A true collaboration between academia and design
Combining a complex process and method into one model is a difficult undertaking. Through close collaboration and iteration, Hopgood Creative was able to create a teaching and reference tool that students can see, make sense of, and use to understand their innovation journey. The “Business Design Method: Visual Model” addresses the key needs of the client: clarity, simplicity, movement, iteration, and integration of the two processes.
Client: Dr. Angèle Beausoleil, Business Design Initiative, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Location: Toronto, Canada
What do they do?
“Dr. Angèle Beausoleil is a 'pracademic' who teaches design methodologies for business innovation and leads field research inside organizations on innovation process design, navigation and management. At Rotman, Dr. Beausoleil is evolving the Business Design major for MBAs as a recognized and distinct specialization in human-centred design and business innovation.”*
What was the client’s initial ask?
Academics are smart and capable communicators, especially about their own research but when it comes to visualizing they often recognize the limits of their own abilities and the restrictions of software like Powerpoint and Word. This is exactly why Dr. Beausoleil approached me about collaborating on two crucial visual representations related to her field research, teaching, and student engagement:
Business Design Method: Visual Model; and,
Business Design Pocket Guide both analog and digital versions (which will get its very own case study).
The problem we were solving
Sometimes it’s about taking your own sketches and designs to the next level, and other times it’s because you just don’t know where to start. For this project, the client approached me because she had an existing idea about her model and just didn’t know how—or have the time—to take it to the next level.
Stage 1 – Client’s initial model and design:
Model 1: Business Design: Working Model – Initial model as developed by Dr. Beausoleil
Model 2: Four-Stage Innovation Development Process – Initial model as developed by Dr. Beausoleil
Stage 1 – Hopgood Creative’s initial design of the model:
Model 3: First stage of development focused on integration of the two processes at a high-level.
Once we started working together, my main challenge became how to combine two complex processes while maintaining simplicity and clarity.
Peak inside my process
A large part of the process for this project was conversations, iterations, and prototypes. Dr. Beausoleil and her team spent the necessary and essential time explaining their work. As clients, they were able to be self-critical, which resulted in many discussions that centred around reviewing and scrutinizing the process and its visual model, which involved:
Parsing out any extraneous information;
Determining what was the most important aspect of the processes; and,
Highlighting the critical path of the model’s process.
Here’s a visual of how I like to work:
Sketch of my process
What I don’t do
I never design in a silo. I never take things away, design something and return it back.
I am a collaborative designer and prefer to have an open dialogue that results in an iterative design process while working directly with my clients.
The process of design can often cause you to think about your ideas in a new light. And, as with many projects of this complexity the client realized this and went back to the drawing board. Stage Two of this project resulted in an almost complete overhaul of our visual representation, the basic framework still existed but the rest was completely changed.
Stage 2 – Client’s revised model:
Model 4: Rethinking of the current model resulting in a complete overhaul, as developed by Dr. Beausoleil
Stage 2 – Hopgood Creative’s reinterpretation of the revised model:
Model 5: My sketch interpreting the revised model; simplification and integration of movement to divergent and convergent thinking alongside the iterative business design process.
What was the overall goal?
Creating a succinct information design to illustrate and combine the four-stage innovation development process (Model 2) and the three business design steps (Model 1) into a visual model that facilitates both learning and the path to innovation.** The intention of the model is to act as both a teaching and reference tool for students, academics, and industry leaders.
Outcome and transformation
“As a pedagogical designer, Michelle and I were very aligned in terms of the importance and impact of translating a highly complex process and method into a model that students could see, make sense of, and use as a guide through their innovation journey.” – Dr. Angèle Beausoleil
I am very proud of the collaboration and development of this teaching and reference tool. By the end of the process it had exceeded my expectations and I think it has turned into a sound solution. The current iteration of the visual model addresses the key needs asked by the client: clarity, simplicity, movement, iteration, and integration of the two processes.
Model 6: Final rendering of the reinterpreted sketch of the “Business Design Method: Visual Model”
Conclusion
A true collaboration between academia and design, the development of the Business Design Method: Visual Model has been, and continues to be, an iterative process.
