In my ongoing search for how design meets business, I found “Designing for Growth” by Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilive which succinctly outlines a framework and approach to leverage traditional design management tools to the problem solving of the various dimensions of business strategy planning. The approach describe makes practical and provides an ingenious way to leverage the disciplines of both traditional business and design principles to the iterative and responsive way to discover, design, test, iterate and ultimately implement new business strategies that support innovation and successful adoption required to stay and lead a competitive advantage …based on existing skills and resources.
The framework outlined effectively answers the following inquiries; What does business and design have in common? How can both business and design planning disciplines be used to guide and inspire organizational growth? Is design only useful to considerations of the user experience? How are these same principles applied at the product, services, or solution level? Why not also applied in the development of new businesses, new business models and new organizational capabilities? All essential questions any organization should put to itself as it drives toward developing an innovation culture.
Most importantly, Liedtka and Ogilvie’s approach explains how the power of integrating business and design disciplines, to solve complex business problems can create new dimensions of value for customers and the enterprise. By moving from a traditional new product or new venture business planning process to a more dynamic, iterative, discovery approach, the organization can rapidly advance the identification and evaluation of new opportunities or business approaches. In this way, existing resources are optimized in a novel way to grow the organization.
Modern Business Strategy, Experience, and Design 