Introducing design into the management practice

The concept of design has evolved from the creation of tangible solutions, e.g., a new product, service, system, or technology, to ways of thinking and doing that support the design of solutions aimed at getting people to engage and adopt innovative new ideas and experiences, such as looking at corporate strategy through the lens of design (Beaudry, 2009; Brown & Martin, 2015; Manzini, 2016; Zurlo & Cautela, 2014). As summarized in the following table, design is now applied to tackle "organizational designs" and therefore contribute to organizations' (re)design by entering the management domain (Beaudry, 2009; Buchanan, 2008).  

	Strategic Approach	Culture	Leadership
Management	Management Planning – the goal is to control uncertainty	Focus on goals and organizational routines	Top-down methods and processes
Design-driven Management	Thinking – the goal is to provide new ways of thinking and prototyping	Diffusion of meaning and purpose	High engagement with bottom-up design processes

The design leadership style shapes the firm's culture by introducing bottom-up design approaches rather than planned and top-down new methods and processes (Deserti & Rizzo, 2014). In contrast to the management perspective, design-driven is an iterative process that generates innovation, mainly using a trial-and-error approach. New concepts give shape to ideas through the development of prototypes and only subsequently a convergent way of thinking based on the fulfillment of product requirements is adopted (Boland et al., 2002; Deserti & Rizzo, 2014). Above all, design relates to the meaning of new products and services: an innovation that concerns the purpose, the 'why' people use things, rather than the functionality and performance of products, i.e., the 'what' and 'how' (Verganti & Dell'Era, 2014). 

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Rui Patrício 

Strategic Design and Innovation Lab Coordinator and Assistant Professor at IADE-UE.