Using design to foster startup growth - a multiple case study
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Journal Title
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Volume Title
Perustieteiden korkeakoulu |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2019-05-08
Department
Major/Subject
International Design Business Management
Mcode
SCI3062
Degree programme
Master’s Degree Programme in International Design Business Management (IDBM)
Language
en
Pages
80 + 8
Series
Abstract
Nowadays, the impact of design in supporting business growth and technology development is by far self-evident. Research from both academic and industry leaders has pointed to the same conclusion: to succeed and outperform your competitors, companies need to use design. However, when it comes to using design in startups, there is a certain degree of resistance. Compared to wealthy, resourceful corporations, startup teams might have a slightly different view on the use of design, especially in the beginning of their venture. Design, with its highly intangible values and impacts, appears difficult to sell to many startup founders as an important ingredient for their business strategy. For this thesis 7 company founders and design leaders from six different companies were interviewed. All participating companies are recognized as highly design-oriented and are based in Helsinki region. The interviews focus on the participants’ observation and evaluation on the impact of design in their organisation, including their approach on applying design in business strategy and operational activities. The results offer new perspective on the role and values of design in startup teams, and a detailed analysis on startups’ current design practice. The roles of design in startups were identified in five key aspects: product development, business strategy, branding, culture, and operation. Design appears to play an important role in different stages of product development, ensuring that the process is user-centered and design solution efficiently covers user needs. Designers are involved in different activities of business strategy development to support the founding and management team clarity the core questions. Design has also proven to be the key element in shaping brand image. For some companies, having design presence in the company has a strong impact on their company culture and can greatly enhance their operational productivity. Companies approach on using design were studied in three main themes: use of design resources, how companies measure design impact, and common challenges that startup teams often face when investing design, as well as designers’ challenges. Based on the analysis from each theme, a list of key practices was proposed, in order to help business founders and founding teams to better prepare and utilise the advantages of design. The role of design is constantly and increasingly recognised in different aspects of business development. For startups team, the need for using design has becoming as clear as ever. This study attempts to narrow the bridge between business entrepreneurs and design professionals in order to generate productive and efficient use of design in startup setting.Description
Supervisor
Vartiainen, MattiThesis advisor
Gaudet, NatalieKeywords
design management, growth companies, startup, designers, founding team