Formal design process management

The majority of the companies we interviewed had a formalised design process

which they used in new product and service development.

In some cases, such as for Microsoft, LEGO, Sony, Whirlpool, Starbucks and Xerox
this process was clearly structured, documented and communicated both within the
immediate creative team and to other departments or groups involved in the new
product or service development process (such as engineers, software developers,
research & development staff, and user researchers).

Other companies who outsource most of their design implementation

work focus more on a design and brand management process which
takes the design project through to implementation, and to varying
degrees pulls the project back into the in-house design team for
creative iteration and development.

It is important to note, however, that the design process used by these

leading corporate users of design, no matter how formalised or documented at the time
of this study, is under continuous review.

As and when difficulties or challenges are identified as part of the process – perhaps as
the result of changes in product and service, competitive context, user context and
needs and other influences in the business – the design process is adjusted and revised
accordingly. Many of the companies noted that if the design process were to be
reviewed by this study in a year’s time, it would already look different.

It is likely that the main four stages of the 'double diamond’ design process model used
in our analysis, would survive such changes and iterations. However, the methods used,
the differing emphases on different stages and the individuals and roles involved are all
influenced over time.

The core stages of any design process can be expanded or retracted to accommodate
a particular project and context to reflect individual needs and requirements as they
pass through the design process.

One particular trigger for this might be changes to the role of design in the company,
which might see design’s role stretched both upstream and downstream in the product
development process.

Other ways to view the content

— Step through our study of the design process

— See how design is used to meet different business challenges
— Or read more about the design process at individual companies

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Eleven lessons: managing design in eleven global brands

Design at Alessi

Alessi, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of designer kitchen and

tableware, puts design at the very heart of its business and has developed
sophisticated processes for finding, commissioning and developing new designs
from a worldwide network of talented designers and architects.

Overview
Alessi has built a successful business by selling the
idea of design, and of designers, to consumers. The
company relies entirely on outside designers for all
design execution and for the majority of concept
initiation activities.

Because of this, the company has developed sophisticated

in-house techniques for evaluating the potential of particular
concepts and for preserving the designer’s original intent
from drawing to mass production. Key elements of this
capability include:

— A formula for the assessment of the potential of new designs in four key
dimensions, supported by sophisticated market size and manufacturing cost
analyses
— Skilled technicians who act as intermediaries between designers and manufacturing
engineers
— A network of suppliers with high quality, low volume mass production capabilities
— A willingness to maintain a large product portfolio and to market test designs for
extended periods.

Alessi operates in a market where novelty is very important to sales, where production
volumes are usually low and where customers are extremely demanding in terms of the
manufacturing quality of products. It faces continual pressure to find suppliers capable
of producing products and components to its specifications.

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The company also needs to ensure that the designs it chooses to bring to market
continue to be in line with evolving public needs.

Innovation
With a relentless concentration on the introduction of new
designs to the market, innovation is central to Alessi’s
business model. The company, inspired by its designers,
has also pioneered the use of new materials in kitchen
and tableware, in particular making extensive use of
plastics in high-quality contexts.

Meet the team

Alessi retains no internal designers at all. Despite this, design is the very heart of the
Alessi market offering. Finding, commissioning and developing new designs from
talented designers is the core of the company’s business. Design, therefore, has an
extremely high status within the firm.

All design is outsourced at Alessi. The company does retain a team of two ‘design
assistants’ whose role is to facilitate communication between designers and the
company’s engineering function to manage the transition from design to production
reality. The design assistants have deep technical knowledge, and combine this with
extensive experience in bringing designer goods to market. This is essential, says
Alberto Alessi, the company's owner, since ‘they know better than the other technicians
the importance of the designer, the design aspects to be preserved.’

According to Alberto Alessi, keeping expertise within the organisation is also

challenging, particularly at the present time when a number of key figures in the
company are approaching retirement age.

History
Alessi was founded in 1921 by Giovanni Alessi, the grandfather of the current owner.
The firm began life as a workshop in valle Strona in the Italian Alps, producing a wide
range of tableware items in nickel, chromium and sliver-plated brass. The company’s
intention was to produce hand-crafted items with the aid of machines.

From the start, Alessi produced a large number of different product designs, but the
company’s present form only began to emerge when Carlo Alessi, father of the current
owner, joined the firm in the mid 1930s. Trained as an industrial designer, Carlo Alessi
was single-handedly responsible for the design of most of the company’s output
between 1935 and 1945.
In the 1950s Carlo took over the management of the firm from his father. He stopped his
design work at this stage, but began a tradition of hiring freelance designers to work for

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the company. That tradition continues to this day. Carlo also expanded the output of the
firm dramatically, introducing more automation and expanding sales to include exports.

Alessi’s current owner, Alberto Alessi, joined the family firm in 1970. Passionate about
design and the relationship between manufactured products and the societies that use
and consume them, Alberto began a policy of using external designer as a key
differentiator. In the process he shaped Alessi into one of the most important
manufacturers of designer kitchen and tableware in the world today

The evolution of design at Alessi

The design process at Alessi can begin in several
ways, explains the company's owner, Alberto
Alessi. As Alessi’s products are so closely
identified with their signature designer, finding -
and maintaining relationships with - a wide range of
product designers and architects is a key task for
the company.

Alberto Alessi says Alessi needs to continuously

develop the network of designers with whom they work
if they are to continue to offer a differentiated and
varied range of products.

He enumerates seven ways in which contact with new designers might be initiated
before the design process commences:

— Designers speculatively contact Alessi with an idea or concept: Around 350

designers a year contact Alessi in this way. Alessi’s exacting standards, however,
and its demands for highly individual aesthetics and strong personalities mean that
ideas initiated in this way are rarely followed through to production
— Design workshops: Alessi organises 4 to 6 workshops each year, mainly with
young designers through universities and industrial design schools across the
world, although again this seldom results in a concept that will be followed through
to production
— Recommendations from journalists on the ground: A coterie of industry
journalists who Alberto Alessi calls his ‘antennae’ journalists regularly suggest
potential new designers with whom the company will then initiate contact
— Suggestions from current collaborators: Designers already working with Alessi
will often recommend other people in the field that have potential. This is a key
information channel that has led to many successful collaborations
— ‘Design explorations’: The company identifies an emblematic domestic object
(most recently tea and coffee sets) and gives a group of architects free rein to
design products around that theme unconstrained by the demands of series
production (the products are handmade in silver by craftsmen). From a group of

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 over twenty products, maybe five might be explored further with a view to creating
mass production versions.This is a long-term and expensive method but the one
favoured by Alberto Alessi: it’s worth noting that while return on investment is not
guaranteed in terms of production-ready product development, Alessi leverages
valuable publicity from the process and product concepts developed
— Competitions run by Alessi: This is a less frequently used method of searching
which, although deemed interesting, does not always see entries translated into
real products
— Contact from well-established designers: This type of direct contact with Alessi
occurs frequently and will often result in a collaborative project.

However the initial contact has been made, when designers submit proposals for the
company to evaluate, its internal teams select some of those to take forward towards
production.

In more depth
Find out more about how the Discover stage of the design process works in other
companies that took part in our study

Alternatively, where designers have experience working

with Alessi and a track record of success, the firm may
suggest product ideas to them. Alessi emphasises,
however, that this process is nothing like the traditional
briefing process that might typically be seen when a firm
engages an outside designer. It is not ‘a restricted
briefing,’ he explains, rather, ‘just an idea, and they could
react by giving us some projects.’

Indeed when Philippe Starck created the Juicy Salif, one

of the company’s most iconic products, for Alessi in 1989,
his original brief was to design a tray. His response was
an idea for an octopus-like lemon squeezer sketched on a napkin still grease-spattered
from a calamari lunch.

The design cycle takes between 18 months and two years, depending primarily on the
main material from which the item in question is made. Stainless steel has the longest
lead-time, explains Alessi, with porcelain and glass a little faster. Tooling and
manufacturing engineering processes take up the majority of this time.

Once a concept is received, the technical evaluation and construction of an initial

prototype is usually done in around three months. Analysis of the item’s market potential
may take another month. If a go-ahead decision is made, production engineering will be
completed in around a year, with the manufacture of moulds and tools taking up the
remaining six to eight months.

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Market
Today, Alessi continues to produce a wide range of kitchen and tableware. Its current
catalogue contains around 2,000 different items, some of which are still manufactured at
the company’s Italian factory. The company divides its product offering into three
separate ranges:

— The Officina Alessi collection which includes ‘sophisticated, experimental and

innovative products’ and small-scale and limited production items
— The ALESSI collection which includes mass produced items using premium
materials, high quality manufacturing and sophisticated design
— The A di Alessi collection, a range of products produced at high volumes and
slightly lower prices.

Alessi has also extended its activities, using its design management expertise, to deliver
a range of joint venture and licensing activities with outside manufacturers. These
activities have included wristwatches, textiles and automotive designs.

The Alessi design process

The Alessi design process includes a rigorous
monitoring and evaluation module to ensure design
ideas are viable for production.

By whatever route the designer’s initial concept has been

generated, which may be a sketch, a detailed drawing or
a physical prototype, it is analysed first by the company's
owner, Alberto Alessi and senior colleagues.

Alessi has a formal set of assessment criteria it applies to

a new concept to decide if it should be developed for
production.

The formula measures the proposal along four dimensions:

— Function (F): The function of the design. Does it work? Is it practical, functional
and labour saving?
— Sensoriality, Memory, Imagination (SMI): Does the design please the senses? Is
it memorable? Does it engender emotion?
— Communication, Language (CL): Will the product give its owner status? Does it fit
with current trends?
— Price (P): Can the product be made and sold at a sensible price, both relative to
substitute products and to the customer’s sense of its value?

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