Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean

Companies that do not innovate product meanings through design lose a core opportunity and leave it in the hands of their competitors.

This strategy is called design-driven innovation because design, in its etymological essence, means “making sense of things.”

“How could people give meaning to things in this evolving life context?”

design as making sense of things.

A company looking for radical innovation of meaning does not get too close to users, because the meaning users give to things is bounded by the existing sociocultural regime. Instead, when investing in radical innovation of meaning, companies such as Artemide and Alessi take a step back and investigate the evolution of society, economy, culture, ar

User-centered innovation does not question existing meanings but rather reinforces them, thanks to its powerful methods.

When Picasso painted, he never thought about a target audience. He didn’t have a target segment of users in mind. But eventually he was not only a great artist. Those who discovered him made also a great business. There is an enormous (and unexploited) business potential also in this type of innovation.”

It also reveals why design is important to creating competitive advantage: design innovates meanings, and meanings make a difference in the market.

A product’s language is its material, texture, smell, name, and, of course, form (style is only one aspect of a product’s language).