Pieter van Langen

Feb

2020

How to determine objectives in 3 easy steps

Seven sorts of knowledge constitute the foundation of abilities. Abilities usually do not come naturally but need to be developed. This post explains how to determine objectives for developing abilities.

Steps to determine objectives

Suppose that you have identified an ability that you deem relevant for a given purpose. How can you determine an objective to develop this ability? You can do this in three steps.

Significance

Define what the ability means for your purpose.

Direction

Define a course of action for developing the ability.

Priority

Define the importance and urgency of developing the ability.

Significance

You can perform a VRIO analysis to determine the significance of a given ability. This allows you to find out four relevant properties. These properties are:

Valuable

Able to exploit opportunities and defend against threats (yes/no).

Rare

Scarce and difficult to acquire in the market (yes/no).

Inimitable

Hard to copy or substitute (yes/no).

Organized

Set up to capitalize on resources (yes/no).

Direction

Determine a course of action for developing a given ability as follows:

Possess

If it is valuable but not present (in your organization).

Refine

If it is present and valuable, but not rare.

Integrate

If it is present, valuable, and rare, but not inimitable.

Support

If it is present, valuable, rare, and inimitable, but not organized.

Maintain

If it is present, valuable, rare, inimitable, and organized.

Abandon

If it is present but not valuable anymore.

Priority

Determine a priority for developing a given ability as follows:

If its development is urgent and requires your personal attention.

Plan

If its development is less urgent but requires your personal attention.

Delegate

If its development is urgent but does not require your personal attention.

Eliminate

If its development is less urgent and does not require your personal attention.

Feb

2020

Tunnel design

Preparation

Service

Name. Tunnel design.

Design object. A tunnel through rock, soil, or water.

Specifics. Fixed price.

Situation

Description. Designers of seven different disciplines each make partial designs of a tunnel to be constructed. They align their partial designs regularly to form an integral design. When they find conflicts between their partial designs, they resolve them by modifying their partial designs.

Critical success factors. The process of finding and resolving conflicts between partial designs takes precious time.

Current position. The service is:

Valuable.
Not rare.
Not inimitable.
Not sufficiently organized.

Ambition

Kind of advantage to achieve. Higher team performance.

Formulation. Designers manage conflicts between their partial designs in less time.

Possibilities

Options. Ways to improve conflict management:

Find a conflict between partial designs as quickly as possible.
Resolve a conflict between partial designs as quickly as possible.

Analysis. Worth pursuing.

Assessment to upgrade to leading tunnel design

Frame

Prevention is better than cure to improve conflict management:

Prevent a conflict between partial designs as much as possible.

Expectations

Ways to improve conflict management:

Prevent a conflict between partial designs as much as possible.
Find a conflict between partial designs as quickly as possible.
Resolve a conflict between partial designs as quickly as possible.

Problem

Question. How can designers prevent a conflict between partial designs as much as possible?

Issue. While making partial designs, designers do not know from each other what the other is doing.

Prognosis. Favourable: there are possibilities to do something about it.

Advice to upgrade to leading tunnel design

Concept

Question. How can designers prevent a conflict between partial designs as much as possible?

Idea.

Express a tunnel design in a common formal digital language.
Process a tunnel design in a shared digital repository.
- Create
- Read
- Update
- Archive
- Delete

Solution

Idea. Express a tunnel design in a common formal digital language.

Action.

Define a design ontology.
Transform the design ontology in a formal meta-model.
Manage the formal meta-model.

Solution

Idea. Process a tunnel design in a shared digital repository.

Action.

Create a digital repository.
Implement the formal meta-model in the digital repository.
Train designers in designing using the digital repository.
Manage the digital repository.

Feb

2020

Plant redesign

Preparation

Service

Name. Plant redesign.

Design object. An existing plant.

Specifics. Design to revamp (i.e., renovate or expand).

Situation

Description. Plant redesign comprises three stages. First, one of the designers is tasked with producing a conceptual design. Then, a small team prepares a preliminary design. Subsequently, a larger team produces a detailed design.

Critical success factors. The principal designer is the only one who masters the stage of conceptual design. Training designers in this stage has not been successful. Since the expertise required is largely unique, hiring is not an option.

Current position. In the stage of conceptual design, the plant redesign service is:

Valuable.
Not rare.
Inimitable.
Not sufficiently organized.

Ambition

Kind of advantage to achieve. Higher team performance.

Formulation. The key man risk in the stage of conceptual design is mitigated.

Indicators. The success of mitigating the key man risk in the stage of conceptual design is determined as follows:

#X designers master this stage.
The onboarding of designers in this stage takes at most #Y weeks.

Possibilities

Options. Ways to mitigate the key man risk in the stage of conceptual design:

Learn to produce a conceptual design as the principal designer does.

Analysis. Worth pursuing.

Assessment to upgrade to leading plant redesign

Frame

To mitigate the key man risk in the stage of conceptual design, focus on what makes the principal designer’s way of working unique:

Learn to produce a conceptual design as the principal designer does.

Expectations

Ways to mitigate the key man risk in the stage of conceptual design to revamp:

Learn to produce a conceptual design as the principal designer does.
Learn to produce a conceptual design according to a common way of working.

Problem

Question. How can designers learn how to produce a conceptual design as the principal designer does?

Issue. Designers need to display commercial acumen. Not every designer possesses this tacit, innate skill.

Issue. Only the principal designer knows how to execute the following activities:

Estimate the required effort.
Determine the process flow.
Appraise customer traits.
Analyse a concept.

Prognosis. Favourable: there are possibilities to do something about it.

Advice to upgrade to leading plant redesign

Concept

Question. How can designers learn to produce a conceptual design as the principal designer does?

Idea.

Secure the principal designer’s know-how to execute specific activities to produce a conceptual design:
- Estimate the required effort.
- Determine the process flow.
- Appraise customer traits.
- Analyse a concept.
Ensure that only designers with commercial acumen are tasked with producing a conceptual design.

Solution

Idea. Secure the principal designer’s know-how to execute specific activities to produce a conceptual design.

Action.

Find out how the principal designer knows how to execute the following activities:
- Estimate the required effort.
- Determine the process flow.
- Appraise customer traits.
- Analyse a concept.

Teach designers how to execute the following activities:
- Estimate the required effort.
- Determine the process flow.
- Appraise customer traits.
- Analyse a concept.

Solution

Idea. Ensure that only designers with commercial acumen are tasked with producing a conceptual design.

Action.

Circumscribe or illustrate what it means that a designer displays commercial acumen.
Train the responsible manager in recognizing designers with commercial acumen.
Include displaying commercial acumen as a condition in the standard operating procedure for tasking a designer with producing a conceptual design.

Feb

2020

Aircraft design

Preparation

Service

Name. Series aircraft design.

Design object. Aircraft similar to other aircraft identified by the same grouping key.

Specifics. Design a variation of aircraft identified by the same grouping key.

Situation

Description. A team of designers is tasked to design a series aircraft. The team consists of senior designers and junior designers.

Critical success factors. Junior designers slow down whenever there are no senior designers looking over their shoulders or sparring with them.

Current position. The service is:

Valuable.
Not rare.
Inimitable.
Not sufficiently organized.

Ambition

Kind of advantage to achieve. Higher team performance.

Formulation. The design team designs a series aircraft more quickly.

Possibilities

Options. Ways to design a series aircraft more quickly:

Learn to design a series aircraft as senior designers do.

Analysis. Worth pursuing.

Assessment to upgrade to leading aircraft design

Frame

To design a series aircraft more quickly, wisdom comes with experience:

Learn to design a series aircraft as senior designers do.

Expectations

Ways to design a series aircraft more quickly:

Learn to design a series aircraft as senior designers do.
Learn to design a series aircraft according to a common way of working.
Reduce time waste in the design process.

Problem

Question. How can junior designers learn to design a series aircraft as senior designers do?

Issue. Senior designers are not aware of their way of working.

Prognosis. Favourable: there are possibilities to do something about it.

Advice to upgrade to leading aircraft design

Concept

Question. How can junior designers learn to design a series aircraft as senior designers do?

Idea. Learn how to use design rationale while designing.

Solution

Idea. Learn how to use design rationale while designing.

Action.

Find out how senior designers retrieve and reuse design rationale of aircraft identified by the same grouping key.
Find out how senior designers revise and retain design rationale of aircraft while designing.
Train junior designers on how to use design rationale while designing.

Background research

Frances Brazier, Pieter van Langen, and Jan Treur (1997). A compositional approach to modelling design rationale. AIEDAM 11, 125-139.

Nov

2019

7 sorts of design knowledge to accomplish design work

Designers continually develop knowledge with customers, commissioners, users, fellow designers, partners, and other stakeholders. They acquire, create, and share knowledge of different sorts. This post explains which sorts of design knowledge exist that a team needs to accomplish design work.

Sorts of design knowledge

A team’s organization consists of the following sorts of design knowledge and their interrelationships.

Strategy: the plan to accomplish design goals.
Structure: the way of organizing design work.
Systems: processes and procedures of design.
Style: the way designers approach design.
Specialisms: fields of specialization of designers.
Skills: talents and abilities of designers.
Shared values: accepted values, norms, and standards for designing.

These seven sorts almost entirely correspond with the seven internal factors in the McKinsey 7S Model. Other points of departure are conceivable, but the McKinsey 7S Model applies well in practice. Furthermore, many managers know this model. For a brief introduction to this model, see, for instance, Strategic Management Insight or Investopedia.

In practice, the two sorts Systems and Style may be hard to distinguish. For instance, a design team may define style as the processes and procedures the team members have agreed to follow. In such cases, you may conveniently combine the two sorts into one sort, System.

Framework for design knowledge

The six or seven sorts of design knowledge and their interrelationships form a framework that can be used to:

Analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a design team.
Grow knowledge that is of interest to design work.
Make design knowledge part of a team’s DNA.

Nov

2019

Member of Ooa

In November 2019, Pieter van Langen (founder and owner of Design Impulse) has become a member of Ooa, the Dutch Order of Organization experts and advisors. Ooa is the eldest professional association for consultants in the world. Through its membership, Design Impulse likes to express that our customers can always count on knowledgeable, professional, and challenging consultancy.

Ooa acts as a knowledge platform for members, organizing knowledge exchange between consultants and other professionals. In 1989, Ooa joined the International Council of Management Consultancy Institutes (ICMCI). See the website of Ooa for more information (in Dutch).

Oct

2019

Launch Design Impulse

Organizations act in a complex world to achieve goals. Those that are consistently successful display curiosity, creativity, and commitment to change. And more often than not, design drives the success of these enterprises, companies, and institutions:

Revenues and profit. Revenues 20 times, profit 4 times, and exports 5 times more (Design Council, 2012).
Stakeholder value. Twice as much return as the S&P 500 index (Design Management Institute, 2015).
Business performance. Double growth compared to the benchmark (McKinsey, 2018).

Launch Design Impulse 4 — Design-driven organizations are more successful

For this reason, Pieter van Langen decided to launch Design Impulse. We are an independent Dutch management consulting firm specializing in design leadership consulting. Consult us to transform design into a strategic capability that makes your organization more successful.

Launch Design Impulse