What is Design Strategy?

Leaders at the early stage or inflection points in their organizations need strategy to devise a path forward. A well-designed strategy helps clients surface new opportunities in the market and creates a pathway to differentiated, meaningful products and services.

While described below as discrete activities, a typical engagement is integrative and involves all if not most of these:

– Research
Context is the only true way to make sense of the rapidly evolving world we live in. Context provides insight into the competitive landscape, what might be on the horizon and how to navigate it.

Anyone can access information, but recognizing patterns and connecting disparate dots that lead to breakthrough insights is the work of design research. And framing these findings to translate business challenges into hypotheses that can be used to drive creative solutions. 

– Positioning
One of the hardest things for anyone is to communicate who they really are. For business and organizations, it’s even more difficult. Not only must they understand who they are, but also articulate it in a clear and concise way that invites others into becoming a part of their story. 

Positioning is the art and craft of clarifying visions in simple, effective terms…. The result is a strategic messaging architecture — a kind of DNA that powers all  fundraising, recruiting, and marketing.

– Storytelling
Efficiently communicating your strategy, business model, and competitive differentiation is required for many critical things you will do as a company.

Telling that story in an engaging, human way will provoke conversations that lead to deeper relationships.

– Brand Design
Not to be confused with brand identity or logo design, Brand Design is the complete experience that consistently reinforces the vision. Brand Design encompasses an enterprise’s Purpose, Business Model, Value Proposition, Experience and Expression. In other words, it defines Who you are, How you behave, What you have to offer,  and Why anyone should care.

A well-crafted Brand Design architecture is an important strategic tool that will guide all future critical decisions.