What is Design-Led Sustainable Innovation?
An iterative process that solves customers' problems and uses the United Nation's Sustainability Development Goals as a springboard to create better products, services, business models and systems.
What is Design Thinking?
In a nutshell, design thinkers use Design Thinking tools to innovate fast to solve problems. Big and small.
We do more with less and the customer is always at the heart of every. single. decision.
In fact, entire organisations, businesses, teams and individuals are collectively focused on solving the customers' problems. For a reason. To make business more sustainable, profitable and meaningful.
Why do people, communities & organisations need design-led sustainable innovation?
We believe that good business is commercially resilient and responsible to multiple stakeholders: people, communities and planet. As an example, Dr. Qu Dongyu, Director General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation says:
"We need to urgently change how we produce, process and consume food today. There is a historic opportunity to transform agri-food systems, which are essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Realigning incentives will be an important approach in such a transformation journey".
What can it be applied to?
Design Thinking isn't just for designers. It's for everyone.
Design-Led Sustainable Innovation processes can be applied to creating new products, services, marketing strategies, business models, processes, systems and circular economies.
Collaborative Leadership
Solving the challenges of the future, and achieving the United Nations Sustainability Development Goal’s are too great to go it alone.
The solution? The world needs more collaborative leaders to help people, communities and organisations create better together. No matter your age, location, position or reputation, everyone must adopt a growth mindset and welcome diversity.
A love of learning, resilience, curiosity and openness for new ideas is essential. We help develop collaborative leaders and equip them with new skills to lead in meaningful ways.
Learn HowCreating Diverse Teams
From collaborative leadership comes collaborative change.
Which starts with diversity. Diversity creates a culture of innovation.
Diverse teams are: Curious. Respectful. Adaptive. Accountable. Flexible. Resourceful.
They offer different points of view and new ways of thinking. They re-imagine problems.
A Design Thinking Process
Our Design Thinking is iterative and consists of four stages: Observe, Define, Ideate and Test.
Step One: Observe
Design Thinkers step out of the office and into the real world to understand the complete customer experience.
Better yet, we learn to effectively identify and empathise with the customers' problems along the way.
We poke, prod and probe. We ask the uncomfortable questions. We have a conversation.
When was the last time you did?
Step Two: Define
Design thinkers observe. We analyse, distract, distill. Define.
We develop key insights and a deep understanding of the customers' pain points. So we can solve them.
Learn how we defineStep Three: Ideate
A diverse, cross-functional team becomes invaluable during ideation.
We create ideas with purpose. Ideas that solve problems. Customers' problems.
We think laterally. We reimagine the problem. We rapidly prototype. We tell a new story. We listen.
Step Four: Test
If we don't test, we won't fail. If we don't fail, we won't learn. If we don't learn, we won't succeed.
Customer Co-Design
The final stage of Design Thinking is to test ideas in the real world with real customers to see what works and what doesn't.
This is called customer co-design.
By working together and listening Design Thinkers are able to accurately identify the gain points and failure points in ideas. The failures will be most critical to success.
And so the iterative Design Thinking process begins. Failure points are observed. Issues redefined. Improvements reimagined. And tested again.
Who knew failing could be so fun?
Want to ask the right questions?
We help you articulate the problem simply so it can be answered easily.