Strategy for design expertise

Evolving the design capability in a complex business

Project overview

The client for this initiative is a unique company, offering a comprehensive strategy-to-execution solution. They operate at the intersection of business strategy, design thinking, and technology, so their design team needs to possess a very diverse skill-set to deliver the range of experiences that bridge the gap between strategy definition and practical implementation.

The initiative aimed to achieve three outcomes for the business. These outcomes are primarily driven by the design team, through our work on direct consulting services and digital offerings. In addition, the design team was best positioned to contribute to marketing and communications work.

Project overview

The initiative was implemented over a 6-month period. While major business changes altered the operational implementation of some aspects of the initiative, the broad strategy for design expertise was implemented and is being tracked and evolved.

Understand the landscape

Feedback on current design capability

Gather feedback from clients, internal stakeholders, and team members on the strengths and weaknesses of the design team's current capabilities.

Understand organisational strategy

Meet with key decision-makers and team leads to understand the company's overall goals, current workflow, their perspective on the role of the design team, and how design is currently integrated into various company functions.

Develop the strategy

Aligning design to the value prop

Analyze how the design team currently supports the company's value proposition and identify areas where design can contribute more significantly to organizational offerings (e.g., experience vision for digital products, innovative solutions for consulting services, etc.)

Defining success metrics

Collaboratively defined success metrics to measure the impact of changes. This includes revenue generation from consulting work, client satisfaction scores on design deliverables, turnaround time for internal product design work, and design quality metrics. Defining these metrics enabled tracking of progress and effectiveness of the implemented strategies.

Understand current contribution

Understanding the specific ways the design team currently contributes to the company's offerings across various functions (digital product, strategy consulting, and marketing), to visualize the current design workflow and identify any potential gaps or redundancies.

Capability assessment

Design expertise needed

Based on the company goals and desired future state, the specific design expertise needed to achieve them was determined. This included areas like user experience research, design operations, design facilitation, and visual design.

Design expertise available

Assess the skillsets of individual team members in alignment with the current and future deliverables expected from the design team, through interviews or surveys. This helps identify any skill gaps or areas where team members need additional training.

Program implementation

Capability uplift

Based on the capability assessment, areas were identified where the team needed to develop new skills or expertise. This involved setting up training programs, hands-on workshops, and a structured mentorship program.

New skill-sets

For specific skillsets missing within the team that need immediate uplift, a targeted hiring and partnership program was designed to bring in individuals with the necessary expertise.

Supporting changes needed

This involved updating design tools and software, implementing new design workflow procedures, and putting in place a design operations practice. Cultural change was an important facet of this evolution, based on cross-silo sharing, collaboration, and incentives.

Monitoring and Iteration

Tracking progress

Continuously monitor progress towards the defined success metrics.

Gathering feedback

Collect ongoing feedback from clients, stakeholders, and team members on the effectiveness of the implemented changes.

Refining the strategy

Based on the data and feedback, be prepared to adapt the strategy and make adjustments to the training plan or design process as needed. This ensures a flexible and iterative approach that continuously improves the design team's effectiveness.