I have set up business design functions in several different contexts.
Business design is a practical way to shape how a company or government agency operates by applying a design-mindset to core business decisions, not just products. It looks across people, process and technology to ensure that what an organisation plans to build is desirable to users, viable in the market and aligned with strategy — in other words, it helps turn ideas into profitable, workable business models rather than nice concepts that never work. That joined-up view matters because it reduces costly missteps, accelerates learning about what will or won’t work, and increases the odds that innovation contributes directly to improved performance and competitive advantage.
Business design exposes capability gaps and shows where focused investment, for example agile delivery, is needed to execute the strategy.
I am especially interested in using business design to align across complex, large-scale portfolios of work that have previously been disjointed.
Some of my articles #
Business Design for an Agile world, 27 January 2015 (Medium)
How car washing helps explain Business Design, 16 April 2015 (Medium)
How we’re keeping DWP’s business transformation on track, 15 December 2015 (DWP Digital blog)
What makes a great Business Designer?, 10 December 2014 (DWP Digital blog)
How we’re building our Business Design skills at DWP, 13 November 2014 (DWP Digital blog)
Our DWP Business Design work during the last parliament: a retrospective, 11 May 2015 (Medium)