Organizational & Digital Transformation through Design: From Engineering-Driven to User Experience Design-Driven

Q&A Session

The audience raised several questions during the panel discussion and Q&A session, some of which include:

Q) The aging population in China is growing rapidly and in a few years will exceed the entire population of the US in absolute numbers. Various Chinese government agencies are involved in tackling this social issue but there is no place to find information or submit a proposal to help with this growing social challenge. How can one begin to tackle such a problem?

A) Hugh stated that the aging population issue in China falls in the type of problems labeled as a “Wicked Problem” in design. Such problems are complex with no clear solution. In fact, the nature of this problem also changes as your perspective might change depending on the different frame of references. Design approach is ideally suited for such “wicked problems” as it allows you to move forward iteratively even with little or no insights into the problem. Dean Lou suggested that the best way to tackle these problems is to start somewhere and then collect more information and insights as you move forward till you are able tackle the more complex and messy aspects of the problem. The problem will be solved by engaging with other people who are concerned, passionate or in a position of influence and power to help implement small pilots that can later be scaled-up once small successes have been demonstrated and evidence collected. In fact, this pragmatic design process has been how China has tackled many wicked problems in the last 30 years of reform and open door policies.

Q) If design approaches are so good then why don’t companies do it themselves – why do they need consultants?

A) Hugh pointed out that executives of large companies are often buried under day–to-day operations and find it difficult to start new initiatives which might have delayed ROIs. Design approaches require working inside across silos; however, with a diverse set of stakeholders, companies are often not good at driving such collaborations. It is a capability that some firms like P&G have started to develop internally with the help of outside experts – using them as coaches rather than consultants. Michael from TANG pointed out that some Chinese firms have begun to integrate design systematically into their organization and have started to see results in their product and service innovations.

Q) How do you implement strategic engagement with customers if they are so focused on short term point solutions?

A) Michael from TANG stated that you have to start with what they’ve asked for, which is often a point solution to a very specific problem. In the process however, by talking to different stakeholders and doing deep empathy research with their customers, one can piece together a broader customer journey that can often lead to innovative solutions that were not so obvious in the beginning. Getting corporations to buy into such strategic engagements takes time and is often done over several years through series of smaller tactical projects that get increasingly strategic over time as the relationship between the consultants and the customer gains credibility and trust.

Q) Do companies like BAT (Baidu, Alibaba & Tencent) or Apple, Google, Facebook & Amazon follow design practices inside their organizations? Or do they do something drastically different from what the design approach preaches?

A) Dean Lou mentioned that BATs in China are the first to hire the best of their students from Tongji’s College of Design & Innovation. In fact, the BAT firms spread their design resources into every aspect of their organization making design a standard operating practice. Dr. Hugh added that companies like Apple don’t explicitly have any design thinking initiatives because the design mindset is everywhere in the organization and is the basic building block for Apple in everything they do. Design is for Apple like water is for fish.

Concluding Remarks

Design is more than making things look pretty. This event focused on the discussion of how design can be a power approach for organizational and digital transformation for large enterprises as well as for governments in tackling social challenges from rural-urban divide to how we educate our children. Whether car dealership experience or retail bank in-store experience, design can help dramatically improve the customer experience and businesses’ bottom line.

Most consulting and technology firms have either acquired design firms to integrate design practices into their traditional service offerings or are organically building their design capability through design studios and internal consultants as coaches. Unlike other fads that come and go, design approach is here to stay. In this increasingly complex digital transformation world, design represents the voice of humans who could be customers expecting better experience while interacting with products or services.

This human-centered design approach when combined with technological break-through is at the heart of some of the most valuable companies in the world (with Apple being the most noticeable example). There are many flavors of design approaches, methods and toolkits available but generally they have the same focus to provide digital transformation. They channel their engineering and R&D energy towards bringing technologies to life that will make the world a better place – especially for us humans.