level. If Design Management is to be successfully implemented in an organization, it is vital that design goes beyond the role of the design manager (typically with a design background), and exists as a greater organizational sense of design leadership. This is the case at FREITAG, where the two founding brothers, Markus and Daniel Freitag, inspire design thinking on the strategic level. As design leaders, they manage and define the strategy, policy and mission, not only of design itself, but of the entire company.

AKRAM ABD EL-AZIZ AND SOMAYA EHAB MUSTAFA Designopia Cairo, Egypt ‘The only saving bridge between design and the community’ is how Design Management is perceived at Designopia. Design management is making the change towards a better possibility. In Egypt, in a community filled with the ambiguity of changing situations, it becomes essential for the realization of dreams to define a management plan and find the most efficient way to use the best available resources (resources that are getting scarcer by the minute), in such a way that attains the targets of the plan. After the revolution of 2011, with many attempts to raise awareness about the role of the designer and the openness of local and international markets, it became necessary to consolidate the basis of the true principles of design: what it does and how it contributes in business and society. One of the challenges is Egypt is the absence of a clear and official job title of ‘Designer’. This weakens the position of design as a speciality, and has resulted in an unstable foundation for design education as well as creating a wall between creativity, methods of implementation and the market. Designopia began as an idea in 2011 as a community for Designers, Artist and Engineers, and witnessed first-hand – and still witnesses – the evolution of ideas in the real world. The current situation made it obvious that depending on manufacturing was not going to take us much further. Our focus was to create a community of open-minded designers and, through the development of professional skills and practical experiences, to support the actual friction of creating new projects in a world where there is an abundance of human resources. The designer has the ability to innovate the requirements of society into the best possible vision of the future. Creativity is perhaps seen as the only way out, giving a larger opportunity and need for creative minds to implement their visions in the real world.

ADIN HELLER Research Executive The Big Picture (New York office) New York City, New York, USA Design Management is a valuable tool for understanding the design that surrounds us via the systems and environments with which we interact every day, as well as for orchestrating interactions within one’s direct experience. The Big Picture specializes in design-focused qualitative research for packaged goods – and the concept of ‘design’ extends well beyond the packs we evaluate. The research process itself must be conscientiously designed, taking into account an understanding of client relationships and needs, the format in which consumer groups will be conducted, the semiotic and cultural touchstones that influence consumers, and the context for research and results provided by design thinking and macro trends. When evaluating and understanding the needs and mindsets of various stakeholders involved in a design research project (not to mention the pack being evaluated), the rich, globally-influenced culture of New York is an important resource from which new insights can constantly be drawn. Here, design extends from the tallest skyscrapers all the way down to pedestrian plazas reclaimed from once car-clogged streets, and further to smartphones carried by pedestrians that traverse those plazas. Within such a design-rich environment, connections can be made between even the most disparate details. Whether it be spotting an innovative product design, monitoring the pulse of the hottest entertainment, taking note of public art installations, or keeping up on the latest fashion trends, observing the shifts in the surrounding world – and how people interact with that ever-changing world – informs my approach to all facets of market research.

LAURA NORIEGA LANDEROS Design Director Manos Anónimas Design Tributo, México Design, business and society are no longer seen as being separate. In our work as design managers on multiple projects we understand design as an efficient way to solve real problems that exist in our communities. Design management has a vision for the future: to find opportunities by observing needs, and to integrate and connect different project partners to ensure the best results through collaborative and multidisciplinary working. In the context of México, and in the face of increasing globalization, defining and strengthening identity has become even more necessary. Design Creativity helps to support our cultural heritage and has enabled a revaluation of our local materials and productions. Recently we have been working towards a revaluation of craftsmanship, particularly within small to medium enterprises. The impact of this can be seen in quality, in process and production improvement, in increased business, and in greater appreciation of traditional craft. We want to take advantage of efficient systems where, thanks to creative processes, we can come up with solutions like the design of new materials, using the waste material produced by some industries in our region such as furniture, textiles and the tequila industry. Our objective as Design Managers and Consultants is to identify the missions and goals where we can best collaborate with different institutions, academies, enterprises and to coordinate how we solve problems and generate value. The end goal is to enhance lifestyles, so reinforcing and disseminating solid design and business platforms for the healthy development of our country.

RICHARD BANHAM Business Director Nomad Sydney, Australia In my experience, design management is about taking great people, finding an activity or task that users find challenging, and then applying creative, strategic or innovative ideas to deliver a new solution. In a commercial scenario, design managers are constantly looking at a business trying to understand how they operate and, specifically, the nuances that makes a business great. By focusing on the nuances of a business (and not the technology or processes that surround it), a design manager is constantly observing the behavioral patterns of users and how they are interacting. It is this constant observation that provides insights that either foster the exploitation of business strengths or create new opportunities for a business to pivot. The most successful design managers understand that to actually deliver a new solution takes time and patience. Aligning the strengths of great people means there will always be personalities, friction and human desires to deal with. Yet it is the momentum generated by this very friction that pushes the boundaries and allows even the most inward facing business stakeholder to understand there could be a better way of helping users with their particular challenge. So, in summary, and in order to get the best from taking a creative approach to design management, I would recommend: Creating as much friction as possible to challenge the thinking of great people. Asking as many questions as possible to find the nuances of a business. Listening and observing the sparks that fly when new ideas are born.

CYRIL ZAMMIT Fair Director Design Days Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates When we inaugurated Design Days Dubai in 2012, as the first fair in the Middle East dedicated to collectible furniture and design objects, we felt confident about the future of design in the region but did not know how much impact the fair would have on the region’s collectors and design enthusiasts – let alone on the wider question of the role of design in society, culture and the economy. In three short years, the fair’s influence has grown more than we ever imagined: it has gained a global reputation, attracting leading designers and galleries from all over the world and introducing emerging talents; it hosts a hugely popular non-commercial and educational program and has spawned a second design fair, Downtown Design, which sits at the cusp of creative and commercial design. But even more significantly, Design Days Dubai has become recognized as a thought leader in the region and has helped to spark several major design-based initiatives. Among these is the establishment of Dubai Design District, a major new development of workshops, offices and residences conceived as a hub for all forms of creative business. To my mind this is a paradigm of how powerful design can be. Simply by enabling people to discover design and the processes behind it, a specialized design fair has helped to open up vitally important conversations about the wider role of design in the entire future of Dubai, from its infrastructure to its sense of cultural identity and social bonds. For all ‘developing’ cities or countries, design thinking and design management should be an intrinsic (almost instinctive) part of every decision made – and nowhere on Earth has developed at greater speed or on a greater scale than Dubai. Hopefully, the example of Design Days Dubai and the impact that it is having can provide some signposts for others.

GÜNTHER GRALL Professor, Design and Product Management Fachhochschule Salzburg GmbH (Salzburg University of Applied Sciences) Salzburg, Austria For the Austrian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), design is a driver for innovation and a guarantee for success.

The purpose of design management is to organize the design process and the design strategy within the company as a whole. It is important that design management is not reduced to niche areas such as controlling, accounting or project management. Design management works best when taking a holistic and creative approach to ensuring a univocal identity for the brand and its products. In our University, we do not view managers as ‘deciders’. Rather, we want managers to be ‘doers’. Our program, ‘Design and Product Management’, requires students to learn marketing and design in detail. The focus of product management is typically more related to numbers and meeting targets, consumer behavior and consumer needs, and interpreting data and surveys. We want designers in positions where they can be leaders for the whole company. Designers are visioneers and therefore good in defining the strategy behind the company and products. Austrian SMEs do not usually employ designers – there is often not enough work to justify a full-time position. However, design and product management as a combined package is more likely to justify the return on investment in a role and add value for the enterprise. Design management is key in bridging the gap between different aspects of how enterprises, brands and products are managed. Let us not forget: leaders should not be afraid to get their hands dirty. We see our alumni as being leaders and doers adding value to many different management and marketing processes.

EWA GOLEBIOWSKA Director at Silesian Castle of Art and Enterprises Zamek Cieszyn Cieszyn, Poland This year, Zamek Cieszyn (the Castle of Cieszyn) celebrates its tenth anniversary. Not so many years ago, it was hard to believe that a design center could be located in this small historical town right on the Polish–Czech border. Poland’s first institution promoting design as a tool for regional development was created in Silesia, a highly industrialized region that had just started the risky journey from a focus on raw materials (coal and iron) to a knowledge-based economy. Almost five million people living here expect much more than stylish design: a Regional Innovation Strategy built industrial design into its priorities, setting the trend for future design development. From the beginning, Zamek Cieszyn was an attractive place, disseminating new knowledge and building alliances between industries and designers. Understanding the value of this ‘new’ profession was not easy to start with: we used the persuasive power of positive and realistic examples from Poland and abroad, and exhibitions, workshops, publications, a database and design competitions created understanding and a growing need for good design. The very meaning of design and the design profession have since changed: industrial design is now enriched by knowledge about design management; social changes can be better implemented with the Design for All methodology; and the quality of public space and public services have been improved through Design Thinking. In the meantime, three other regional design centers have opened in Poland: in Gdynia, Poznan´ and Kielce. Design education is included in our national priorities. The Design Silesia project won the Design Management Europe Award. The Silesian Design Cluster has connected 35 different bodies together and developed its first new products. And WellDone, Poland’s first social design brand, has created a new business model. Every day, design demonstrates its power as a professional, complex tool used not only for better business, but for better everyday life.

BINIT VASA Founder Triature Mumbai, India The term ‘Indian design’ largely incites emotions and words like – beautiful, ornate, hand crafted and colorful. Most people relate Indian design with kitsch, ancient royalty, textiles, ornaments and cinema. The ‘Made in India’ tag is associated with ‘visual beauty’, as opposed to the ‘Made in Germany’ tag that signifies precision, or the ‘Made in China’ tag which has come to signify a lack of durability. In India, design is a ‘noun’ and not a ‘verb’. Indians are concerned about the eventual outcome and not the process of creation. The product matters, not how it was designed – as long as it is cost effective and functional. Design thinking is not inculcated in us and we get used to living in the chaotic systems that are created by accident. What might seem as an evident lack of process has given birth to another process, called jugaad: doing something quickly, with frugal resources and great innovation. As a developing and competitive country, we are programmed to get things done quickly with modest resources. Some consider jugaad as a quick fix but I prefer to call it Design management with constraints. It is not the best form of innovation, but jugaad empowers the people in need at the bottom of the pyramid. It has the ability to convert a mere plastic bottle and some bleach into a solar lamp. Problem-solving and lateral thinking are intrinsic to jugaad and innovation is not limited to the privileged few. Today India has a surge of start-ups based on this philosophy of identifying a needs gap and addressing it with innovations that cost one-third of the market benchmark. India is not known for its design processes, but what it will soon be known for is innovation that alleviates the masses from their daily challenges, versus innovation that is limited to boardrooms and research papers. I recommend that Design managers who are interested in design that creates impact, work with the scarcity of processes or means. Be a Design manager with limitations.

MIKKO KORIA Professor, International Design Business Management Aalto University Helsinki, Finland For a decade I have been reflecting on design in business and the business of design. No matter which direction I look, one challenge emerges constantly from the somewhat messy designerly landscape of prescribed strategies, tools, capabilities and ways of thinking and doing: working together. The times of the lone genius are long gone, and that world is getting more and more complex as the years roll by. We need to constantly be seeking new, perhaps unexplored and at best unexploited opportunities through new platforms, product and service systems and business models. These opportunities should translate into something meaningful that users can understand, appreciate and adopt, that firms find valuable, which furthermore contributes to sustainable ecosystems, and ultimately to the wellbeing in society. This is a daunting task. While there are moments of flash genius that make it all seem easy and straightforward, the everyday is more often a marathon of perseverance in collective imagination. Creating today together the sustainable solutions of tomorrow requires balanced systemic skills, the joining of forces and minds that enables a wider and deeper perception of what is out there and what else could there be. One needs highly developed skills and competence in collaborative ways of thinking and doing; these underpin abduction, divergence and convergence, reframing and the human touch (and all the other design thinking elements). Most people are not born with these connector skills; this is why we do masters-level professional acceleration of producers in new design intensive business at IDBM/Aalto.

MARY McBRIDE Founding Partner of Strategies for Planned Change and Director Pratt Institute Graduate Program in Design Management New York City, New York, USA Design management is an often misunderstood term that evolved its meaning from the traditional definition of managing a design department or firm. In the Pratt DM program, design management is defined as the ‘identification and allocation of creative assets within an organization to create strategic, sustainable advantage’. Design management is design-minded leadership. It is the bridge between design and business. It moves beyond the aesthetic to change experiences, organizations, and opportunities. Design managers are trained to lead this process. In many companies, designers are not asked to be part of the strategic conversation. At the point where executives are having conversations about the company’s strategic intent, designers need to be directly involved in that conversation, not ‘looped-in’ to that conversation later. Designers can execute directly on an organization’s strategic intention by saying, for example, ‘if our intention is to be profitable, we can do the following things. If our intention is to also care about our community, we cannot do the following things’. Design management is the bridge between design and business that enables the designer’s voice to be heard. Building a future for business in the twenty-first century will require organization, innovation, direction and the ability to imagine new possibilities. Designers are able to look at a problem and wonder, ‘What if this was completely blank and I could start over again?’ That kind of intelligence is now really necessary. It’s a creative intelligence that enjoys problem-solving and can find opportunities in places where other people have given up. That is way past strategic – that’s leadership by design.

APPENDIX Further Resources BIBLIOGRAPHY Ackoff, R., Creating the Corporate Future, John Wiley & Sons, 1981 Aldersey-Williams, H. (Ed), The Methods Lab: User Research for Design, Design for Aging Network (DAN), for the 1999 Presence Conference Amabile, T., How to Kill Creativity, Harvard Business Review on Breakthrough Thinking, Harvard Business Review Paperback, 1999 Austin, R. and Devlin, L., Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know About How Artists Work, Pearson Education Inc./Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2003 Beckwith, D., Design’s Strategic Role at Herman Miller, Design Management Review, Spring 2004 Berensen, J., Twelve Principles of Design Management in Oakley, M. (Ed) Design Management: A Handbook of Issues and Methods Basil Blackwell, 1990 Borja de Mozota, B., Design Management: Using Design to Build Brand Value and Corporate Innovation, Allworth Press, 2003 Breen, B., BMW: Driven by Design, Fast Company Magazine, Sept 2002 Bragg, A. & Bragg, M., Developing New Business Ideas, Pearson Education, 2005

Bruce, M. and Bessant, J., Design in Business: Strategic Innovation through Design, Pearson Education, 2002 Bruce, M. and Cooper, R., Marketing and Design Management, Thomson Business Press, 1997 Camper, Imagination Can Change the World, Camper, 2000 Clark, P. and Freeman, J., Design: A Crash Course, The Ivy Press, 2000 Cockerille, J., B&O Goes to the Head of the Class, Design Management Review, Winter, 2004 Conran, C. The Advancement of Design Awareness in Gorb, P (Ed) Design Talks! The Design Council, 1988 Cooper, R. and Press, M., The Design Agenda, John Wiley & Sons, 1995 Cox, G., Cox Review of Creativity in Business: Building on the UK’s Strengths, Commissioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 2005 CRSS/Penna, W., CRSS Architectural Programming Technique, AIA Press, 1987 Csikszentmihalyi, M., Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, HarperCollins, 1997 Cruikshank, J. and Malcolm, C., Herman Miller, Inc.: Buildings and Beliefs, The American Institute of Architects Press, 1994 Davenport, T., The Coming Commoditization of Processes,

Harvard Business Review, June 2005 Denyer, J., Student’s Guide to the Principles of Management, Zeus Press, 1972 De Bono, E., Teaching Thinking, Temple Smith, 1976 Design Council, Measuring Design Value, www.businessinformationsite.co.uk, 2001 Design Council, The Business of Design: Design Industry Research, A Design Council Research Publication, 2005 Dormer, P., Design Since 1945, Thames & Hudson, 2000 Drucker, P., The Daily Drucker, Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005 Flaherty, J., Peter Drucker: Shaping the Managerial Mind, Jossey-Bass Inc., 2002 Flagiello, C., Nurturing Power Partnerships on the Innovation Journey, DMI Review, 2013 Gorb, P., Design Management: Papers from the London Business School Architecture, Design and Technology Press, 1990 Grant, J., The New Marketing Manifesto, Orion Publishing Group Ltd., 1999 Grossman, L., How Apple Does It/What’s Next in Innovation, Time Magazine, November 14, 2005

Harris, M., Gadgets Go Green, Metro, January 4, 2006 Harvard Business Essentials, Hiring and Keeping the Best People, Harvard Business School Press, 2002 Harvard Business Essentials, Managing Creativity and Innovation, Harvard Business School Press, 2003 Heap, J., The Management of Design and Innovation, Cassell, 1989 Heller, R. and Hindle, T., The Essential Manager, Dorling Kindersley, 1998 Hollins, B., Design Management Education: the UK Experience, DMI Journal, Vol. 13, No.3, 2004 Hollins, G. and Hollins, B., Total Design: Managing Design in the Service Sector, Pearson Education, 1991 Intellectual Property Office (IPO), UK Design as a Global Industry, 2014 Jowit, J., Now High Street Stores Bow to the Organic Shopper, The Observer, January 8, 2006 Kelley. T., The Art of Innovation, HarperCollinsBusiness, 2002 Kotler, P., FAQs on Marketing, Marshall Cavendish Business, 2005 Landry, J., Book Review of ‘Leadership Passages’,

Harvard Business Review, September 2004 Laurel, B. (Ed), Design Research, Methods and Perspectives, MIT Press, 2003 Lidwell, W., Holden, K. and Butler, J., Universal Principles of Design, Rockport Publishers Inc., 2003 Lydiate, L. (Ed), Professional Practice in Design Consultancy: A Design Business Association Guide, Design Business Association, 1992 Nokes, S. and Greenwood, A., The Definitive Guide to Project Management, Pearson Education, 2004 Oakley, M. (Ed), Design Management: A Handbook of Issues and Methods, Basil Blackwell, 1990 Olins, W., The New Guide to Identity, Gower Publishing Ltd., 1999 Olins, W., On Brand, Thames & Hudson, 2003 Patent Office, What is Intellectual Property?, The Patent Office, 1997 Patterson, A., Managing Upwards, New Design, Issue 7, 2001 Pearson, C., The Hero Within, Harper Collins, 1998 Porter, M., Competitive Advantage, Free Press, 2004

Powell, E., ‘How to Win Friends’, Review of DMI Conference/ID Magazine Jan 1992, Design Review, Spring 1992 Preddy, S., Using the Spoken Word in Lydiate, L. (Ed) Professional Practice in Design Consultancy, A Design Business Association Guide, 1992 Press, M. and Cooper, R., The Design Experience, Ashgate, 2003 Raeburn, M., Vision: 50 Years of British Creativity, Thames & Hudson, 1999 Read, H., Art and Industry, Faber & Faber, 1932 Reingold, J., The Interpreter: Claudia Kotchka at Procter & Gamble Fast Company Magazine, June 2005 Richter, I. (Ed), The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Oxford University Press, 1998 Rollestone, G., Scenario-Based, Value-Driven Design Methods, A MetaLondon/Icon Medialab White Paper, 2003 Silbiger, S., The 10-Day MBA, HarperBusiness, 2012 Sparke, P., A Century of Design, Mitchell-Beazley/Reed Consumer Books Ltd., 1998 Swann, A., Design and Marketing, Phaidon, 1990

Topalian, A., Promoting Design Leadership through Training, Design Leadership Forum, 2003 Turner, R., Leading the Way, New Design, Issue 39, 2006 Turner, R., Q&A Interview, DMI Review, Winter 2013 von Stamm, B., Managing Innovation, Design & Creativity, John Wiley & Sons, 2003 Wheeler, A., Designing Brand Identity, John Wiley & Sons, 2003 Wood, A., Cost Management Begins to Reshape Design, Industry Design Week, May 11, 2006 Zeldin, T., Conversation: How Talk Can Change Your Life, The Harvill Press, 1998 Zimmerman, E., The Iterative Design Process in Laurel, B. (Ed) Design Research, Methods and Perspectives, MIT Press, 2003 JOURNALS BusinessWeek BusinessWeek publishes an Innovation and Design section in their magazine and online. Catalyst Strategic Design Review Launched in 2009 by the Pratt Design Management Program (New York), Catalyst Review addresses the strategic value of design. Its mission is to stimulate thinking and encourage conversation about the role of creative economies in ensuring an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future. CATALYST encourages conversation among leaders in design, business, the arts, and social innovation who are interested in creating economic value, advancing equity and assuring environmental stewardship.

Core77 Industrial design magazine and resources offering a calendar of events, firm listings, jobs listings, forums, articles and design-related databases. Core77 also provides a gathering point for designers and enthusiasts through competitions, lecture series, parties and exhibits. Creative Review Creative Review is the world’s leading monthly printed magazine and online resource for visual communication, drawing attention to important new trends in graphic design, advertising, new media, photography, illustration, typography and more. Based in the UK, the magazine has subscribers in 80 countries. Design Management Review Articles and case studies exploring how design is an essential strategic resource, and a component of every organization that can be effectively managed to make important contributions to innovation, the bottom line and to long-term success. The Design Management Journal (focused on academia and education) is published once a year. Design Week The UK’s leading Design website specializing in design news and jobs, and also including research, surveys, features, reports, invitations to pitch, campaigns, product launches and award winners. Fast Company Fast Company explores the areas of innovation in technology, ethonomics (ethical economics), leadership and design. Through the magazine and FastCompany.com, their aim is to inspire readers and users to think beyond traditional boundaries, lead conversations, and create the future of business. Harvard Business Review (HBR) The mission of Harvard Business Publishing (HBP, a subsidiary of Harvard Business School) is to improve the practice of management in a changing world, serving as a bridge between academia and enterprises around the globe through its publications and content platforms aimed at three markets: academic, corporate, and individual managers. The goal of HBR, an executive level magazine for professional managers, is to be the source of the best new ideas for people creating, leading, and transforming business. The focus is on areas such as leadership, organizational change, negotiation, strategy, operations, marketing, finance, and managing people. Inc. The leading online resource for private business leaders and innovators, with advice, tools and services to help businesses to grow. Management Today Published by the Chartered Management Institute (UK), MT is a monthly business magazine with news on companies, professionals, personalities and management techniques. It includes insight and practical advice from industry experts on career advancement and business development. Strategy + Business Strategy + Business is a quarterly thought-leadership and management magazine covering business

strategy, organizational leadership and underlying trends. Its purpose is in addressing the complex choices, decisions and subsequent impact faced by leaders – in corporate strategy, marketing, operations, human capital, public presence, governance, and other domains. The magazine is published by PwC Strategy& Inc. (formerly Booze & Company). WEB REFERENCES ABEDESIGN www.abedesign.org.br The Brazilian Association of Design (ABEDESIGN) is a business association founded in 2004 with the main objective of promoting, developing and expanding the market for design both inside Brazil as well as internationally. American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) www.aiga.org AIGA, a professional association for design, is committed to furthering excellence in design as a broadly defined discipline, strategic tool for business and cultural force. AIGA is the place design professionals turn to first to exchange ideas and information, participate in critical analysis and research and advanced education and ethical practice. AIGA sets the national agenda for the role of design in its economic, social, political, cultural and creative contexts. A420 www.A420.com Founded by Lynne Elvins and Rupert Basset, A420 provides the design industry with a systematic way to navigate the complex subject of sustainability. The Sustainability Issues Map (a visual poster and tool) was developed from the belief that the design industry is in a uniquely powerful position to create a more sustainable future for everyone. Chartered Institute of Marketing, The (CIM) www.cim.co.uk The CIM, the world’s largest community of professional marketeers, defines the marketing standards that operate in the UK and champion best practice globally. The CIM exists to develop the marketing profession, maintain professional standards and improve the skills of marketing practitioners, enabling them to deliver exceptional results for their organizations. Chartered Society of Designers, The www.csd.org.uk The Chartered Society of Designers (CSD) is the professional body for designers and the authority on professional design practice. It is the world’s largest chartered body of professional designers and is unique in representing designers in all disciplines. D&AD www.dandad.org Founded in 1962, D&AD is a UK-based non-profit organization that exists to stimulate, enable and award creative excellence in design and advertising globally. D&AD run awards schemes, education programs and a range of other initiatives such as New Blood, which aims to stimulate the next

generation of young creative talent. Design Business Association www.dba.org.uk The Design Business Association (DBA) is the trade association for design in the UK. It exists to build the bridge between designers and businesses and champion effective design, so improving the quality of people’s lives. Design Council, The www.designcouncil.org The Design Council is the UK Government’s advisor on design and sets the benchmark for promoting design nationwide through research and campaigns. As champions for great design, they show how design can improve lives and makes things better, and how it can transform business and public services. Design in Business www.designinbusiness.org.uk The Design Atlas is a framework for studying the design capability, processes and planning within a business. The Design Atlas gives an overview of how the design capability of an organization can be audited, and how strategic innovation through design can be proposed. Design Management Europe Award www.dmeaward.com Design Management Europe Award (DME) is a European design management prize that aims to promote the strategic use of design within European businesses. It awards the management and successful implementation of design in their processes and strategies to achieve their business goals. Design Management Institute, The www.dmi.org The Design Management Institute (DMI) is an international non-profit organization that seeks to heighten awareness of design as an essential part of business strategy. Founded in 1975, DMI has become the leading resource and international authority on design management. DMI has earned a reputation worldwide as a multifaceted resource, providing invaluable know-how, tools and training through its conferences, seminars, membership program, and publications. Design Research Society www.designresearchsociety.org The Design Research Society is committed to promoting and developing design research. Their members are present in 40 countries, and are drawn from diverse backgrounds such as design, the arts, engineering, psychology and computer science. Graphic Design USA www.gdusa.com Graphic Design USA is a magazine for graphic designers and other creative professionals. Their aim is to tell the story of graphic design’s growing importance to commerce and culture, and the role played by the talented, strategic, spirited and savvy individual designers involved. Their goal is to

shine the light on the men and women making today’s graphic design and, in turn, helping shape the broader world. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) www.iso.org ISO is the world’s largest developer of International Standards used by industrial and business organizations, governments and other regulatory bodies, trade officials, professionals, suppliers and customers of products and services, and people in general in their roles as consumers and end users. ISO standards contribute to making the development, manufacturing and supply of products and services more efficient, safer and cleaner; making trade between countries easier and fairer; providing governments with a technical base for health, safety and environmental legislation; aiding in transferring technology to developing countries; and in safeguarding consumers, and users of products and services. NextDesign Leadership Institute www.nextd.org Based in New York, the Next Design Leadership Institute has been ‘defuzzing the future’ since 2002. It was launched by Gary van Patter and Elizabeth Pastor as an experiment in innovation acceleration, and now helps others better understand next generation design thinking in the twenty-first century, especially in the areas of organizational and societal change. The NextD Leadership Network exists to explore, explain and advocate new forms of design leadership at the scale of organizations and society. Patent Office, The www.patent.gov.uk The Patent Office is responsible for granting patents, registered designs, and registered trademarks that are effective in the UK. It provides information on how to protect and exploit ideas, sell ideas to another company and how to legally protect from plagiarism. RGD – The Association of Registered Graphic Designers www.rgd.ca The Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) is a hub for the graphic design community, promoting knowledge sharing, continuous learning, research, advocacy and mentorship. RGD work to establish professional standards, best practices and innovative thinking within the design industry and beyond.

APPENDIX Glossary Added Value Increased or additional benefit with regard to, for example, real and perceived worth, market value, desirability, merit or use. Agenda A list of items or matters of business requiring attention. Audience The intended target market of people to which a particular product or service is aimed or created. Audit An inspection or verification of a particular aspect of an organization by a qualified person or consultancy. A risk audit assesses potential dangers or losses, whereas a financial audit assesses the health and status of accountancy systems and procedures. Brand Identity An identifying mark or trademark which represents an organization’s vision, mission, beliefs and purpose. Competitive Advantage The position or condition adopted in order for a company, product or service to differentiate itself beneficially from other offers, so gaining favor with consumers. Competitive Analysis The process of investigating and separating into parts the merits of particular companies, products or services over other rival and competing offers. Comparisons are made relative to, for example, price and quality, and a position defined to ensure success against these competing offers. Consumer The end user, purchaser, buyer, customer or user of particular products or services. Context The background information that provides the frame of reference for establishing the relationship between one thing and another, and the meaning associated with surrounding conditions related to, for example, history, location or position. Contingency An allowance (for example, of time or money) put aside in the event of any unforeseen circumstances or future emergencies sustained during a project. Copyright

An exclusive right giving legal protection to the use of a particular design, creative work or other publication, for example, music, literature and art. Customer Satisfaction The fulfillment of the customer relationship and the customer experience in a gratifying way that, in the face of increased competition and rising consumer expectations, helps to attract and retain customers. Demographics Classifies consumer ‘types’ according to where they live. Types are assumed to share attitudes and beliefs and purchasing habits. Design Guardian Person or consultancy responsible for ensuring an organization is using design to its maximum effect, monitoring and promoting the effective use of design, and ensuring coherence between the organizational vision, the brand identity and the design guidelines. Design Process The specific series of events, actions or methods by which a procedure or set of procedures are followed, in order to achieve an intended purpose, goal or outcome. Design Review Group assessment of design work held at periodic or key stages of the design process, during which design work is critically discussed, debated and assessed against the brief or other performance measures. The goal is to make the decision to progress to the next stage of the process, redesign, or even abandon the project all together. Design Standard An authorized measure, a set of principles, or an established level of quality and achievement, serving as a benchmark for an acceptable outcome. Differentiate Unique product and service features and benefits, or unique advertising and promotion, to sustain competitive advantage and enable consumers to tell the difference between competing offers. Hidden Agenda An implied, but unspoken, reason for doing something. Inclusive Design Design that takes into account the needs of individuals or groups normally excluded; for example, the partially sighted. Innovation To introduce new methods or ideas, or to make changes and variations which indicate a radical departure from the usual way of doing things.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Gives legal protection to the ownership of new ideas or brand names and gives the owner the right to stop other people exploiting their property. IPR includes patents, registered designs and design right, registered trademarks and copyright. Interaction Design A way of designing such that the customer, user or viewer is actively involved in the product, service, process or experience being designed, in a way that both sides ‘act upon’ each other. Invention To think up, conceive, originate, create, design, devise, discover, imagine or improvise or produce a new product, service or process. Lifecycle A behavioral pattern associated with the introduction of new products and services, passing through four stages. Introduction of the product to the marketplace; growth with increased demand; maturity where the product has reached its peak performance in terms of customer satisfaction and retention; and decline with a reduction in sales, and the ideal time to introduce a next-generation product. Methodology A set of working procedures, methods, practices or rules used when engaged on a particular project or process of inquiry. Milestones Agreed points for the completion of important events or key project responsibilities and deliverables, by when, and by whom. Patent A form of legal protection that grants exclusive rights to make, produce and sell an invention or innovation, for a particular length of time. Patents usually protect the functional and technical aspects of products and processes. Procure To obtain, engage or buy goods or services for use within an organization. The procurement department usually keeps a list of approved or existing suppliers, and a set of regulations and procedures for engaging and securing the services of new suppliers. Profit The excess returns over expenditure from having a business advantage, which results in making money, gaining value and achieving return on investment. Proposal A scheme or plan for consideration as part of a bid that describes both the opportunity available and a suggested approach for carrying out the plan. Prototype

A physical or virtual model created to test ideas and designs, and to solicit user-feedback, from which a final product or service will then be created. Public Relations The practice of promoting and maintaining the image of an individual or organization, through media and promotions such as press releases, press kits, case studies, interviews, company newsletters and sponsorship opportunities. Qualitative Describes an analysis or research approach based on the subjective thoughts, feelings, reactions and motivations of customers. Qualitative results can provide rich insights into people’s emotional connections and habitual behaviors with regard to people, places, products, services or other contexts. Quantitative Describes an analysis or research approach based on collecting and compiling data based on defined subject areas or specific questions posed to a sample of customers. The data is compiled for statistical analysis, and used to predict consumer behaviors, potential markets and future growth areas. Rationale An explanation of the response to a brief, the thinking process and explanation of why something has been designed or produced in a particular way. Will include decisions made in relation to, for example, form, function, aesthetics, user requirements and client needs. Research and Development A systematic and careful investigation of a particular subject; followed by the expansion of investigations and proposals into a chosen direction. Retainer Financial support to retain or keep in place the services of an individual agency or consultancy. Roster A list of approved consultancies, suppliers and service providers, that are reference checked, financially audited and approved by procurement, prior to consideration for engagement on a project and negotiation of terms of engagement. Scope of Work The extent or range of work to be undertaken. Shareholder A holder of shares in a company, which entitles the holder to a portion of the profits. Stakeholder An individual or group with involvement, interest or claim in a venture, which may be related to, for example, financial, societal, cultural, political or personal benefit.

Sustainable Design The study and application of how products, services, systems and processes could be designed or redesigned to have a positive impact on social, economic and environmental factors (i.e. people, profit, planet). Considerations might include materials, their origins and their end disposal; energy and transport policies; product lifespan and waste-reduction strategies. Trademark ™ A way of identifying goods and services, and of differentiating between competing offers. The trademark is a sign or symbol that allows for instant brand recognition, is unique to each business, and guarantees the origin, quality and consistency of the goods or services. Trend Forecasting/Spotting The act of predicting a tendency, a current style or fashion, or a future market opportunity, as identified by marketers, retailers, designers and consumers themselves. Turnover The volume of money or sales a business transacts in a given period. High turnover is not necessarily related to high profit, since costs and expenditure can reduce profits and make projects financially unviable. User-centered Design A process of designing a product or service experience around the life and behavior of the consumer or user. User Friendly A process, product or service that is easy to understand or do.

APPENDIX Additional Credits All diagrams originally redrawn/created by Giles Rollestone. Page numbers refer to the print book. P. 20 Wedgwood cameo. Courtesy of Wedgwood Visitor Centre. p. 20 Portrait of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Courtesy of The Brunel Engine House, London. p. 20 Crystal Palace exterior. Courtesy of Tallis’ History and Criticism of the Crystal Palace. p. 20 Toast rack, designed by Christopher Dresser, from the collection of Ellen & Bill Taubman. Courtesy and copyright of Michael Whileway 2001/the Victoria and Albert Museum Collections. p. 21 AEG Turbine Hall: Courtesy and copyright of Max A. Monaco. p. 22 Time magazine cover October 31, 1949. Courtesy of Time magazine. p. 22 Eames chair. Courtesy of Vitra Design Museum/The Furniture Society. p. 22 Olivetti Lettera 22, designed by M. Nizzoli. Courtesy of Olivetti. p. 22 AT&T telephone, designed by Henry Dreyfuss. Courtesy of the IDE Virtual Design Museum/Henry Dreyfuss Associates. p. 22 Panton chair. Courtesy of Art Net. p. 23 Portrait of Thomas Watson Jr. Courtesy of International Business Machines Corporation. p. 23 Beovision 1400. Courtesy of Bang & Olufsen. p. 23 Sony Walkman. Courtesy of Sony. p. 23 Carlton cabinet, designed by Ettore Sottsass. Courtesy of the Design Museum. p. 24 Apple Mac. Courtesy of Entire Low End Mac. p. 24 The Euro. Symbolic-2001, copyright of European Community 2006. Courtesy of the European Commission Audio Visual Service. p. 24 Portrait of Stefano Marzano. Courtesy of Philips Design. p. 87 Attila the Hun. Supplied by Nancy Carter at North Wind Picture Archive.

p. 154 Leonardo da Vinci. Supplied by Alinari Archives. All reasonable attempts have been made to clear permissions and trace and credit the copyright holder of the images reproduced. However, if any have been inadvertently omitted, the publisher will endeavour to incorporate amendments in future printings.

Appendix

Acknowledgements Thank you to all the readers, contributors, collaborators and special people who are part of the history and evolution of this book. Thanks to: Lesley Ripley, Georgina Kennedy, Leafy Cummins and Sutchinda Thompson at Bloomsbury Publishing Plc; Brian Morris and Caroline Walmsley formerly of AVA; Karen Wilks; Giles Rollestone; Dick Petersen, John Hawkes, Chris Holt, Bill Hollins, Ian Dumelow, Roni Brown; Chris Luebkeman, Keiko Uchida, Fabio Issao, Rosie Frost, Chloe Martin, Brian Gillespie, Colette Liebenberg; Darragh Murphy, Deb Marazek, Nick Lockington, RitaSue Siegel, Weronkia Rochacka, Mago Mulangwa Majid, Darrel Rhea, Marilyn Dietrich, Akram Abd El-Aziz, Somaya Ehab Mustafa, Adin Heller, Laura Noriega Landeros, Rich Banham, Cyril Zammit, Gunther Grall, Ewa Golebiowska, Binit Vasa, Mikka Koria, Mary McBride; Viv Jenkins, Wojciech Borowicz, Tom Wates, Patrick Skertich, Anais Lefebvre, Andrea LaRowe, David and Jason at Basecamp, Ron Reeves, Sebastian Hesselmann, Lynne Elvins, Gavin Cawood, Christopher Colosimo, Eve Chung, Brooke Estin, Sophia Hill, Marek Adamczewski, Simon Berry, Christine Xu, Chong Hui, Julia Xu, Jessica Fan, Maxine Horn, Krysztof Bielski, Alexey Shamutdinov, Maarten Jurriaanse, Barry de Bruin and Meike Nip at Ping Pong Design, Erik Sprunk-Jansen, Dids MacDonald, Nina Warburton, James Lamb, Jennifer Greitschus, Jackie Young, Anna Davidson, Jason Fried, Martina Hettel, Birte Cobarg, Katja Reimund, Alison Walden, Soledad Olmo, Ruth Coughlan, John Pipino, Jeff Tull, Laura Brock, Mark Finnie, Vanessa Hopkins, Edo van Dijk, Sarah Vernon, Dave Floyd, David Cooper, Matt Chetwood, Ingeliese Neilsen, Silke Becker, Rocio Diaz, Fernandez, Ailana at Innocent, Justin Shennan, Jade Hutchinson, Simon Jordan, Akkiko Koga, John Chapman, Tony Quinn, Pierre Vinsot, Shahar Sibershatz, James Lawless, Diane Foley, Caroline Farley, Emma Fieldsen, Emma Karidian, Nicola Fowler, Jamie Ford, Ange Dunselman, Marta at Silken Hotels, Melissa Hemsley, Joan MacKeith, David Jones, Peter Theony, Annabel Buckingham, Adelaide Turnbull, Annette Evans, Chris at Moleskine, Marta Meneres, Alan Hely, Sheryl Seitz, Graham Taylor, Lorette Natal, Angela Knorr, Rory Caren, Susan Dean.

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www.bloomsbury.com Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc This electronic edition published in 2015 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2015 © Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2015 All rights reserved You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. Kathryn Best has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as author of this work. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: PB: 978-1-4725-7367-4 ePDF: 978-1-4725-7368-1 ePub: 978-1-4742-6037-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Best, Kathryn. Design management : managing design strategy, process, and implementation / Kathryn Best. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4725-7367-4 (alk. paper) – ISBN 978-14725-7368-1 (ePDF) 1. Industrial design – Management. I. Title. TS171.4.B46 2015 658.5 – dc23 To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com. Here you will find extracts, author interviews, details of forthcoming events and the option to sign up for our newsletters.