Gijs Rempt, Sine Celik, and Stein Wetzer
The world is facing complex societal issues that continuously call for organisations to transition towards future-proof models. Design practices are no exception to this. As a case study, this paper focuses on the journey of a company that designs, manufactures, and sells products in the juvenile sector and has operated according to the traditional linear business models for over twenty years and now acknowledges a need for change. Our study starts by challenging future ambitions of the company through a system-oriented framework to eventually explore the role of design(ers) in employing systemic analysis of entanglements to reframe the organisation’s value propositions. Our study sheds light on the opportunities that emerge with the expansion of the solution space when the company culture is moved from an artefact-based focus towards a meaning-based focus. Deriving from a series of co-design sessions, we present the evolutionary path of user-product relationships through the product’s lifetime and use this timeline to translate the interdependent system dynamics into tangible and actionable strategic directions. We redefine what the notion of “ownership” should look like in an alternative paradigm that enables resilient futures. As a result, we present three core vision principles that guide the future of innovation in the company and thirteen key propositions that illustrate these principles with the aim of transitioning not just the company itself but also the mindset towards new product value in the market as a whole.
KEYWORDS: systemic design, reframing value propositions, user-product relationship analysis, design strategy
RSD TOPIC(S): Cases & Practice, Economics & Organizations, Methods & Methodology