co-creation sessions are designed to help participants to identify their personal strengths, interests and attitudes. in the second step thoughts and expectations are framed in order to level them with strengths and interests.
a personal model of design management
participatory design and co-creation helps to develop
the challenge
how to get from here
participatory design and co-creation
to here?
tool #1 - experience map
the experience map reveals personal attitudes and approaches towards design management in past, present and future mind-sets. this technique allows participants to reflect on undergone processes and helps to synthesize inner thoughts and expectations for the future.
learnings
past. specialized readings sparked the interest to investigate the field of design management and in the long run getting educated in it. along with the decision to study this rare speciality come also important and fundamental turns in professional and private lives.
presence. it was crucial to gain some foothold and develop the capacity to orientate. the first challenging phase provides motivating feedback, which erases uncertainty and doubts, and gives way to motivation and passion of a new discipline. at the same time it sparks the first concrete framing of future commitments into a specialized direction.
future. initially design management seemed to be a matrix consisting of an unacquainted terminology and a vast, unknown toolkit of design and research methods. however, having this matrix visualized gives confidence to build on something which is already a natural: being a people person and create enabling environments.
a people person is defined to be a person...
»…who enjoys, and is good at, being with and talking to other people.« oxford dictionary
personally defined it is a person to be outgoing, friendly, and having empathy to what others need and like. they are not afraid to venture out and meet new people or join in conversations. basically they are nice to people despite any prejudice others might have and build bridges between different parties.
learnings
when working in groups it was possible to identify common bearing columns of individual approaches, on which most important values of design management could be built on:
* user centred design research uncovers sources of investment
* new positioning of design
* high level of problem visibility
* corporate design re-establishes obsolete work processes
* new design techniques are required to remain competitive
in short
the combination of being educated in design management and being a natural with people will give opportunity to matter within the corporate design world. personal professional approach: cognition within user centred design (ucd) research.
tool #2 - collective concept map
built on learnings of individual experience maps the collective concept map funnels common expectations of participants and guides them in one collective direction. in this way participants can also create new concepts, which are based on each other’s ideas.
in short
involving yourself and being passionate is essential. however it is crucial to communicate the potential of design management at the same time in order to place personal strength and potential into an emerging and adaptive framework. personal professional approach: collective creativity within the design process
learnings
creating individual concepts of how design management can be described and how companies can profit from its approach visualized the personal attitude of seeing it as a window of opportunity. through this window design management represents itself as a complex system of actors and stakeholders, facing intricate challenges. it is built on the traditional values of design, making it sometimes clutching at straws in order to explain its recognizable value for business.
consequently participants combine built concepts into one common scenario representing the future value of design management. the individual concepts are transformed, reconstructed and expanded in order to build a meaningful unit. the individually constructed and static concepts give way to a dynamic scenario passing through several key stages leading towards a corporate goal. the main challenge is to have each participant be represented in the final scenario, evenly distributing the collective idea.
the achieved result outlines many key facts, like tools, research, and dynamic. the most important aspect however is the human component every step of the way. the most effective tools and strategies would be worthless without the suitable human power behind it.
tool #3 - conceptional prototyping
by working with lego© serious play participants are able to outline personal competitive identities within the discipline of design management. this experiential methodology describes and explores specific competences for future clients and employees giving aspiring design managers an idea how to build possible solutions for future scenarios.
in short
by seeing design management as a complex and dynamic system, the human centred aspect does not only apply to the users, but also to team members. to see working teams as living systems can create multidisciplinary, high performance teams, representing the highest potential within a company. personal professional approach: systems thinking within the team building process.
in summary
the process of identifying personal strengths and interests, and framing thoughts and expectations in order to find a position within the discipline of design management gives the following insights:
cognition within user
centred design research
having figured out the optimal triangulation of these three components has the potential to create high performance teams within the design management field. this potential offers companies not only the possibility to achieve settled goals, but also to create internal and external value.
»having everyone on board is essential, as challenging existing paradigms require endurance and imagination.«
fran samalionis, ideo
collective creativity
within the design process
systems thinking within the
team building process
lecturers
and
students of the fast paced discipline of design management often have difficulties to draft future perspectives within this field offering a vast amount of possibilities. the following tools enable to triangulate personal talent, genuine interst and professional opportunity.
these two powerful tools enable stakeholders to collaboratively engage in the process of designing a product or service. the empowerment to be part of an initial, creational process guarantees a high level of satisfaction of the designed result. this origination technique additionally inspires designers, users, and clients to generate collectively new opportunities and solutions, causing personal affection and deep engagement to the achieved outcome.
this approach requires design managers to take the role of a facilitator, who guides participants through the process of making relevant decisions for future needs without influencing their validation though.
collective creativity provokes stakeholders to build on other participants’ ideas and to create significant changes. from this point of view multidisciplinary design teams, working together with users, are a centre piece of ideation and bear a huge potential for innovation.
participants used a number of co-operative tools to express their thoughts, attitudes and expectations of this discipline. the required outcome is to identify a personal model of design management helping participants to specialize in a direction combining: talent, interest and opportunity.