Design Management Class // Part-Time Faculty

Designed and facilitated Design Management class in English for a multidisciplinary and international team of undergraduate design students at one of the most progressive design schools in Poland – School of Form.

Course description: Design Management is a discipline that merges design and related business activities into a coordinated strategy for creating value and sustainable advantage for the firm.

Design plays a key role in innovation and competitive advantage. It helps to develop new products and services that market and people really need. On the other hand, it can be used internally as a very flexible tool that adapts to the needs of the organization and strengthens its culture. By connecting design thinking and business logic, design management uses analytical and strategic thinking that empowers creative mindset of the organization. Related tools and approach empowers business to use design as a strategic discipline that strengthens firm and builds its competitive edge. Design management skills are key to build design-led strategies and human-centered business.

Additionally, this course exposes and introduces students to the contexts, the complexities, and the conditions of the external environment (i.e. technological, socio-political, economic, and demographic) of the new economies based on services, experiences, and transience. Current economies create novel conditions that present opportunities, challenges, and a new mandate for leadership and innovation of design-intensive and creative firms. Students will investigate various aspects and angles of the ongoing transformation of these firms.

Instructor’s note: Ninety percent of all startups fail. Design firms, whether focused on fashion, product, UX, software, graphic design, retail, etc. are not exemption from that rule. Indeed, if they don’t fail, most design firms remain so small they become mere “lifestyle” businesses – only big enough to keep their founders alive. How to design, manage, and improve those design firms at their full capability will require new design-managerial capacity.