Directing design value by stakeholder

Understanding who you focus design value on

How to do it

1. Map out the different stakeholders that could benefit from design
2. Choose which stakeholder is the primary beneficiary of your design work
3. Allocate 100 points between the others
4. Ask someone else and see how your results differ

A bit of background

You can look at design value through many different lenses. You might look at the value in different stages of the design or product development process, like the double diamond.

Another lens is that of different stakeholders, or audiences. Essentially different classes of people or organisations.

Concentric circles of stakeholders that design value could be targeted at

I believe that one of the reasons for the drive of empathy in design is because of a traditional view of designers that design primarily for themselves and their peers.

Whether or not this was ever representative of the majority of designers, it can help to look at who design’s value is directed at, or at least the priority of that focus.

Of course, the trick is to balance who’s needs you focus on and try to benefit a mix as a designer. Design can serve so many different purposes and types of people.

That aside, it can be interesting to ask people where their focus is in an organisation.

In some of the shaping workshops I have run recently I ask the question about where design is focused in your organisation.

This can be especially useful where there is an interest in getting design’s value better understood or recognised.

It’s interesting to ask people where the primary focus is in the org, or even their own. Usually the answer will be to focus design value for users / customers. But sometimes wider society. Very rarely will it be the business. And that’s ok, as long as you understand the relationship between serving one for the benefit of others.

So, I also ask for people to distribute points between them.

An example Mentimeter output from one of my workshops

It’s interesting to see where the balance is in your organisation and if this needs to be shifted. But irrespective of that, it’s worth thinking about how you would communicate design’s value to each of these different stakeholders. More of that in a future post.

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If you want to learn more about the Shaping Workshops I run, and what I have learned over the years, follow me, or read some other articles in the Medium Publication.

Keep your eyes peeled for another post tomorrow.