Design thinking, the driver of innovation in Irish Industry: An interview with Denis Hayes, Managing Director of the IRDG

non-peer-reviewedGovernment has awoken to the power of design for business, large, medium and small. The country has made great progress from 1960’s Ireland, when the government last played a significant role in the design sector. Today, design has achieved strategic importance. It is now recognised as a key enabler of innovation, an effective agent for organisational change and a process for delivering positive customer experience. The government of 2018 recognise design on par with STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and has more recently written it into future policy ambitions with the 2017 publication, ‘Winning by Design’. In this interview, Martin Ryan and Trevor Vaugh step outside the design community for an external perspective offered by a pillar of Irish industry, Denis Hayes - MD of IRDG (Industry Research & Development Group). Representing a network of over 250 companies involved in Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) across all industry sectors, the IRDG are an important part of the current and future industry growth and ambition and provide a litmus test for the progress of design thinking in industry

How Irish design consultancies align with Ireland’s Innovation 2020 priorities: a preliminary study

peer-reviewedThe Government of Ireland has positioned design as integral to the innovation landscape. In particular, it encourages innovations from designers that align with six thematic areas identified in the Innovation 2020 report. Those areas are health & medical, information & technology communications (ITC), food, energy, manufacturing & materials and service & business processes. However, research is yet to show the current contribution of design consultancies and their project outcomes categorised within these six priority thematic areas. This paper presents empirical findings on a review of 571 projects advertised on the websites of 26 design consultancies in Ireland. It shows that just under half of the reviewed design projects fall within the thematic project areas. Furthermore, this paper shows the differences between three design disciplines (product design, user-experience design and branding design) and their contribution of projects to each thematic area. The results of this empirical study are relevant and of use to design practitioners, clients and policy makers. For designers, this research identifies opportunities for new business and innovation within the Government of Ireland key thematic areas. For design clients, this research offers opportunities to seek input from relevant design disciplines according to the thematic alignment of their project. For policy makers, this research offers context of the six key thematic areas within the design disciplines in Ireland. Lastly, the results of this research suggest that across the disciplines of product, user-experience and branding design, preferred priority themes are evident

Getting the right design or getting the design right: an observation of 18 industry projects progressing through a structured design thinking process

Harvard business professor Theodore Levitt once said “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want to buy a quarterinch hole” This quote, often used by design thinking promoters, re-prioritises human needs in place of traditional market data. This has the effect of repositioning design thinking from ‘supplying a solution’ for a defined problem to ‘serving a need’ to an open ended problem. Here, design thinking takes the role of a strategic driver at the front end of innovation processes. By this emphasis design offers its full potential, where one can identify a problems root cause and work towards ‘the right design’

Design-driven entrepreneurship - An interview with four designer-founders

non-peer-reviewedFour Irish Designers are blazing a trail in business with a design approach as their competitive advantage. In this article, Martin Ryan and Trevor Vaugh hear from the co-founders of Izzy Wheels, Turbo-spoke and Connect the Dots as they share the story of their early success and the underlying insights driving breakthrough in their markets. With start-up failure rates of up to 90%, it is clear that current approaches to growing new ventures is not delivering sufficient returns. This article introduces a potentially important missing element - Design. While passion, rigour and talent are essential traits in entrepreneurs, the most important success factor is the identification of a real problem and the creativity to navigate it towards success. This is the foundation of a design approach

Getting the right design or getting the design right: an observation of 18 industry projects progressing through a structured design thinking process

Harvard business professor Theodore Levitt once said “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want to buy a quarterinch hole” This quote, often used by design thinking promoters, re-prioritises human needs in place of traditional market data. This has the effect of repositioning design thinking from ‘supplying a solution’ for a defined problem to ‘serving a need’ to an open ended problem. Here, design thinking takes the role of a strategic driver at the front end of innovation processes. By this emphasis design offers its full potential, where one can identify a problems root cause and work towards ‘the right design’

Design-driven entrepreneurship - An interview with four designer-founders

Four Irish Designers are blazing a trail in business with a design approach as their competitive advantage. In this article, Martin Ryan and Trevor Vaugh hear from the co-founders of Izzy Wheels, Turbo-spoke and Connect the Dots as they share the story of their early success and the underlying insights driving breakthrough in their markets. With start-up failure rates of up to 90%, it is clear that current approaches to growing new ventures is not delivering sufficient returns. This article introduces a potentially important missing element - Design. While passion, rigour and talent are essential traits in entrepreneurs, the most important success factor is the identification of a real problem and the creativity to navigate it towards success. This is the foundation of a design approach

Design thinking, the driver of innovation in Irish Industry: An interview with Denis Hayes, Managing Director of the IRDG

Government has awoken to the power of design for business, large, medium and small. The country has made great progress from 1960’s Ireland, when the government last played a significant role in the design sector. Today, design has achieved strategic importance. It is now recognised as a key enabler of innovation, an effective agent for organisational change and a process for delivering positive customer experience. The government of 2018 recognise design on par with STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and has more recently written it into future policy ambitions with the 2017 publication, ‘Winning by Design’. In this interview, Martin Ryan and Trevor Vaugh step outside the design community for an external perspective offered by a pillar of Irish industry, Denis Hayes - MD of IRDG (Industry Research & Development Group). Representing a network of over 250 companies involved in Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) across all industry sectors, the IRDG are an important part of the current and future industry growth and ambition and provide a litmus test for the progress of design thinking in industry

How Irish design consultancies align with Ireland’s Innovation 2020 priorities: a preliminary study

The Government of Ireland has positioned design as integral to the innovation landscape. In particular, it encourages innovations from designers that align with six thematic areas identified in the Innovation 2020 report. Those areas are health & medical, information & technology communications (ITC), food, energy, manufacturing & materials and service & business processes. However, research is yet to show the current contribution of design consultancies and their project outcomes categorised within these six priority thematic areas. This paper presents empirical findings on a review of 571 projects advertised on the websites of 26 design consultancies in Ireland. It shows that just under half of the reviewed design projects fall within the thematic project areas. Furthermore, this paper shows the differences between three design disciplines (product design, user-experience design and branding design) and their contribution of projects to each thematic area. The results of this empirical study are relevant and of use to design practitioners, clients and policy makers. For designers, this research identifies opportunities for new business and innovation within the Government of Ireland key thematic areas. For design clients, this research offers opportunities to seek input from relevant design disciplines according to the thematic alignment of their project. For policy makers, this research offers context of the six key thematic areas within the design disciplines in Ireland. Lastly, the results of this research suggest that across the disciplines of product, user-experience and branding design, preferred priority themes are evident