Design professionals help rational decisionmakers in their search for truly innovative solutions to overcome these narrow problem formulations through the use of visual artefacts . Where verbalisation might be difficult and limiting , these visuals make connections across concepts clearer and make neglected cause-effect relationships explicit , facilitating a more open discussion on radical directions for innovation .
As experienced users of associative thinking — the core of intuitive decision making — design professionals play an important role as knowledge brokers in the innovation strategy of their clients . The designer ’ s inclination to connect seemingly unconnected elements helps clients overcome the boundaries of their specific industry , market , and department within the company . Thus , design professionals can approach and resolve their clients ’ strategic issues in innovation through effective matchmaking .
Although managers have come a long way to recognising the value of intuition , they sometimes still find it difficult to embrace the benefits it offers , especially when they need to take highly strategic decisions . As a consequence , presenting intuition decisionmaking as ‘ the alternative ’ to rationality in innovation decision-making might not be a winning approach . Our research suggests that when design consultancies position their approach to innovation as complementary to a rational one ( rather than an alternative to it ), they are more likely to gain the clients ’ trust and become a key innovation partner .
Giulia Calabretta — 1979 g . calabretta @ tudelft . nl
. Assistant Professor
at Delft University of Technology , Product Innovation Management . Project leader CRISP project CASD
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Break down the silos
Not only can designers be of value in decision-making . Their skills , like for example creating visual artifacts , aid in shifting the organisation ’ s mindset from products towards PSS .
Gijs Ockeloen
Each year , our educational system pumps more design professionals into the design ecosystem which leads to the question , ‘ What are all these designers going to do ?’ Although people in academic circles may think that the Design profession has been undergoing a transition , it seems to me that , in practice , most designers do more or less the same things they have been doing for ages : cutting foam , shaping clay , and organising pixels !
Most senior studio managers I talk to have a pessimistic outlook on the economic prospects of this type of work . As much as I agree a shift is needed , I think it a myth to say that it has already taken place . Worse still , I happen to think that design has lost a lot of its more promising appeal to obsessions with style , fame and trends . As design became mainstream , and designers reached rock star status , the bulk of their talents and efforts was directed to museums , coffee table books and birthday present boutiques . CRISP gives us the opportunity to recalibrate our professional compass . We don ’ t need to completely reinvent our profession : all we need to do is remember what design was about in the first place and check whether the time is right to put specific design aims back on the agenda . One thing that surely deserves to be put back on the agenda is ‘ Information ’. Consider architect Robert Venturi , who characterised our ‘ mother ’ profession , architecture , as an ' information surface ' almost half century ago . Of course , when he wrote ‘ Learning from Las Vegas ’, he was thinking about billboards , neon sings and logos . In those days , the early seventies , his building designs seemed bizarre enough to be considered as being vernacular . But looking back , Venturi may have been pointing out something that will become commonplace once innovation provides us with the technology of screens printed on cans of soup or wallpapered onto a building . The information surface will become a truly challenging reality not only in architecture , but even more so in design .
it is time to put certain aims back on the agenda
As designers start to think more about how a product handles information , this will certainly change their role . One of these shifts is to focus upwards along the value chain . Consider the following example . If you were asked to come up with suggestions to develop a
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