Design Management & Strategic Design: Cross Perspectives

Conference Proceedings of the Academy for Design Innovation Management

Conflicting with heightened awareness about design's strategic role for businesses, research is lacking about methods and tools to guide designers and organizations in building strategic design management capabilities, as well as about the development of these capabilities in organizational contexts. This paper aims to provide important perspectives concerning these issues in two major ways. First, it presents the development of a new Design Management Audit Framework (DMAF) that aspires to identify and accommodate new capabilities and responsibilities that are necessary to support the changing and broadening context and roles of design. Then, the paper discusses the triggers, enablers and challenges in moving from design management to strategic design management practices in organizational contexts, based on the results of 3 in-depth case studies, which have utilized the new Design Management Audit Framework to carry out a comprehensive design management audit process inside th...

Conference Proceedings of the Design Management Academy (Vol. 3, pp. 1019-1041), 2017

Conflicting with heightened awareness about design's strategic role for businesses, research is lacking about methods and tools to guide designers and organizations in building strategic design management capabilities, as well as about the development of these capabilities in organizational contexts. This paper aims to provide important perspectives concerning these issues in two major ways. First, it presents the development of a new Design Management Audit Framework (DMAF) that aspires to identify and accommodate new capabilities and responsibilities that are necessary to support the changing and broadening context and roles of design. Then, the paper discusses the triggers, enablers and challenges in moving from design management to strategic design management practices in organizational contexts, based on the results of 3 in-depth case studies, which have utilized the new Design Management Audit Framework to carry out a comprehensive design management audit process inside these organizations.

Strategic Design Research Journal, 2019

Defining the research in Design Management (DM) involves the intersection of two disciplines: management sciences and design sciences. We focus on design management research and summarize the diversity of the relationship between these two interdisciplinary fields through a study of the international literature published between 1977 and 2017 on the subject. Firstly, the hybrid territory of design management is defined through its keywords and their evolution; using various definitions of design management, a representation of the place of design within organizations then starts to emerge. Secondly, the analysis focuses on the five key themes of design management developed in the literature-the value of design, the methods and skills of design, the tools of design, its integration in other functions, and the theme of "better manager by design"-as well as the resulting models. Finally, this review of the literature highlights the emergence in the discourse of two complementary forces: design management and design leadership.

Proceedings IGLC, 1998

We propose an agenda for design management research. That agenda is based on a new conceptual foundation for operations management. Design processes can be conceived in at least three different ways: (1) as a process of converting inputs to outputs, (2) as a flow of materials and information through time and space, and (3) as a process of generating value for customers. All three conceptions are appropriate and necessary. However, the conversion model has been dominant in the AEC (architectural/engineering/construction) industry until very recently. We review current thinking and practice of design management, suggest fundamental hypotheses, then propose an agenda for design management research based on those hypotheses.

Strategic Design Research Journal, 2016

Over the past six decades, the focus shift caused by the evolving role of design in business environment has leveraged design to the rank of strategic factor of competitive advantage. As a theoretical and managerial background, Design Management is responsible for managing the design as part of the company's strategic intention, properly inserting and integrating capabilities, processes and strategies. Although it is already consolidated as knowledge, conceptual frameworks can be continuously developed to better approach the reality of companies. This paper presents a conceptual model of Design Management developed through theoretical background and qualitative research with rounds of in-depth interviews within companies and with experts and designers. The first two stages of interviews with experts and designers allowed the analysis of design use in companies helping to map the processes related to design, identifying their role in the dynamics of companies and how they are managed. The results, together with the theoretical background made possible to outline a conceptual model of Design Management consisting of three dimensions that was, in a final stage of research, reviewed by experts and designers and verified in the practice of companies and in theory.

The Design Journal, 2011

Many aspects of strategic importance can be influenced through effective use of design. An integrated, holistic application of skilled design resources can make important contributions to competitive advantage. Identifying such contributions elicits a framework useful for clarifying the concept of ‘strategic design’ in general terms, and for describing design’s use in specific organisations. This paper presents such a framework and descriptions of two contrasting firms, based on interviews with designers and others in design-related roles in each. These demonstrate differing approaches to the use of design as a strategic resource, and how such a framework helps identify and describe them.

2006

This conceptual note was created in order to function as an initial approach to design management. It aims to be an overview of the discipline presenting possible definitions of design and design management, the relationship of design and management, and some design management’s key issues such as design leadership, organization’s structures and the relationship between design management and innovation, quality and branding. The idea is to offer some insights relating to design management and its relationship with business success.

2010

There is increasing interest in, and recognition of, the contribution that professional design services can make to a firm's long-term performance. The term strategic design is used ambiguously by design commentators and in empirical literature, with little relation to established theories of business strategy. This thesis documents a study seeking to align the many views of design’s strategic benefits, and to clarify the practical and conceptual relationships of these benefits. The research began with a model development phase, based on literature of corporate strategy and design management, and on exploratory interviews with design practitioners. The second phase sought to test and develop the model derived, through fieldwork interviews and observations. The study identifies nine strategic contributions that can be made by designers or design activity for a firm, and relates them to established models of business strategy. Field interviews and case studies find firms recognisi...

26th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, 2018

Design management profession has probably got the least attention in the construction industry. One reason could be the lack of explicit conceptualizations about its nature, subject matter and principles. In this article, a conceptual design management framework is proposed on the premise that design management is the management of a structured system of object and subject-oriented, technical and social design activities. Additionally, an example of a mediating visual model is proposed to facilitate the discussions about design activities and design management in academia and practice. The two major premises of this research are 1) as design management is the management of design activity, it is dependent on the way design is conceptualized; and 2) design is a human activity, but not a thing (e.g., representation) or an event (e.g., decision-making).