What is design strategy?

I was writing a short blurb on why design is critical to the success of a strategy, and thought I would share it with you. I believe that a methodological strategic process is important and needs to involve everyone, and the tools from a design thinking mindset and its methodology can really cater to managing the needs of different stakeholders. So here it is.

Organisations looking to grow often find themselves caught between maintaining traditional habits and adapting to newer innovative approaches. There are many reasons why strategic plans fail; however, a good plan is key to a company’s success. Strategic development processes involve understanding and focusing on core competencies while creating goals and prioritizing objectives to achieve a defined objective. So how does injecting a design thinking approach make it better? Traditional strategy calls for rigorous analysis and critical thinking, while design thinking promotes a prototyping mindset, of a ‘thinking by doing’ approach. This means that projects aren’t scaled until they have been tested first, and thought experiments can act as prototypes for new mental models. This process takes a hands-on approach to analysis and makes improvements through iteration leading to new insights, assumptions, hypothesis and frameworks. Design also helps in building a common language thanks to visual thinking. This brings strategic thinking to life beyond PowerPoint and Excel. As large companies and services are complex ecosystems, everybody within the process can be made aware of the different stages in the entire project. As a result, design plays a critical part in the success of a strategy since it gives room for exploration and iterative improvement while focusing on a clear direction for the future.