Getting the most value from design research

Design research is becoming an increasingly commonplace activity within large scale organisational (transformation) projects and programs. But many organisations struggle to find a proper role for design research.
Drawing upon Meld Studios experience, this workshop explores how to get the most value from investment in design research, pitfalls and pain points inherent in design research, candid experiences from Meld Studios client work, and provides practical tips for the successful integration of design research into your transformation initiative.
This workshop is not about how to do design research in the field, it is about how to make sure your design research has impact within the organisation (and some of that does involve what you do in the field, but not all of it).

Topics covered include:

  • The right and wrong ways to integrate design research into a transformation initiative.
  • The integration of research and design.
  • Building insights over time, rather than redoing the same thing time and time again.
  • Engaging customers and avoiding fatigue.
  • Creating a culture where design research thrives.

The workshop will be led by Iain Barker, Principal and co-founder of Meld Studios. Iain has over 20 years experience conducting design research within complex organisations. He has created and facilitated most of Meld Studios public workshops and is a recent graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

This will be a first outing for this workshop.