Design Thinking (Business Design)
Whenever a company designs a new product, service, or experience, it is essentially designing its business. When done well, Business Design creates offerings that inspire organizations and excite customers. We combine design thinking and traditional corporate strategies to help clients create avenues for market growth. By shifting focus from linear practices to iterative design processes, we can shed light on new options and explore the various alternatives. Our methods include qualitative and quantitative research, business model prototyping, data visualization, organizational design, and IP liberation.
Over the past five years, we’ve used Business Design to help clients address a broad range of challenges, such as: designing the next-generation news offering for a major publishing company; creating a personal finance service built on lifestyle and community; building new, sustainable growth model for an online education company; launching an online employment service designed for the millennial workforce; redesigning a direct sales business for emerging markets; and developing an OTC retail business for a pharmaceuticals manufacturer.
We believe that every part of a business can be prototyped, including projected financials. We help clients design all the way to market, iterating potential solutions from initial concept through final consumer delivery. We look at innovation across industries to find inspiration and viable new patterns of thinking and operating.
New Venture Design
As organic growth becomes increasingly difficult, businesses must find new means of attracting customers and driving growth. We help companies identify how their organization can do so through design. By rethinking business models and developing innovative offerings and supporting strategies, we support clients as they experiment with new categories, channels, or business models to fuel sustainable growth.
Prototyping Value
When developing a breakthrough new product or service, we often face questions that extend beyond what our clients’ data and expertise can answer. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, we help companies learn in real time about a new concept’s value propositions, benefits, and positioning – all from potential customers. Experimenting – and failing - early helps companies develop insights-led concepts that are more likely to succeed in the market.
Growth and Innovation Strategy
Innovation plays on the strengths and the culture of a company, so its approach and alignment can be vital to its success. Our Business and Organizational Design teams work closely with companies to develop a strategy for innovation and draw roadmaps for future growth. We assist business leaders in figuring out what innovation means for their organizations, how will it impact their business, and what it will take to engage and mobilize their organizations.