R&D exists in every business; some ad hoc and some structured. Putting design in R&D

Designers are the disruptors. They move away from technology-driven answers to human centred designs.

In design research you are trying to understand the customers beliefs, experiences, attitudes, behaviour and interactions.

We aim to get recognised and paid for the value we create, not the hours we spend on the project. We want to shift from a cost focus to a value focus.

That’s what design-led businesses do. They see design has a part to play in every part of their business and the actively apply it.

Look at set of core activities found in every business, develop a system to analyse these activities and demonstrate which of them creates value. That’s a design audit.

Clients are willing to make referrals. Using a value chain approach you can seek out potential clients within your clients’ business. This is a smart referral approach

The What clients want survey will research if COVID changed client/designer relationships.

A deeper understanding of the client/designer relationship will be come from asking designers what they think clients want.

Showing clients how to measure a return on design using a service blueprint that measures cots and revenue gains

Shifting design from tactical to strategic requires a change in thinking from producing outputs to producing outcomes

Can you mandate designers are COVID vaccinated? And what is the best way to achieve a safe workplace without disruption?

COVID presents us with the perfect opportunity to review and revise our operations by developing a Balanced Scorecard.