Duped by the Double Diamond?
It’s a masterpiece of over-simplicity and an idealised vision of the human centred design process, but now there’s proof this blueprint for breakthroughs is a long way from reality… At least in New Zealand. (But we’re probably not alone)
Yes, I’m talking about the well-accepted Double Diamond model with its four stages of discover, define, develop and deliver.
It rolls off the tongue nicely, but what follows is a sobering view of how lop-sided it may be…
Valuing the two diamonds
A consortium of organisations in NZ commissioned PWC to study The Value of Design to New Zealand’s Economy, putting numbers on the contribution in dollar figures, in a similar way to the UK Design Council’s Value of Design work a few years back.
We’re even a whisker ahead of the UK in terms of the dollar value of design:
“The total contribution of design to the New Zealand economy was approximately $10.1b in the year to March 2016, which equated to approximately 4.2%* of New Zealand’s GDP. For comparison, a UK Design Council study found that the economic contribution of design in the UK was £71.7b in 2013, which was equivalent to 4.1% of UK’s GDP.”
That’s the dollar value coming out… but what about the spending going in, and how does this relate to these outcomes?
Through a new lens
PWC sliced their data to reveal a reality very different to the double diamond. They ran a headcount of employees engaged in the four stages.
It’s a map of how New Zealand invests in ‘design’, and I suspect it’s not dissimilar to other nations (Comments invited):
So… the reality is it’s more like an arrow than a diamond. With a thin slither of insight leading into a giant development effort:
And (no surprises here either) according to the report — designers:
“wish they were involved earlier in the process — designers are typically not now”
This pattern reads alike to what I’ve experienced in other countries. I imagine the bottom line impact isn’t the only thing that’s similar in UK — that they, and other nations, have an arrow hiding behind their diamonds too.
So, what can we read from this?
About design/research:
- Design research is struggling to find a place in the strategic toolbox?
- Designers aren’t able to convince their clients to invest in research upfront?
- Design research is unable to demonstrate it’s value/contribution?
And our clients/stakeholders:
- Decision makers are afraid to challenge their own assumptions?
- We’re better at ‘making the product right, than making the right product’?
- See ambiguity and uncertain returns (and therefore risk) in investing in the first diamond?
…and I’m sure you could double both of those lists in a snap.
So, while the proliferation of design thinking, and programmes like Better by Design and Callaghan Innovation have provoked many businesses to reduce the distance between their own and their customers’ worlds, the (still) almost vacant first diamond reveals a huge under-investment, and suggests a corresponding opportunity for NZ brands to front-load development with investment in customer insights.
The report lays it out bare…
“New Zealand’s distance from the rest of the world, and the need to create highly scalable product solutions for a diverse foreign end-user, means we must continue to embrace design research, to capture customer insights and to translate those insights into real market opportunities”
Time to convert dollars into diamonds.
Kudos to DesignCo and all the organisations who co-funded this report.
I — for one –am looking forward to seeing some of the initiatives suggested in this paper play out.
And to meet the 2,000 (and change) of you I’m yet to.
This is a cross-post from my blog www.userexperience.co.nz — where you’ll find dozens of two-minute reads about design research. Some even seem to be quite popular.
