Strategic Design: 8 Essential Practices Every Strategic Designer Must Master

Design professionals' in innovation are no longer just executors of new product and/or service design briefs but are increasingly involved in the crafting of these briefs and in the strategic decisions leading to these briefs. Their rol is growing towards a more strategic one. In order to effectively play this role, design professionals need to master a set of strategic practices - i.e., routinized actions and ways of working. However, many designers lack knowledge on specific practices for acting effectively on a strategic level in innovation projects.

This book introduces eight strategic design practices. These practices help the design professionals become familiar with effective tools for strategic innovation projects and give them a set of guidelines for easily and quickly applying these practices and tools.

Dr. Giulia Calabretta is Assistant Professor in Strategic Value of Design at Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology (Delft Netherlands). Giulia earned her PhD from ESADE Business School (Barcelona, Spain). Her research interests are in the area of innovation and design management. Currently her research is focused on understanding how design skills and methods can be effectively integrated in the strategy and processes of companies, with a particular interest on the role of designers in innovation strategy and early development. Her research has been published in such journals as the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of Service Management.

Prof. Gerda Gemser is Full Professor of Business and Design at RMIT University of Technology and Design, Melbourne, Australia. She is one of the distinguished full professors appointed by RMIT University to stimulate design research. Gerda earned her PhD degree at the Rotterdam School of Management (The Netherlands). She has conducted different studies on the effects of design on company performance (in cooperation with the European governments and design associations such as the Association of Dutch Designers (BNO) and Premsela). She has held positions at different universities in The Netherlands, including Delft University of Technology and Erasmus University (Rotterdam School of Management). She has been a visiting scholar at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (US) and Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia (Canada). Her research is focused on management of innovation and design in particular. She is part of the editorial board of Journal of Design, Business and Society, is co-chair of the Advisory Board for the annual Design for Business research conference as organized by Agideas (Design Foundation Melbourne), and is part of the Executive Board of RMIT's Design Research Institute. She has published in journals such as Organization Science, Organization Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Long Range Planning, and The Design Journal, International Journal of Design and Design Studies.

Dr Ingo Karpen is an Associate Professor and cross-disciplinary researcher in Marketing, Strategy, and Design at RMIT University, Melbourne. Ingo is also a visiting Professor at Copenhagen Business School. In his research, Ingo focuses on drawing on service and design principles to better understand and inform value co-creation strategies in service systems; measuring and investigating the interplay of service-driving organizational design and customer experience design; and managing service systems and human relations towards more engaging experience processes and experience outcomes. Ingo collaborates with international business partners across industries to facilitate knowledge generation for the betterment of business and society. He has published in the Journal of Service Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Marketing Theory, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Journal of Service Theory and Practice and International Marketing Review. He is a recipient of several national and international awards for his teaching and research..