This PARK opinion is based on an in-company lecture
for a R&D department that is looking for ways to increase their performance. PARK was invited to inspire them…
What can R&D teams learn from design teams?
For many years it has been the other way around.
The hard-core engineers showed designers the way how to succesfully develop technology and products. Design, being the little sister, followed and learned…
Guess what? Little sister has grown up. After years of professionalisation design has started to own some capabilities that R&D teams could benefit from.
1. Clarity of objectives
Originally designers have not been renowned for their ability for objective setting and keeping. But thanks to hard work in the area of design effectiveness, they are better as ever.
Some R&D teams have the tendency, due to their relatively long-term challenges, not always to be crystal clear in their objectives.
2. Know when to iterate
Design teams iterate. They love it. But by now they know when to iterate and when to run. When to re-loop and re-loop and when to head straight to the end.
Some R&D teams do have the tendency to keep improving their technology over and over.
3. Holistic approach
Aproaching problems holistically is in the veins of designers. They see problems from all sides, and they can see behind the fore-laying and obvious issues.
Some R&D teams do have the tendency to keep focusing on technology and technology only.
4. Full immersion
Designers are often called ‘the user advocates’. They are good in immersing themselves into the everyday life of consumers or customers. This capability is crucial to ensure success of innovations into the market.
Some R&D teams do have the tendency to keep focusing on technology and technology only.
5. User prototyping
Designers are trained to build prototypes in very early phases of the development process and put these to ‘realistic’ (in terms of users) tests.
Some R&D teams do have the tendency to forget making prototypes of their innovations on a user level.
Tags: design teams, R&D teams
Hi Tim
Great and short presentation of what R&D can learn from designers. There is one thing that keeps me alert though: if design is about new product development and if R&D’s main goal for companies is to create new products, why are we still trying so hard to keep them apart? My stance is that designers – like what you argue – are of great value for R&D’s and organizations, so why not be an integral, long term part of it? This can be achieved either by putting designers into R&D teams, or by having long lasting (over years!) relationships.