Are you getting the most out of Design?
What do you think of when you hear the word Design? Did you know you can use design to create innovative cultures? The greatest leaders of our time are using design in powerful new ways, transforming their organisations from the old, to the new. How are you using Design?
Are you using design to make your products and services more beautiful? Are you using it to create better customer experiences? Are you using it to formulate your organisational strategy? Are you using it to strengthen or create a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship?
Design is now used in many ways across the business world, and we think the Danish Design Ladder is the best way to understand how businesses are using design and where there is potential to use it in different ways.
Because Design is truly permeating the business the world (with dedicated HBR issues and feature length documentaries) we think it’s necessary to explain the different stages. In the hope that people start to adopt and use Design in different ways.
Leaders around the world are adopting and using design in powerful new ways.
So how mature is your organisation when it comes to Design? The Danish Design Ladder talks about four stages of design use. We’ve added another two stages of use. The six stages below talk about the different ways leaders are using Design in Business.
Stage One: Nothing
You use Design for nothing. You don’t have any formal design roles in your organisation, and you don’t use design agencies. Not fun.
Example: A steel mill with high demand for their product where any design work (or other work) is seen as superfluous.
Stage Two: Aesthetics
You use Design for aesthetics, styling, or ‘form-giving’. Whether through your products and services or the physical touch-points that your customers interact with.
You employ designers or outsource aesthetic design work to agencies. Design makes things more beautiful. Fun.
Example: A shoe company that uses design to make their shoes look more appealing to customers.
Stage Three: Process
This is where you’re using Design to inform your processes to create products and services, you’re also likely to have adopted Design Thinking and you hold co-design sessions or workshops to inform how you actually get things done, your processes.
You employ designers to do things other than styling or aesthetics. They are integral to getting your products and services out to customers through incredible experiences.
Your people perform customer research, ethnography, prototype, and come up with creative ways to solve customer needs.
Example: A device manufacturer using design to make their products easier to use (also includes aesthetics).
Stage Four: Strategy
You use Design to inform and create your organisation’s strategy. Here’s a quote directly from the Danish Design Ladder website…
“The designer works with the company’s owners/management to rethink the business concept completely or in part. Here, the key focus is on the design process in relation to the company’s business visions and its desired business areas and future role in the value chain.”
Your organisation has designers as founders, or board members, or in the c-suite. Positions of authority where they (Design) can influence investment choices.
Example: A financial services organisation shifting investment to a service that solves a deep customer need that was identified through customer research.
We love mentioning the Danish Design Ladder to clients and consultants alike, it helps people frame how they use design, and think about the potential value they can gain by moving up to higher levels. We’ve been using design across all levels for a while now, and we’re starting to push into other areas, so we extended the ladder by two stages…
Stage Five: Systemic Change
You’re using design to help solve complex social issues, massive industry problems, or to streamline complex ecosystems. You’re using Design to drive systemic change across numerous organisations or businesses.
Government organisations are starting to do this to formulate policy within their own local or regional ecosystems. They bring disparate groups together and Design solutions that best fit that particular ecosystem. They’re able to drive systemic change through the collaboration with those groups.
Example: A local council using design to bring together groups from around the community to solve a complex social issue.
Stage Six: Culture
This is what we see as the pinnacle of using Design in Business. You use Design to build and harness great culture. You’re shifting the mindsets of people within your organisation to align to the design mindset, people are starting to innovate, act like entrepreneurs, embrace ambiguity, listen to the voice of the customer, and lead through design.
Example: Any organisation that actively hires designers (or people with a design disposition/background) into roles in the hope of inspiring, challenging, catalysing, and developing their incumbent workforce.
How do you interpret design in your own mind? Do you see it as adding aesthetic value, or do you see it as being able to create healthy and creative cultures? Think about how you might move your business or team up the ladder, adopting design in new ways and gaining greater value as you move upwards.
Subscribe to our Design for Business publication for more, and if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch.
