Design is a multidisciplinary field in rapid evolution. For the purpose of this
chapter, we focus on the pragmatic reality of corporate design teams. How do corporate
design teams cope with the challenge to bring research onto their radars? Firstly, by
being more and more integrated in the overall branding, marketing, and research
processes of their respective corporations. If industrial designers of the past were
accustomed to be in a dialog with R&D scientists in order to be recipients of
technological innovation, nowadays corporate designers engage in a vibrant ongoing
discussion with more stakeholders, both internal and external, representing the
customer’s voice within the company setting. In the past two decades or so, the role of
research within corporate design processes has increased to the extent that entire
departments were created almost by fiat. This was undertaken with the specific purpose
to organically grow new competencies from within new portfolios of nontraditional and
complementary design domains. Such approaches as ethnography, laddering, and future
studies are among the specific approaches that have been increasingly integrated into
the corporate design portfolio. The incorporation of these disciplines led to some
exceptional cases of bottom-up excellence, as well as to some oddities in corporate
portfolios and management directives. The new economic climate demands a rational
approach to systematically anticipating people’s needs and wants. Given today’s drive
toward fact-based decision making, the introduction of statistics and scientific methods
appears to be the natural next step to streamline design skills. These methods should
enhance innovation and delivery, and further encourage research competencies within
the design portfolio of corporations.
Keywords: Creative leadership, design, design research, future study.