Design as Strategic Intelligence: Integrating Design Management and Business Strategy for Organizational Transformation

Abstract

Traditional design management has primarily looked at the project execution level and has not full utilized its possibilities at the level of driving the strategic transformation of organizations. To this end, this paper based on the integration of exiting strategic design and internal change theories (such as Verganti’s design driven innovation model, the dynamic capabilities theory and the design maturity models, we propose the “Design Intelligence Integration Framework (DIIF)”, which embeds design management into three strategic level dimensions: cognitive alignment, collaborative sensing and foresight embedding. The research methodology uses a multiple case comparative study investigating the manufacturing, technology and service sectors, utilizing a combination of business interviews, project documentation and ESG annual reports. Through the use of thematic analysis and qualitative modelling, five main design intelligence dimensions emerge: sensemaking, co-creation, alignment, foresight and embedding. The experimented results show that organizations applying the DIIF model have shown large improvements in the areas of strategic coordination, innovation pacing and cross departmental design decision making capabilities.