Business Design Introduction.
How one design consultancy explains to new employees what Business Design is, and why it exists as a discipline there.
At EGGS Design all new employees get a thorough onboarding to all our creative disciplines. For the more junior designers, this serves to better understand and appreciate the variety of skills and experience we have been lucky to amass. As creative director of Business Design, I host such onboarding sessions on behalf of my discipline. In these sessions, I present our take on what Business Design is for us and our work. I try to explain why it is an ascending term in the ever ongoing quest for successful innovation.
I’ve recently taken to presenting this talk externally as well. I have found it fuels some interesting conversations. I especially find it opens doors to less design mature executives. I’d like to share some of it here with you. Hopefully, it can spur some reflection and discussion.
Disclaimer; Although I feel the content is relevant to most contexts designers work in (inhouse, startup, corporate…) the text is written with a consultancy perspective for a design consulting audience. The consultancy world is highly competitive, so some of the content deliberately seeks to “position” Business Design in relation to both design and business in a differentiating way.
Obviously “everything is interdependent” in successful innovation. Senior practitioners (including me) from both the business and design worlds rightfully argue that it is all about balancing perspectives. However, I find distinctions and separation of focus useful in communication with anyone not fully immersed in the current design and innovation literature. With that as a backdrop feel free to ignore elements as you please :)
1.
Achieving your planned business outcomes.
Sources vary but indicate that maybe as much as 95% of all innovation projects fail to achieve their planned business outcomes. That is a grim statistic! The recently deceased Clayton Christensen was one of the first to point this out over 23 years ago. I’m not only talking about the nine out of ten startups that die. I’m talking about all the projects out there that fail to get the value they planned from their investment in innovation.
But companies need to keep trying. They need to re-invent themselves. And to increase their odds they sometimes approach consultants. Sometimes that consultant is a designer. Why is that?
Why does anyone believe coming to a designer can increase these odds? Well, they’ve heard that most innovations fail because people don’t want them. They don’t need them. They are not desirable.
A potential customer may like the idea of a product or service, but she is not willing to put in enough effort to acquire it -let alone pay for it.
Desirability was never enough.
Now, designers are great at finding what is desirable. We are trusted to do that. We are specialists.
However, it turns out that a significant number of innovation projects fail to achieve their planned business outcomes for completely different reasons.
Designers are great at finding what is desirable. We are trusted to do that. We are specialists.
The innovation may not be feasible. For example, the company may not have the technology or assets to enable this innovation. You may want to make your company the dominating platform of your industry, but if you lack technology resources -or the money to acquire it- it is not a road you can travel. It’s not feasible for you.
Or, the innovation is not viable. You can’t make a profit from it. Or, you may not be a credible source for it. You don’t have the right brand. Maybe you are not capable of delivering it. You may lack competence, tools, or the right people.
In fact, the central message in the infamous “Desirability-Feasibility-Viability”-Venn diagram is often not fully acknowledged. What was referred to as “the sweet spot of innovation”- right there in the middle -turns out to be the only spot for innovation. And it may make up as little as 5% of the area.
What many design consultancies have found is that to be a go-to-place for not only desirability but for innovation, they need to hit that tiny target. To do so they need to design not only desirability but also feasibility and viability. Business design is about designing the viability part.
Business design is designing for viability.
As we will see below, many design consultancies want to react to a growing demand to deliver beyond desirability. To do that they must broaden their focus. Clients and their management are starting to ask for more than desirability from designers. They want success. They want the 5%. And, as you’ll see later, other types of consultants out there wanting to deliver innovation are seeing the same thing and taking appropriate action.
2.
The opportunity that came knocking.
So. This Venn diagram has been true for thousands of years. Why are designers focusing on viability now? One answer is that the opportunity came knocking now. And I mean that very literally. Where potential clients yesterday knocked on the door to a design consultancy saying, “Can you help me give form to this product?”, “Shape this interface?”, or “Craft this touchpoint?”. Today some just say, “Can you help me?”.
The output from designers has historically gone from craft -making stuff- to also being asked to do creative problem-solving. Design Thinking and Service Design quickly became shorthand for solving complex challenges in a people-centric way. Today designers are lucky enough to be asked to do both while helping with strategic transformation. This means finding out what companies should be doing in the first place. Making companies new. Even making new companies. What separates designers from other actors in these efforts is that they do so utilizing “the whole pyramid” (see illustration) in a holistic fashion.
Designers are increasingly helping find out what companies should be doing in the first place, re-making companies, and making new companies.
3.
Design’s fit to ambiguity.
So what has happened out there to create this demand? “Exponential change” happened. Everything changing. Change happening faster and faster. This has made it harder to plan. It has become harder to make a good strategy. Every problem now has so many parameters in motion that there is no solid ground from which to base great decisions.
The word exponential change has been hyped to death. A more useful word describing the problems of making decisions in this complexity is ambiguity. The solution could be this -oh, wait! Now it is that? It depends.
The traditional management toolbox falls a bit short here.
Now, the traditional management toolbox falls a bit short here. When applied, it is typically geared towards regaining control. Since stopping the changing world is unrealistic, and ignoring it is… foolish, they often resolve to two things; shortening the planning horizon and limiting the budget. I believe this is an important driver for the popularity of design sprints. It’s not that designers have secretly dreamt of sprinting… It is a project management tool that controls cost by limiting time. Now, if not handled expertly -something very few are able to do- these two measures can result in a reduced focus on building robust and long-term competitive advantage. These are the very things they set out to gain in the first place!
They come to designers because they have some traits and tools that address complexity and ambiguity.
So, these companies go looking for help. They come to designers because they have some traits and tools that address complexity and ambiguity. Visual communication. Empathy with human beings -like their employees and their customers. Prototyping. Conceptualizing. All that jazz. The smartest hire designers on their executive teams, but luckily for the consultants among us -some in addition hire help.
4.
Why everybody is doing design.
There is of course also a threat behind creating the new discipline in our consultancy. That threat is rooted in the very same ambiguity. Because this new complexity touches everything. It touches everyone. And so it goes that every one it touches wants to have their hands on the steering wheel. They all want to be in the driver’s seat of that innovation car. Design consultancies, marketing studios, management consulting, strategy consulting, innovation consulting… They all promise to bring clarity and direction. They all promise the 5%.
This new complexity touches everything. It touches everyone. And so it goes that every one it touches wants to have their hands on the steering wheel.
To do so they need to master desirability, feasibility, and viability. All three. Most find they need to broaden their competence. Those weak on desirability have found Design to be a key ingredient in strengthening it.
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This is the reason why management consulting -strong on viability- is acquiring design studios. The same is done by large IT companies -strong on feasibility. At EGGS Design we have established the discipline of Business Design to strengthen our own viability muscles. We established a Creative Tech discipline some years ago to do the same for feasibility.
The stage is set. Who will become the preferred partner for innovation? All we can say is that the line of different consultants wanting to solve a client’s “innovation challenge” is rapidly growing. And, ever more of them can actually do the job -making our client’s task of choosing an innovation partner increasingly difficult.
5.
Managing the other 90% of your assets.
There is one additional factor creating the demand for design competence on top of the complexity and ambiguity. Businesses today are seeing a substantial -and increasing- part of their value no longer appearing in their books. It is immaterial. It is made up of reputation, brand, relations, user experience. It is often booked as “goodwill” when the IT unicorns go public. It can make up over 90% of their total value.
Naturally, businesses are nervous about destroying some of this value when they innovate. When they change. Which they must. For a lot of management this value is hard to relate to, and harder yet to leverage or manipulate.
Naturally businesses are nervous about destroying some of this value when they innovate.
Design and designers deal with this value on a day-to-day basis. One of their main competences is the creation and manipulation of it. This realization is an important reason why designers are included in more and more executive teams -and even sit on corporate boards.
Having realized this, we at EGGS have actually organized the two disciplines of Business Design and Brand Design together. We see that, at least on a top-level, the two deal with the same strategic questions. Who are you? What position are you gunning for?
6.
Problem Solving Strategies.
So, what is Business Design? Let’s look at the two components “business” and “design”. There are traits and mindsets to each. Obviously. But for now, let us look at tools and processes. Below is a typical representation of a design process.
For each stage, there are tools and activities. Creative facilitation, mind mapping, probes, and prototypes, etc. I think many designers regard what they do as problem-solving.
I think many designers regard what they do as problem-solving (…) it bears an uncanny similarity to what many business and management professionals do.
This is interesting because it bears an uncanny similarity to what many business and management professionals do. A key job for a business manager is to make decisions. If you hold an MBA -a Master’s in Business Administration- you will most likely have encountered a set of guidelines on how to do this.
Pictured are also the phases of one such guideline. It states you need to first make sure you understand the problem -and that you are sure it’s the right problem to solve. You then need to be clear on your objectives with solving this. You should proceed to find many alternatives to reach these objectives. Subsequently, you need to determine the consequences of each alternative, make trade-offs, and ultimately decide what to do. And a management professional has tools to do this. Market studies, financial modeling, spreadsheets…
See any similarities?
Adoption of tools.
So. Similar approaches. Because they are both about solving problems. But they use different tools and solve different challenges. In fact -historically these challenges were considered so different that there was a solid divide between what management professionals worked with and what design professionals worked with. The same went for the tools they used. But now that’s all changed.
Senior designers working with startups found that they to some extent were designing the business when they were finding that initial value proposal. Progressive business developers found tools like the business model canvas, and design thinking, to be incredibly powerful. So, they crossed into each other’s “territory”.
Limits of reach.
Now, Business Design is not about declaring war to “protect territory”. On the contrary! Business design is celebrating this blending. But it is also recognizing that there is a limit to how far each side can stretch. The span is substantial and there is a huge potential in inventing and improving the tools in this blend zone. That, and two perimeters of interest, can articulate the value contribution of a new type of specialist; The Business Designer.
That (…) can articulate the value contribution of a new type of specialist; The Business Designer
Business in Design.
In the “design perimeter”, there is a need for skilled representation of business interests embedded deeply in the creative effort. This is not the inclusion of a business developer in workshops. This is a permanent member of the creative team. A business designer here helps align the creative efforts to the desired business outcomes. Translating business contexts and goals into creative challenges that a team of diverse backgrounds can work on without producing irrelevant ideas. Ultimately making sure the innovation beats the odds and becomes part of the 5% club.
Design in Business.
In the “business perimeter”, there is a need for skilled representation of creativity embedded deeply in business decision processes. Although I find many management professionals to be highly creative a business designer here can help clarify strategic alternatives, ensure customer empathy, validate alternatives, and not least broaden the palette of alternatives -making for better decision-making.
The business designer can be the critical creator, facilitator, and translator to make more projects succeed.
Closing Remarks.
At EGGS Design we’ve established a separate discipline called Business Design. It is a sibling to our other disciplines of creative technology, industrial-, service-, brand-, and digital design. It exists because we see that our current design disciplines cannot stretch far enough into the business domain to deliver consistently on viability. We work in teams with these to develop products & services that help our clients achieve their desired business outcomes. We also ensure our creative efforts are targeted -and thus efficient.
A Business Designer embeds creativity into business processes and business interests in the creative team.
