Moving from insights to ideas to impact
Whether you’re uncovering new customer insights, designing disruptive business models, or running pilots, our innovation process accelerates your journey from inspiration to execution.
We specialize in solving complex innovation challenges through a blend of research, co-creation, prototyping, and experiment-based action planning.
We help leaders with innovation challenges like:
Defining and prioritizing new opportunities for growth
We blend quantitative and qualitative research to identify opportunities for growth within existing customer segments and net new markets. We’ll bring the intel, inspiration, and recommendations to facilitate your team through a smarter decision making process.
Our services include:
- Qualitative empathy building research (1:1 interviews, focus groups, surveys, field research, etc.)
- Quantitative opportunity evaluation research (sales and usage data analysis, TAM sizing, competitive landscape analysis, people analytics, etc.)
- Data synthesis and recommendations that serve as inputs for highly facilitated prioritization and decision making workshops
- Framework development to surface opportunities (root cause analysis, Where to Play / How to Win, Jobs To Be Done (JTBD), current state and future state journey maps, etc.)
Accelerating the pace from ideas to prototypes
Our design process leverages collaborative co-creation workshops with stakeholders, rapid concept prototyping, and diligent experimentation to ensure we’ve properly validated the problem, the audience, the solution, and the business model before moving forward with implementation or investment.
Our services include:
- Curated insights and inspiration to push your team in new creative directions
- Expertly designed and facilitated co-creation workshops, both virtual and in-person, with end-users and internal stakeholders
- Low and mid-fidelity concept prototypes
- Business model and operating model exploration and definition
- End-user feedback sessions to refine and iterate on concepts
Reducing risk by validating a solution’s viability and adoption
Our pilot-based approach translates new ideas into minimum viable experiments. Our goal is to test critical assumptions and learn quickly so that we can refine and scale a solution with more confidence. Each experiment looks different, but our team of experts will coach you through the process of building a pilot and measurement plan that best suits your situation.
Our services include:
- Learning roadmap definition to guide experiments
- Definition of stage gates and metrics that define success for new concepts
- Design and execution of experiments, pilots, and proof of concepts that test key assumptions and hypotheses
- Synthesis of findings into executive recommendations and roadmaps
What our Innovation Project clients say:
I just want each of you to know how incredibly impressed I have been with the level of dedication, innovation, and effort you have put into this design sprint. I’m even more impressed and excited by the products you have developed.
CEO of Advanced Market Networks
Fortune 500 Insurance ClientWorking with The Design Gym was an incredible experience. The team helped us to quickly examine our market, gather insights, brainstorm, and create substantial ideas for our product roadmap. We look forward to working with them again in the future to help grow our business!
Product Manager
Consumer Electronics ClientThe Design Gym has been an amazing strategic partner for the [client] Design Thinking team and is intimately familiar with our program and framework.The team are also some of the best facilitators in the business!
Design Leader
Fortune 100 Technology Client
WHAT MAKES OUR INNOVATION PROJECTS DIFFERENT:
Fast paced 12-week cycles
Successful projects are iterative, not endless. We have found 12-weeks allows us to do rigorous work that will make you confident in decision making, without bloated timeliness or analysis paralysis.
Build your team’s muscles and mindsets as we go
Successful projects leave your team better equipped than we found them. Our background in training and leadership development allows us to build learning moments and coaching into our process along the way.
User involvement over user empathy
Successful projects integrate end-users in the process. Stakeholders are integrated throughout our projects to improve the quality and feasibility of our outcomes. Instead of relying on a brief set of interviews to understand human needs, we integrate them throughout the process.
More creative than your average consultant
Successful projects push your team outside of the norm. If you want to surprise yourself with what your team is capable of, call us. If you want to pay inflated fees for the same answers your competitors received, there are plenty of big consultancies waiting for you.
Sticky notes are not the solution
Successful projects end in experiments and pilots, not a room full of inspiration. You will get a top tier experience and inspiration throughout our project, but if we haven’t created meaningful business results by the end then we haven’t done our job.
