Design practices for SME’s sustainable innovation.
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2021
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Master's Programme in Collaborative and Industrial Design
Language
en
Pages
122
Series
Abstract
The thesis focuses on an Italian micro-enterprise specialised in woodworking in the building industry, specifically for the manufacture and commercialisation of doors and windows. There are two main challenges: to promote a culture of sustainable innovation, and to design meaningful solutions to deliver and compete in the market. The target market is both at the national and international level. In order to achieve such a goal, the design project develops in three steps: by conducting interviews at the company to identify and define case-SME’s sustainable innovation needs, by conducting desk research to identify and rank existing design methods and tools to then create a new set of tools and processes that allow to propose meaningful solutions to the market. The process results in the creation of two types of outcomes: the first is a design toolkit with processes, methods and tools designed and tailored to better fit with the case-SME’s innovation needs. Specifically, the toolkit consists of a combination of two models, which are the Ten Type of Innovation and Double-Diamond, and a new adaptation of four different tools which are desk Research, Customer Journey Map, Affinity Diagram and Business Model Canvas. The second deliverable results in five new customised innovations to add and bring into the market. Specifically, solutions and innovations belong in the areas of Profit Model, Product System, Service, Brand and Customer Engagement. There are four main impacts that this project has on the company: -Improvement of the company’s offer and the company’s brand. -Growth of the company’s market competitiveness. -Development of the company’s culture of innovation. -Improvement of the company’s sustainable impact. Closing thoughts of this thesis come from a careful reflection of the role of the designer in three different environments: in the design community, businesses and human society.Description
Supervisor
Paavilainen, HeidiThesis advisor
Paavilainen, HeidiKeywords
SME, innovation, toolkit, design practices, sustainable, case history