Designers as In-house Innovation Consultants
DMI
Kevin McCullagh
Vision Leadership
plan.london Plan Strategic hello@plan.london
Internal
innovation consultants Lead cross-function teams to tackle high-priority challenges, which include a significant element of human experience
For example:
– How to best introduce GAI into organisations
– Improving the staff on-boarding experience
– Bringing a new company vision to life
– Developing an architectural brief for the design of a new office space
Three wins
DESIGN INDUSTRY
Part of Design’s renewal
One part of Design’s next step as it adapts to face the new challenges
DESIGN FUNCTION
Boost impact
A way of expanding a Design function’s offer to their organisation
DESIGN LEADERS
Career stretch
A stretching career option for individual design leaders to achieve great impact
Design’s doldrums
doldrums
plural noun
1. A state of inactivity or stagnation
2. Low spirits or sense of malaise
Squeezed Rolling Stagnating Fewer Design Limited Budgets Layoffs Pay CDOs Demotion Growth opportunities
Why is Design in the doldrums?
What are the main causes of the current discontent among many designers?
Downturn
Tight budgets, less jobs and more focus on efficiency
Peaked
Boardroom interest in design has waned
Adoption
Some design methods and tools have been widely adopted by other functions
Over-specialization
Less chance to tackle the wider problem
Boredom
Focus on process, guidelines and operations leaves less scope for creativity
AI anxiety
Fears of job losses and the devaluing of design
Why is Design in the doldrums?
Scale from 1 to 5 how influential each of the following factors is in causing the current discontent among many designers
Downturn
Tight budgets, less jobs and more focus on efficiency Peaked
Boardroom interest in design has waned
Adoption
Design methods and tools widely adopted by other functions
Over-specialization
Less chance to tackle the whole problem
Boredom
Focus on process, guidelines and ops leaves less scope for creativity
AI anxiety
Fears of job losses and the devaluing of design
Why is Design in the doldrums?
Scale from 1 to 5 how influential each of the following factors is in causing the current discontent among many designers
Downturn
Tight budgets, less jobs and more focus on efficiency Peaked
Boardroom interest in design has waned
Adoption
Design methods and tools widely adopted by other functions
Over-specialization
Less chance to tackle the whole problem
Boredom
Focus on process, guidelines and ops leaves less scope for creativity
AI anxiety
Fears of job losses and the devaluing of design
Design leaders have failed to create the expected value for the companies they joined over the past 10 years.
Reflect Renew
Headline
50pt Design has evolved by adding to its skill stack
User centricity
Creative problem-solving
Cultural attunement
Foresight and vision
Visualising and prototyping
Cross-functional collaboration
Experience aesthetics
Core capabilities
Design was a cult
Headline 50pt
Design has evolved by adding to its skill stack
New capabilities
User centricity
Creative problem-solving
Cultural attunement
Foresight and vision
Visualising and prototyping
Cross-functional collaboration
Experience aesthetics
Core capabilities
Global design
New business environment
Global markets
Global competition
Global supply chains
Global teams
Global talent
Digital modelling
Prototyping
Closer integration with engineering and production
Concurrent engineering
Closer collaboration
Cross-functional teams
Parallel development
Integrated design tools
Collaboration and communication
Faster speed to market
Experience design
New philosophy
– Huge job growth
– More integrated with other business functions
– Familiarised more functions with ID methods
Design thinking
Opened the door to the C-suite
Further spread ID methods such as user research and iterative development
Business design
Design meets the MBAs
Value propositions
Business model canvas
Lean/Agile methods
Design meets the start-up thinking – Hypotheses – Prototyping – Iterative testing – Validation
Remote collaboration
Covid accelerated Global teams got closer Concerns of long-term productivity, innovation and erosion of team cultures
Hybrid working is the next challenge
Systematic Foresight
Headline 50pt
Move from ad hoc trends studies to systematic foresight
Building a foresight capability
‘Hold strong opinions weakly…If you must forecast then forecast often – and be the first to prove yourself wrong.’ Paul Saffo
Get under the surface
Play out alternative scenarios
Build a point of view
Delivering on sustainability commitments
Driven by regulation, consumers and retailers
Many Design teams have been tasked with implementation planning of corporate commitments
Diversity
Design
with and for diversity
Which dimensions of diversity?
How to set the benchmark to aim for Get the data, rather than assume bias
Designing with data
Commercial currency
Understand market shifts
Identify opportunities
Test prototypes
Influence stakeholders
Measure product performance
Design and research ops
Design orchestration
How teams work together than assume bias
How work gets done
How work creates impact
Human-machine interlace
Workflow redesign
To optimise for human and machine strengths
Design’s evolution
Closer integration with business
What’s next?
What skills should design add to its stack next to renew itself?
We should focus on Business maturity rather than businesses’ Design maturity
Designers as change agents?
Or Internal Innovation Consultants
Headline 50pt
How can I increase the impact of Design on my organisation?
Growing Design’s value proposition
Headline 30pt
Traditional role
Identifying market opportunities
The purpose of this document... dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. In pellentesque nisi sit amet ipsum volutpat id nulla turpis.
Delivering high-quality product experiences
Facilitating organisational change
Market analysis
Market foresight
Concept development
Proposition development Design for scale
Product/portfolio differentiation
Envisioning futures
Experience/system design
Instigating change
Capability building
Culture modelling
Customer engagement
Headline 30pt
Strategic role
Identifying market opportunities
The purpose of this document... dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. In pellentesque nisi sit amet ipsum volutpat id nulla turpis.
Delivering high-quality product experiences
Facilitating organisational change
Market analysis
Market foresight
Proposition development
Envisioning futures
Concept development
Design for scale
Product/portfolio differentiation
Experience/system design
Instigating change
Capability building
Culture modelling
Customer engagement
Headline 30pt
Change role
Identifying market opportunities
The purpose of this document... dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. In pellentesque nisi sit amet ipsum volutpat id nulla turpis.
Delivering high-quality product experiences
Facilitating organisational change
Market analysis
Market foresight
Proposition development
Envisioning futures
Concept development
Design for scale
Product/portfolio differentiation
Experience/system design
Instigating change
Capability building
Culture modelling
Customer engagement
Innovation consulting projects
Strategic
A business priority
Multi-functional
Requires more than one function to solve it
Human Includes a human or cultural component
Under-valued strengths of strategic designers
Navigating
Navigating Comfort with working through complex and ambiguous problems that lack much data or precedents
Translating Having a broad knowledge enables designers to connect marketing, engineering, production, and supply chain functions.
‘Laser intelligence probes deeply into a topic, but ignores opportunities to cross-pollinate...
Searchlight intelligence may not probe as deeply but is always scanning the environment and [spotting] connections across spheres.’
Howard Gardner, ‘Five Minds for the Future’, 2007
Mapping
Ability to think holistically about how consumers or customers experience products and services
Solving
Ability to iteratively explore, test, and refine ideas through early prototypes and testing them with target users
Headline 50pt
Completing
Ability to move projects forward by producing tangible artefacts, while the alpha IQs wrestle with the complexity and uncertainty
‘Design is the best you can do by next Wednesday!’
Charles Eames
Skills to strengthen to become credible consultants
Client centricity Consulting process Data fluency Workshop facilitation Change orchestration
Client centricity
Empathy with Stakeholders
Customers/users
Needs
Desires
Social status
Disposable income
Clients
Priorities
Career plans
Reputation
Annual budgets
Consulting process
More structured, collaborative and data driven
1. Initiate
Frame the problem, design the approach and contract
2. Discover Gather and analyse data
3. Co-create
Envision a solution with your client in a workshop
4. Recommend
Develop a solution and an action plan
5. Hand over
Set the solution in motion and enable your client
Design process
Designers are the problem owners
Intuitively understood by participants
Driven by the quality of ideas and execution
Produces tangible outputs
Consulting process
Client is the problem owner
Needs to be continually communicated
Driven by data and reasoning
Often produces intangible outputs
Data fluency
More credibility and influence through greater fluency with data
Discuss and interpret data Frame the right question to ask of data Weave data into innovation stories
Workshop facilitation
Co-creating solutions
Successful workshops
A clear objective
A reason why it needs to be a workshop
A clearly structured agenda
A workshop leader
Pre-engaged participants
Prepared stimulus
Generates new perspectives
Change orchestration
Planning and setting change in motion Skills
Ambition
Set an inspiring vision of the future
Clarity
Set and articulate clear goals
Planning
Devise a systematic and realistic action plan
Empathy
Understand different stakeholder perspectives on the change
Communication
Consistently communicate the planned change, addressing different perspectives.
Influence
Find ways to persuade stakeholders effectively
Engagement
Build a change coalition by involving and up-skilling people
Persistence
Breakdown barriers, flex to maintain momentum and celebrate early wins
Not for everyone Senior Strategic Influential
[Those who succeeded in consulting roles were] motivated by long-term impact, had guile and resilience, and were opinionated and confident enough to lead Clive Grinyer, ex-Director of design at Cisco and Barclays
Benefits
Designers
More stretching and varied work
Become influential within the organisation
Advanced professional development
More career advancement options
Design function
Provide more value to the organisation
Builds trust Being included in more strategic conversations
Talent retention Organisation Increased agility
Reduce external consultants costs
Design industry Part of Design’s renewal
Implementation questions
Where in the organisation should the consulting team sit?
Should it be owned by design or a more central function?
Should the designers involved be part-time or full-time consultants? How should projects be identified and resourced?
How should the consulting team manage its limited resource of consultants? Should projects be billed internally, and if so, how?
productpowwow.transistor.fm
These skills also make design leaders much more impactful in their day-to-day
linkedin.com/in/kevinmccullagh kevin@plan.london www.plan.london