Category: Design Strategy


Jay Peters

Simply Awesome


Jay Peters, January 5th, 2012

Innovation. The undisputed Holy Grail of business drivers for the past decade. Thanks to several run away successful companies with innovation at their core, the term is now rooted in almost every corporate mission. Those once on the outside waiting for the trend to stick are now quickly trying to figure out what it means. More importantly what it means for them. Unfortunately, with my experience consulting many companies, they often do not stop to think what innovation means for their customers.

Wikipedia defines Innovation as: the creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that   …

Read & comment »

Posted in: Design Language, Design Strategy, Innovation Management |
Jay Peters

Customer Centricity


Jay Peters, November 10th, 2011

An old college friend recently contacted me and asked:  “How can companies be more consumer centric”? It got me thinking… and thus the topic of my post. While today many companies are keen on the idea of listening more to their customers (often because they do not have a choice thanks to social media), not many companies know how to best approach this. The old adage of “Customer is King”, often owned by marketing, has lost its luster. So, how can a company be more customer centric?  One way is through Design Management.

At PARK, we work with many clients …

Read & comment »

Posted in: Design Culture, Design Management, Design Strategy |
Marjolein de Wilde

The future of mobility


Marjolein de Wilde, February 24th, 2011

BMWi 3 series

BMW just launched their latest concept: the BMW-i series.[1] What makes these cars so interesting is not BMW’s usage of innovative materials or production methodologies, nor the fact that it is a line of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles starting in 2013.[2] It’s the way they are approaching the future of mobility.

Just like the car sharing concept of Daimler,[3] the BMW-i concept is looking beyond conventional vehicle concepts and more to developing a range of mobility-related services. This cross-disciplinary platform thinking seems to finally set foot on ground! BMW’s concept is backup by …

Read & comment »

Tags: , ,
Posted in: Design Management, Design Strategy, Innovation Management |
PARK

Management consultants needed?


PARK, November 10th, 2010

The tasks facing the manager of large corporate design departments have grown. Do their scale and difficulty now mean that it’s useful to hire mainstream management consultants – McKinsey, BCG, Booz Allen, for example – to help design managers with strategic issues and major overhauls of organisation?

For managers of hundreds of designers, life isn’t getting any simpler. Issues such as globalization, regulation, HR, the coordination of IT and the understanding of trends place great demands.

  • Design managers unprepared for problems of success
    More is being asked of design departments. The obvious fascination consumers have with objects, interfaces and brands,

    • …

    Read & comment »

Tags: , , ,
Posted in: Design Management, Design Objectives & KPIs, Design Organisation, Design Strategy |
Jay Peters

Design with Intent


Jay Peters, November 2nd, 2010

As design is becoming more and more user focused, it is more about the use and experience and less about “beautifully” designed things. Of course, we always strike for a balance between the two, but beyond just visually desirable and basic functional design, how can design influence the intended behaviours or results of your user? Can you engage users to act accordingly to a predetermined action?  By asking the right questions, you may be able to do just that.

Inspired by IDEO’s Method cards and the Russian problem-solving, analysis and forecasting tool TRIZ, Dan Lockton, during his PhD tenure …

Read & comment »

Tags: ,
Posted in: Design Language, Design Strategy, Design Tools |
Marjolein de Wilde

Stop making excuses, start acting responsible!


Marjolein de Wilde, August 5th, 2010

We need to change our 1950’s mindset where people were totally enchanted about “better living through more consumption”. www.thestoryofstuff.com

Design has become the flagship of many companies and it is being hyped to sell more products within the B2C market as well as in the B2B market. But in these days where sustainability is a major topic, we cannot justify design relevance with the fact that we thereby sell more products. There is definitely a challenge for the design community to ensure creation of sustainable design. To address the topic more holistically I’d rather talk about responsible design: design that …

Read & comment »

Tags: , , ,
Posted in: Design Management, Design Objectives & KPIs, Design Strategy |
Jay Peters

Business Model Innovation: Identifying the WHY!


Jay Peters, August 3rd, 2010
Business Model Canvas, Osterwalder, Pigneur & al. 2010

Business Model Canvas: nine business model building blocks, Osterwalder, Pigneur & al. 2010

Recently my colleague and I delivered a great workshop on business model innovation for new services. We used the Business Model Canvas developed by Alexander Osterwalder published under the creative commons license, which does an excellent job at explaining the WHAT.

However, what is left a bit undefined is the WHY?

Granted, we all know that companies need innovate business models to stay fresh and competitive in today’s changing landscape, but generating ideas based on assumptions of what the consumers (don’t know they) need is a …

Read & comment »

Tags: , ,
Posted in: Design Management, Design Strategy, Design Tools, Innovation Management |
Sorena Veerman

‘Best practice’ in design


Sorena Veerman, April 30th, 2010

In today’s journey of design departments to become more effective and efficient more and more existing management models are used and copied to design: One of those being ‘best practice’.

A best practice is a technique, method, process, approach, activity or tool that is believed to be more effective and efficient at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. when applied to a particular condition or circumstance (wikipedia).

We see that many design departments are currently looking for best practices in design and design management, either by capturing current internal practices or by using external ones.…

Read & comment »

Tags: , , ,
Posted in: Design Management, Design Management Definition, Design Strategy |
Frans Joziasse

What we should learn from Indian leaders


Frans Joziasse, April 12th, 2010

As the global economy is slowly recovering it seems that some industries come back stronger than ever.

But how is this with the design industry? We have seen many lay-offs and we see a renewed focus among designers and design managers on creativity instead of efficiency and effectiveness. But are they prepared to cope with the dynamics of the future markets and what are the competencies do they need to cater for?

I was shocked to read the gap between Western leaders and Indian leaders when it comes to the point of people development. Only 7% of the Western leaders …

Read & comment »

Tags: , ,
Posted in: Design Management, Design Strategy |
12»