Business design
Applies design methods to the business model: how an organization creates value for someone, how it delivers it and how it sustains itself.
What it deals with
Companies tend to repeat what they already do well, and they struggle to explore new ideas that can't be measured yet.
Principles
Explore and exploit
Balance what already works with what is being discovered.
Visible models
Draw the business so it can be discussed and changed.
Test cheaply
Validate the business hypotheses before investing.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Draw the business model alongside the customer journey.
Avoid
Designing a service without knowing who will pay for it, or how.
Don’t fall for it
A business model is a hypothesis: test it piece by piece.
Models
- ModelTen Types of InnovationInnovation isn’t just the product: ten types, from the profit model to brand and engagement.
Methods and tools
- ApproachJobs to be doneUnderstanding what progress a person seeks in a situation and what they “hire” a product for.
- ProcessLean StartupBuild the minimum, measure how people respond and learn, in short cycles.
- MethodValue Proposition CanvasChecking whether what you offer responds to what a type of customer is trying to do, suffers and wants.
- MethodBusiness Model CanvasA sheet with nine blocks to see, on one page, how a project creates value and sustains itself.
- MethodFour Actions FrameworkRethinking an offering by asking what to eliminate, reduce, raise and create.
Connections
Authors and works
- 2009
Roger L. Martin
Described how knowledge moves from mystery to heuristic to algorithm, and why design helps along that path.
- 2010
Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur
Proposed a nine-block canvas to describe and design business models.
Sources
Original sources
- Martin, R. L. (2009). The design of business: Why design thinking is the next competitive advantage. Harvard Business Press.
- Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation. Wiley.
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