What is a Business Designer?

Aug 17, 2022

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Business design is: a new business discipline that has taken design methodologies and blended those skills with strategic and commercial business skills. In Australia the term is not ever used, in other countries such as US and in parts of Europe jobs for Business Design is far more common.

My description of Business Design is:

We use customer-centricity, commercial acumen, strategic foresight and innovation methodology to find your competitive advantage for a successful future, and ideally demonstrate measurable impact.

Dina Goebel 2022

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Refer to the Links below for different definitions of business design by IDEO, Indeed.com, Board of Innovation and Rotman School.

The questions explored:

What outcomes do Business Designers achieve?

ONE: Business design is seeing things from a fresh perspective, through another lens, to enable managers, strategists and designers think more creatively to develop new ideas with a free hand.

TWO: The biggest difference – they protect concepts from being over-evaluated (and killed) by the ‘traditional,’ often slow and painstaking way in which the organisation approaches developing the business case. They champion design thinking and innovation methodology.

THREE: They embed the forward-thinking, creative questioning and supporting frameworks across the organisation. Usually they are custodians of the innovation processes or hub.

In my next two episodes I give an example:

Episode 3: a small business entrepreneur idea using business design thinking
Episode 4: a corporate venture idea using business design thinking

Where does a Business Designer sit in an organisation?

A business designer is a part of a cross-functional team focused on improving customer experience and resolving issues. They consider how each step in an organisation’s model and processes affects customer experience. It is such a hard role to define and why each organisation has a different interpretation of what a business designer is.

How do I become a business designer?

Roles/individuals tend to evolve from: Chief cat-herder, intrapreneur, entrepreneurs, business development roles, product designers, management and consulting. Key skills:

It’s important to understand business principles.
Many study MBAs or entrepreneurship.
Design methodologies are a core component of business design.
Design / creative mindset refers to how you think about problems.
Explore a veriety of ways to gain relevant experiences.

I do think being a successful business designer comes from ‘years on canvas’ building a lot of experiences, i.e. you gather momentum as a generalist, this builds your credentials as a business designer.

Segment: Recommended reading

Love to hear your thoughts from this article in the comments below:https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/what-is-business-designerQuote from ‘Indeed.com’ on their Business Designer career page:

“Business design helps organizations develop solutions with a customer-centric focus. It combines tools from business professionals, like analysts, business thinkers and strategists, with the mindsets and methods of designers. Business design allows organizations to solve prominent business challenges through the application of creative thinking processes to foster and promote innovation to help the organization grow.”