Fit for the Future with Design Fit­ness Check

• bay­ern design to launch an eval­u­a­tion tool for busi­ness­es and creatives
• Design Fit­ness Check enables com­pa­nies to assess their use of design and iden­ti­fy areas of improvement
• Design pro­fes­sion­als also can ben­e­fit from the online tool
• Devel­oped by bay­ern design in coop­er­a­tion with Prof. Dr. Jan-Erik Baars of Lucerne Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences and Arts, the tool is avail­able free of charge

Nurem­berg, Ger­many. Design Fit­ness Check was devel­oped with the under­stand­ing that com­pa­nies need to be effi­cient to be suc­cess­ful. As in sports, busi­ness­es require tal­ent and deter­mi­na­tion as well as a sound envi­ron­ment and skills to thrive. For exam­ple, a design­er rac­ing bicy­cle must be paired with a suit­able pro­fes­sion­al rac­ing team to win com­pe­ti­tions. The same holds true for busi­ness­es and their design agencies.

“Design Fit­ness Check enables indi­vid­u­als for the first time to obtain an ini­tial assess­ment of a company’s design capa­bil­i­ties. The results indi­cate the lev­el of pro­fi­cien­cy in using design in a vari­ety of process­es and high­light poten­tial needs for action,” says bay­ern design Man­ag­ing Direc­tor Nadine Vicen­ti­ni. Avail­able free of charge, the cus­tomized eval­u­a­tions can be used instant­ly by com­pa­nies to make inter­nal deci­sions regard­ing future mea­sures. The tool also pro­vides third-par­ty design pro­fes­sion­als with valu­able insights into their clien­tele that can be used to advise cus­tomers and thus enhance cooperation.

Design Fit­ness Check was devel­oped by bay­ern design in coop­er­a­tion with Prof. Dr. Jan-Erik Baars of Lucerne Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences and Arts. The tool is avail­able in Ger­man lan­guage at www.design-fitness-check.de

Design Fit­ness Check 

Eval­u­a­tions can be con­duct­ed by non-spe­cial­ists and design pro­fes­sion­als alike because rather than gaug­ing the skills of design­ers work­ing for a com­pa­ny Design Fit­ness Check assess­es the frame­work of con­di­tions in which design is used. There­fore, the check can be run by any indi­vid­ual who has a gen­er­al under­stand­ing of the com­pa­ny and its process­es. The results then can be used to cat­e­go­rize the com­pa­ny based on a matu­ri­ty mod­el and thus obtain clear insights into the strengths and weak­ness­es of the company’s design capabilities.

Design capa­bil­i­ties – key com­pe­tence in cor­po­rate management

Good design is a build­ing block for busi­ness suc­cess. This fact has been shown in sev­er­al stud­ies and best prac­tices and remains undis­put­ed. Apple, Tes­la, dm, or Patag­o­nia are set­ting exam­ples in this regard, each in its own way. Their com­mon denom­i­na­tor is a mind­set for excel­lence which is reflect­ed in their design: They set out to tap their capa­bil­i­ties in an opti­mal man­ner and will do what it takes to devel­op them. Prof. Dr. Jan-Erik Baars explains: “This is why design capa­bil­i­ties are a deci­sive fac­tor in thriv­ing com­pa­nies.” The term design capa­bil­i­ties encom­pass­es a company’s abil­i­ty to use its mate­r­i­al and/or imma­te­r­i­al resources to com­plete a task or activ­i­ty aimed at increas­ing the company’s per­for­mance. For exam­ple, design capa­bil­i­ties help

• design teams and exter­nal ser­vice providers sub­stan­ti­ate the improve­ment of their frame­work of conditions,
• brand man­agers deep­en the impact of their guide­lines, and
• entre­pre­neurs make the effec­tive­ness of their posi­tion­ing visible.

While pre­lim­i­nary mea­sures can be tak­en based on the results, con­duct­ing a com­pre­hen­sive audit to do so is rec­om­mend­ed. bay­ern design and Prof. Dr. Jan-Erik Baars have start­ed to pre­pare fur­ther options in which experts assist with ana­lyz­ing results and con­sol­i­dat­ing them as part of indi­vid­u­al­ized audits. The bay­ern design team can be con­tact­ed at kontakt@bayern-design.de. An Eng­lish-lan­guage ver­sion of the Design Fit­ness Check is also being planned.

Prof. Dr. Jan-Erik Baars of Lucerne Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences and Arts is the sci­en­tif­ic direc­tor of the project. Cus­tomer Met­rics AG in Lucerne, Switzer­land is in charge of host­ing Design Fit­ness Check. The look and feel was cre­at­ed by Carl Bar­tel. The devel­op­ment of Design Fit­ness Check was spon­sored by the Bavar­i­an State Min­istry of Eco­nom­ic Affairs, Region­al Devel­op­ment and Energy.