The design-driven innovation methods helps you identify new business opportunities using user insight. Rough drafts of plans, prototypes and solution descriptions are key tools in this method.
Design-driven innovation is a process that focuses on the user when developing new products or services. The method reveals user behaviour, practice and potential needs. Users may be consumers, customers, co-workers, businesses, collaborative partners, suppliers or other members of society.
Design competence is used from the start in order to ensure that the process revolves around user needs. The method helps you convert the information you have collected into new business opportunities using concrete rough drafts of plans, prototypes and solution descriptions.
The goal is to find solutions that are so unique and interesting that they can be incorporated into the research, development and commercialisation phases and with excellent potential for a successful market launch.
Phase 1: Define the problem
The first and crucial step is to clearly define the problem. The goal of the project should be to create completely new solutions that challenge both your company and users. Users may be consumers, customers, other companies, specialists fields, organisations, suppliers, patients or other members of society.
Phase 2: Identify user needs
The purpose of this phase is to discover both known and unknown needs among users. This entails user involvement, such as user observations and interviews. The work is usually done by designers, who have the knowledge, ability and willingness to identify problems and opportunities from a user perspective. During this phase, it can be advantageous to use professional expertise in, for example, anthropology, ethnology and sociology.
Phase 3: Translate the findings
The user insight gained is now converted into concrete possibilities and established truths are challenged. The designer, with his or her unique expertise and work approach, translates this insight into visualised solution alternatives. The initial rough drafts of future products, services or processes are then created.
Phase 4: Sort and verify
During this phase, the various proposed solutions are tested. Which are most promising and are there any practical challenges associated with any of them? Both users and experts in the field can provide valuable feedback when deciding which idea has the greatest potential.
Phase 5: Choose a concept
This is when you determine which concept you want to pursue in the development and commercialisation phase. Once a concept has been chosen, both the DIP project and idea phase come to an end. If the concept chosen offers technical, organisational or other challenges, both Innovation Norway and the Research Council of Norway have subsidy schemes that may be worth considering.
