Design: Strategic tool for transformational projects
Today, design is a key competence for organisations of all types and sizes and goes far beyond mere style. Design is a strategic asset and can drive innovation processes, strengthen brand and customer experience across the board, solve complex problems and improve collaboration between all stakeholders. As an agency for strategic design, we support you in developing the necessary competencies and to exploit design’s full potential.
To achieve this, our approach is hands-on: Our designers provide direct support for projects – and at the end of the process, concrete solutions are produced. In a joint learning process, the work will automatically enhance the knowledge, skills and mindset of the team in all relevant aspects of the design process. Transformation thus arises from the proven principle of learning by doing: the application of tried and tested methods helps to specifically improve the conditions for the use of design as a strategic instrument in the organization.
The maturity level of organizations in dealing with design can be divided into 4 levels. Our mission as an agency for strategic design is to support the systematic development of design competence in joint projects.
Transformative projects with strategic design
Incremental or radical: design as the basis for innovation
Strategic Design helps to both bring the status quo to a new level and to develop new solutions entirely. For example, if your company already has design processes or teams, you can address already existing pain points. In this way, you can increase efficiency, deepen competencies and strengthen the quality of work. On the other hand, design methods also offer the opportunity to try out new ways of working together and to dissolve path-dependent patterns of thought: In sprints specifically designed for this purpose, we systematically search for new products, suitable business models, and open up new horizons. Our projects can leverage your existing day-to-day business and thereby promote design processes and their acceptance within the organization.
In accordance with the concept of the ambidextrous organization, strategic design is capable of solving existing problems or optimizing established processes as well as opening up new horizons in radical innovation projects.
State of mind and craftsmanship
Thinking by doing: Design as a cultural practice
Innovation projects today are often characterized by complexity, contradictions and uncertainty. To overcome these, design offers us the cultural practices drafting, prototyping, or conceptualization. Its methods create more than “just” creative ideas: They connect our thinking with our actions and thus provide solutions for a wide range of challenges and problems. Through decades of working with companies, we are now convinced that everyone (and not just designers) is capable of learning and applying the essential methods for this. However, since design can represent a real change in everyday work, our projects are geared towards gradually developing the necessary knowledge and skills. In addition, we have refined proven tools and processes from design to optimize the connectivity of design processes in everyday business.
Design processes and the organization: fundamental principles
While there is not *the* single path to improving an organization’s design competency, there are important basic principles for it. And these can be implemented by means of transformative projects.
There is no universal pattern of success for establishing design. In order to create awareness and acceptance, suitable starting points need to be identified.
Using the Strategic Design Framework, already established solutions from our business can be integrated into the processes of an organization.
Operative fields define the tasks and responsibilities design takes on in the organization. In this context design unleashes its transformative impact.
The developmental stages of design in the organization. Its full integration maximizes the realization of its potential.
Increasing design competence systematically
For most companies, design is a new discipline that needs to be integrated in a sensible fashion. Only then does it unfold its full potential. However, the difficulty here is that the introduction of design can often only be solved through design itself. We support organizations in this work by making our Strategic Design Framework available.
Transformation by Design: Practical examples of our services
Strategic Design Sprints unleash targeted innovation potential. In the compact and adaptable format, teams embark on the journey from idea to prototype. Learn more
Design systems enable new processes between designers and developers. They eliminate sources of error and reduce the ressources required to ensure brand consistency. Learn more
