Strategic Design
Experience, Product and Service Design
"Will it be another commercial failure or finally a resounding success? And can we afford it either way?"
The Gap between Strategy and Execution.
"Those are all fantastic ideas! ... Now what?"
There is no lack of great ideas in white-boarding sessions or co-creation workshops.
The actual problem is to evaluate which ones to pursue. And most importantly which ones to abandon.
In fact, there is a crucial gap between the Strategy side "of the House" and the execution/building/development side of every business.
Strategic Design fills that gap uniquely by bridging intent and idea, with tangible and measurable prototypes that can help bring teams together, create synergies around development of new products and services, and help companies support and nurture those experiences.
The tools and methodologies of Strategic Design are very similar to Service Design, Product Design and other UI/UX practices. The differences come around the intent and the thinking surrounding the tasks.
Strategic Design evolve around five core steps:
• 1: Research and Observation
• 2. Assembling a Strategy/Design Team
• 3. Prototyping to think and understand
• 4. Prototyping to evaluate and measure
• 5. Iterate on design until go-to-market readiness
Strategic Design has long been missing from many strategy firms and consultants toolboxes. But today, Strategic Design enables companies to think through the insights developed by Research and Development groups, Innovation Think-Tanks and business development teams. Executive team now have the ability to physically see and even touch the "Art of the Possible", and are no longer looking at cryptic bullet points on a dreary power-point deck.
> Out of 5 ideas presented to an executive team, wouldn't it be nice if we knew which one was actually desirable, feasible and viable?
(Due to the critical nature of the intellectual properties depicted in the below examples of strategic design, all specific content has been sanitized and replaced with mock information, results and language)
Strategic Design provide the invaluable ability to reveal the "Art of the Possible" to executive teams. No longer just an idea. Tangible prototypes that can be measured.
Strategic Design enables companies to bring ideas to reality in a safe and controlled environment while providing executive teams with tangible and measurable prototypes that can be eventually developed and built within the orchestrated resources of the company.
There is a wide variety of experience mapping methodologies to help teams understand and visualize the users' sentiments, actions, thoughts, tools.
Strategic Design can uncover a wide range of interdependent projects and initiatives within multiple lines of business. Horizon-based strategic foresight roadmapping helps aligning teams and prioritize internal initiatives.
Prototyping to evaluate: Bombardier FlexJet's Apple Watch app for members. "Is there a need for it?"
Prototyping to test: Le Coq Sportif's Limited Edition Members-Only app. "Can we develop a limited beta testing app and scale up if successful?"
Prototyping to evaluate technologies: MetroGO Logistics Enterprise app. "How much strain would this put on our existing infrastructure? Do we have the right technologies?"
Overlaying consumers, users, employees and sometimes vendors can reveal a much different picture where somebody's happy path can be somebody's failure point elsewhere.
Prototyping to think and understand first, then prototyping to evaluate and test next.
Extensive User Flows are a great way to envision multiple options to test through rapid prototyping before any decisions are made by the product teams.
Strategic Design has a tremendous value in visualizing evolutionary steps of a current product or service. How do we go from current-state to future-state and ideal-state?
Task-oriented user flows provide business teams a tangible and realistic understanding of what a future project will look like before spending resources.
Assessment of Business models: Lorex Electronics: Customer-facing Website. "Should we enter the Direct-to-Consumer Space? Or should we stay within our supply chain?"
"How would it work? What cost are we looking at to penetrate the market?" GE Healthcare Enterprise Platform for Hospital staff.
"What would we need? Beside technologies, what other support systems would this require?" GE Healthcare Enterprise Platform for Hospital staff.
Feasibility and Viability assessment. "How can we be sure the information is secure?": BlackBox Logic Enterprise Dashboard (Note: All proprietary information have been replaced with proxy content, templates and samples)
