What is the difference between design and strategic design?

Strategic design is a multidisciplinary approach to design that goes beyond aesthetics and functionality to align design efforts with broader business and organizational goals. It integrates design thinking into strategic decision-making processes, helping organizations create value, solve complex problems, and drive innovation. Rather than focusing solely on the appearance or usability of products or services, strategic design considers long-term goals, market positioning, business models, customer needs, and organizational objectives.

To understand what strategic design is, we first need to understand what design is. Design is a problem solving activity. The goal of design is to improve the status quo. This of course is a very broad definition. Any activity to improve on the status quo, to solve a problem we have in the status quo, would be considered design. And this can be true. Organizations can be designed. Policy can be designed. The things we associate most with design are physical or visual things: books, tools, apps, street lights, anything man made we can see and touch in the world is designed. These physical and visual objects point us in the direction of the specific approach to problem solving that design is. Solving problems can generally be done in one of two ways: by thinking and by doing. Thinking, talking, and writing to solve a problem is the rational way to solve problems. This works for non physical problems: organization, law, economics. You can’t think a product, you need to make something, create something. Traditionally, when we think about design, we think about making things, making things beautiful, making beautiful and useful things. Design is practical. Design is doing. Design is making. You can think about what you want to create but then you need to get your hands dirty and create it. Designers also talk and think and write but the biggest difference with other problem solvers is that designers also do, create, make.

There is thinking in that making. You might think something is a good idea, but more often than not, once you make it, you see it’s not a good idea and you get a new idea that could work better. Design is a process of trial and error, learning by doing. Designers iterate their way to a solution. They have an idea, make it, learn from it, make a new version, learn from that, make a new version, and so on and so on. Designers are in constant conversation with the thing they are making. The thing they are making talks back to them: this doesn’t look good, this is a happy accident that holds potential, this is too big, etc. It’s thinking by doing. This is the only way to create products and other designs.

So, design is a way to solve problems by making. Design is a specific way of thinking that is more intuitive than rational. A designer feels when something works or not. A designer feels where the design wants to go. After the process this can be rationalized but designing is an intuitive way of solving problems.

Because design as a way to solve problems is the only way to create products, this is where designers work. Designers are trained to work with forms, colors, shapes, materials, etc. Design in the operational sense focusses on the problem “what should this look like?”. Aesthetics is a part of design that is very visible and what most people will associate with design. Beauty solves a problem. Beauty makes products more attractive and helps adoption and sales. Functionality goes one level deeper. Functional design focuses on the problem of “how should this work?”.

When we speak about strategic design, the difference with “traditional” design is the focus. Strategic design focuses on the business problem behind the operational problem of how a product should look or work. Strategic design goes beyond aesthetics and functionality and looks at the business, the organization and its challenges. The way of working, the basic skillset, mindset are the same but the topic, the focus is different. Strategic design is using the problem solving way of design to solve business problems.

The process is the same:

1. Observe. Observe the world and the problem at hand.
2. Question. Come up with a question that cracks the problem open.
3. Prototype. Try out different solutions and feel what works and where the design wants to go.
4. Tell a story. The design solution tells a new story, create a new frame through which the organization and its customers see the product.

The way of working and the skills of observation, creativity, making things, and telling a story remain the same. But because the topic is different, the strategic designer needs more knowledge and experience with business problems. The more you know, the more you see, the better questions you can come up with, the more creativity in finding solutions. This is why traditional designers study designs, forms, colors, shapes. Strategic designers need to study business to solve business problems.

The potential of strategic design lies in using the designer’s perspective, mind- and skillset on business problems that are traditionally solved with thinking, talking, and writing. This is also where the term Design Thinking came from. The way that designers work can be used to “think”, thus to solve business problems. It offers a fresh perspective, a boost of creativity, and a user-centered attitude to business problem solving. Combined with traditional design, this approach creates designs that are aligned with the business strategy. It requires a holistic understanding of both design principles and business dynamics, with a focus on creating solutions that are not only visually or functionally innovative but also aligned with a company’s strategic goals.

With strategic design, the order of working with design changes. With aesthetic or functional design, the business people tell the designers what to do. With strategic design, designers get invited at the start of the process to show what is possible.

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