Scaling design thinking: from a local to a national perspective
This story begins with a project for the housing association in Stavanger, Norway, during which design thinking was used to gather user insights and discover opportunities for digitalisation and automatisation in order to offer a unique customer experience.
Our proposed solutions were presented to the national business partnership between the seven largest housing associations in Norway. As a result, it was decided that the proposed solutions were to be implemented throughout the alliance and on a national scale.
To establish ownership of the proposed solutions in each of the organisations and to create room for local adjustments, my colleagues and I travelled across the country to visit them all. We spent two days in each office, interviewing more than one hundred employees and members of the management in a total of seven housing associations across six cities. We were constantly aiming at documenting user needs and gathering data related to their IT systems, tools, work roles and life situations.
Finally, we prepared a tactical, three-year plan for the realisation of more than 32 potential projects for a digitalised, user-friendly and future-oriented alliance.
Out of the long list of potential projects, we started with creating a new website for each association. I’ll tell you all about my role and the project here.

