UBC’s Strategic Design Method (SDM)

The University of British Columbia design process

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

Abstract

The design process created by the UBC (University of British Columbia) and called the Strategic Design Method (SDM) involves students and participants. In general terms, the SDM should be considered as a process of productive consultations, search for problems, and their resolution.

The SDM focuses on the articulation and integration of individual and organizational practices. The SDM practices generally are internally oriented (communication and knowledge production), and also include externally oriented practices (social value, recognition of market needs, and competitive positioning).

The SDM is designed, developed, taught, and practiced at UBC’s Sauder School of Business and used at the Liu Institute too. Besides, at the same time, the SDM offers a set of techniques and design tools that are constantly subjected to adjustments, calibrations, and revisions to meet the objectives of the client and business in the real world. In a few words, the SDM is a structure designed not only supports thinking and doing but also what to think and how to “do” or act.

The SDM is operated on three main axes and addresses:

• Identifying problems (asking why),
• Problem setting (try and try), and
• Problem-solving (doing and evaluating).

The role of the SDM is primarily to open up and explore new problems before focusing on understanding how to solve them, using only available resources.

And several times, the SDM has been described as a study learning method at UBC and was originally conceived by landscape architect and professor Moura Quayle and evolved in collaboration with the Ph.D. candidate Angèle Beausoleil.

Strategic Design

SDM is considered a collaborative process that helps understand complex problems.

SDM is considered an emerging business-type discipline, which includes strong roots in user research and collaborative design.

SDM practice focuses on multidisciplinary teams and enterprise units working along together, combining Design Thinking techniques, critical thinking, and data analysis to co-create, as well as test and deliver resilient solutions to systemic challenges to customers.

As a naturally inclusive mindset, SDM works well in today’s complex business environment, especially when you’re facing off problems poorly defined and owned by many specialists or business units. The SDM framework developed by Sauder d.studio is particularly effective in opportunity creation and clarity when the way forward is unclear or when the system is simply stuck.

SDM differs from many other approaches, processes, and methodologies applying co-creative principles that engage different units and stakeholders throughout the problem-solving journey, and thus achieve innovative solutions and, often, unexpected.

SDM processes have historically been used in a variety of industries to produce goods as well as products or services. The SDM builds on established methodologies from these traditional design practices and combines them with creative and analytical approaches from other disciplines, including commerce. The result is a user-driven generative process that turns research into action.

The SDM has gone through several iterations during its life cycle and continues to evolve.

Commonly used techniques

The techniques detailed below are nominally organized in ASK.TRY.DO; however, many of them are really useful in one or all of these phases of SDM.

Ask: create the opportunity

FINDING FACTS [OBSERVE]:

• Identify right questions,
• Conduct user research,
• Review research results, and
• Define criteria for success.

FINDING MEANING [FORM INSIGHTS]:

• Interpret and synthesize the findings of the previous stage,
• Review the results,
• Identify chunks of the problem that stand out as small enough to be solved.

FINDING OPPORTUNITIES [FRAME OPPORTUNITIES]:

• Frame these “chunks” as opportunities (“how might we?”),
• Generate ideas to pursue the opportunities [Brainstorm],
• Evaluate and sort the ideas using criteria for success,
• Pick one idea to prototype,
• Re-frame the opportunity

Try: create a prototype

PROTOTYPE:

• Produce a tangible or visible version of [part] of your idea, e.g. a sketch, flow-chart, skit, story, model, story-board, map — keep it fast and simple

TEST:

• Test your prototypes by designing simple experiments that you can do quickly and cheaply,
• Run the experiment with real users and collect feedback,
• Re-visit criteria for success

REFINE:

• Refine and enhance your prototype again and again, based on feedback from experiments, and if you discover the idea won’t work just scrap it and go back to your idea list and try another one or go back even further and re-frame the opportunity

Do: Create Valued Outcome

IMPLEMENT:

• Work with users and stakeholders to develop a plan to roll out your solution and consider a staged approach to enable ongoing improvement of the outcomes.

EVALUATE:

• Establish a process and metrics for ongoing evaluation.
• Consider viewing the solution as an ongoing “beta” model, which is open for continuous improvement.

INNOVATE:

• Design an ongoing innovation strategy into your production and quality assurance processes, be sure to include user research in your strategy