Design’s transformational role in strategy

The Challenge

Strategy practices rely heavily on management approaches that are informed by economic analysis, competitive positioning and market trends, which tend to draw on past data. In contrast, designers strategize via enquiry and experimentation and by understanding human needs and utilising reflective practices. These different approaches provide strategy work with great benefits and opportunities. However, integrating design principles into strategy work presents challenges—ranging from cultural misalignment to a lack of mutual understanding across disciplines. A limited appreciation of design-led methods can prevent organisations from realising the full value of integrating design into operational strategy making. This calls for the need to better understand what roles design plays in strategy, how it is currently used and how it influences strategy practice. 

The Solution

Researchers from the UTS Business School conducted 50 interviews with strategic designers and strategists, to explore the role of strategic design and help identify the value of adopting design in strategy. Practitioner accounts offered rich descriptions of how design is used in strategy, revealing their varying experiences, applications and developments of design practice over time. Focus groups were also conducted with practitioners from strategic design consulting, to help expand considerations towards design processes.

Outcome and Impact

By challenging the existing conventions in the strategy discourse, this research reveals that design-led processes and the practices of strategic designers offers the opportunity to create more emergent strategies that respond to dynamic markets and complexity and to better understand developing opportunities. This is important because organisations are facing much complexity in the face of climate change, digital disruption and global unrest. As a result, the cycles of strategy renewal are speeding up and existing strategy approaches are being challenged. The exploratory nature of design helps to broaden strategic perspectives, by incorporating environmental, technological, and human dimensions into planning processes, allowing organisations to better sense for change and to equip the workforce to adapt more readily to that change.

Design-led approaches to strategy alongside the prevalence of strategic designers involvement in strategy are not only enhancing the capabilities of organisations but are actively reshaping the culture and process of strategy formation. The value of design is appreciated both as a method for reimagining how strategy is created but also in terms of how it is executed within organisations, resulting in a more innovative and adaptive workforce.