Completing the Strategic Product Design Puzzle with Perspectives
As strategic product designers, we love creating products, experimenting and launching new things. In order to help organisations to (re)create visions, strategies and products, we use a unique approach that combines product design, product strategy and strategic design.
The strategic product design approach lives as a clear future vision embedded in a clear and actionable strategy. It's a multi-layered approach that designs each and every layer: from vision to strategy and/or products (separately or combined). The fact that it provides validation helps you to save time and costs, and the approach allows you to start manifesting a future vision today.
No matter what we're designing or helping to create, the strategic product design process follows a similar four-step pattern: inspiration, design, build and grow. This process was formulated to ensure that new ideas are conceptualised, become actionable and manifest themselves.
But besides the approach and process, there's another key component to our strategic product design methodology. A built-in improvement mechanism that we call perspectives.
What are perspectives and how do they help?
Rather than living in isolation, our strategic product design methodology is self-enriched and improves continuously. This is where perspectives come in as they offer us flexibility and challenge.
Perspectives are about examining something from different points of views and attitudes, just like how photographers use filters and lenses to create different views of the same object. Think of it as switching out lenses whilst the frame of a pair of glasses remains the same. Some perspectives we use by default, others to emphasize aspects in specific themes, or even to help us challenge another perspective.
Here are some of the perspectives we currently have:
- Systems design – allows us to approach an environment and context more realistically, where nothing lives in isolation and almost everything is connected.
- Behavioural design – allows us to look more deeply into our users and why they do what they do.
- Circular and sustainable design – allows us to look at the environmental impact a design may have and resolve any conflicts from the ground up.
These are some traditional perspectives that we utilise in almost anything we do:
- Co-design – working collaboratively with the stakeholders involved (this goes further than co-creation).
- Visual communication – communicating as visually as possible.
- Human-centred design – where we always keep in mind that our users are humans and behave as such.
Perspectives complete the strategic product design puzzle. By changing our points of view and attitudes towards the vision, strategy or product, they offer us flexibility, challenge and continuous improvement. Never fear, we’re always diversifying our lens collection so that we can help you to succeed and lead the future.
