Even the best designed product can fail, if it is not brought to market the right way.

At the very start of an innovation project, design strategy, branding and product marketing must already be involved in the process and be part of the innovation core team.
Doing so, the product launch will be a natural consequence of the products’ DNA and an easy last step to take to harvest successfully.

The process.
Design is the art to organise creativity.
Sticking to a step-by-step process, moving forward, being solution driven without losing naivety, persistence, and the talent to ask yourself WHY?
Narrowing down uncertainties into solutions. Exploring creative opportunities within the boundaries of the project scope but sometimes outside the expected.
From inspiring ideas until the final result, the design process is measurable, tangible but never fully predictable.

User centred.
Why do people buy black cars, while talking about the importance of colour into their lives?
Why do people ban plastic into their lives, while it might be the best material choice considering all environmental criteria?
Why do people look for convenience packaging’s? And what is convenience, when related towards sustainability?
Why is it that users expect something or behave in a certain way?
And how can design help in overcoming the barriers?

Listening is not enough. You must understand your clients, and the client’s clients.
Designers are trained to do so. Integrating the end consumer into the design process is essential to its success. It brings evidence to the drawing board and it solves real life problems.

As from the very beginning of the project, users are involved to test, test, and re-test. Using low fidelity models like paper prototypes, to high fidelity prototypes or virtual visualisations. Never underestimate the ease and value of collecting real insights!

Sustainable.
The game is on for sustainability!
No doubts anymore, you better be sustainable, or you are out.
It creates valuable businesses, reduces, or even solves future environmental impact and usually it reduces costs and improves quality in the long run.

Sustainability is never an all or nothing decision. It is a mindset that feeds creativity to improve, it makes us innovate and challenges us to go beyond and above the status quo. Even little by little, innovation should never waste the opportunity to improve the future!

Speed.
Almost adversative to sustainability, markets are continuously moving forward at high velocities.
Innovation needs to be highly efficient, on target and cost sensitive!
No time to waste anymore on long emotional discussions or pencil drawings. More than ever before design is about performance. Result driven, accelerated processes and calculated risk taking.
It is an iterative way of working and approaching a goal. On purpose, within budgets, on time!

Magic.
At last, innovation remains a creative performance. Not replaceable by robots nor artificial intelligence (yet).

Despite all data driven or digital evidence we may put into product innovation, design is there to make people dream, to convince markets, to take advantage, to improve lives and to bring happiness.
It takes a lot of talent, efforts, co-creation, and joy to innovate!

We can tell…

Finally, did you know that:

• Businesses investing into design outperform twice as much as others in the industry (source Mckinsey)
• SMEs spend 1 to 2% of their turnover into innovation. (source OECD)
• Around 15% of the turnover comes directly from innovation. (source OECD)

Now you know, tell it, share it, do it and grow it…