Sublime

design as making sense of things.

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

Firms should therefore look beyond features, functions, and performance and understand the real meanings users give to things.

“In our firm developing a product is like conducting an orchestra: the customers are the audience.”10

To understand possible new meanings, the company steps back and looks at the big picture to see what people could love in a yet-to-exist scenario and how they might receive new proposals.

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

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

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

These proposals, however, are not dreams without a foundation. They end up being what people were waiting for, once they see them. They often love them much more than products that companies have developed by scrutinizing users’ needs. These proposals are wellsprings for the creation of sustainable profit.