Diary of a Business Designer

We all read about great ideas that never get traction. Sadly, many individuals, start-ups and corporates have expensive lessons however in some cases, you can work your way out of the sunk cost problem by converting your approach into ‘discovery-led strategy’ forward.Support Diary of a Business Designer Key takeaways The trap of significant losses can be reduced with some methodical testing and planning.What tools do you use when:Desiring to move into unknown territory, how does one develop a robust planning methodology?With such an unpredictable future, how do organisations allow themselves to be bold enough to pivot quickly?Or when faced with disruptive competition or declining markets, how do you let go of the past and explore a new future?And when asked to lead innovation, the usual corporate demand is for a definitive business case to follow .. an impossible ask, how do you respond?Or if you have built it, and they didn’t come .. where can you move next?We don’t talk about DISCOVERY-LED STRATEGY enough.How do you salvage a sunk cost of a solution built which is looking for a problem? All the words of wisdom are to avoid this error in the first place, yet still it happens .. what do you do next?Firstly, a bit more definition, a discovery-led strategy:It is not a one-off project, nor a sprint, or consulting piece, not the ‘product-market fit framework’ used by capital investors, nor the ‘Lean canvas customer discovery’ used by startups.It is a ‘solution looking for a problem’, a strategy whose sole purpose is to find a market for the solution. A strategy to stay fluid and follow the money for future developments. It is an open-ended process, of try, test, fail, until a niche or crevice is discovered and prised into.As you can see, a very difficult stance for most business managers to accept. The key ingredient for discovery-led strategies .. is to maintain a firm and structured approach in the process .. including and not limited to: Assumptions testingMethodical process towards testingSetting test and exploration goalsMilestones, deadlines, timelinesTriggers / sensitivitiesMeasures of successDecision making criteriaYet many organisations and startup entrepreneurs still jump to conclusions, the old fashion way of believing the individual knows best. The difficulty comes in the self-discipline of the process.In my 20+ organisations career, I have landed in many businesses with dire strategic problems, this tends to be my career journey. I this podcast I provide 5 examples where I have used Discovery-led StrategyExamples 1&2: were startups who invested in building a solution based on the entrepreneurs’ terrific ideals. Both built their solution and both struggled to connect it to the problem, overtime traction and revenue generation were non-existent. Examples 3&4: two different organisations, both well established, and their multi-$m revenue relied primarily on fixed term funding for the provision of healthcare services into a define audience base on behalf of their primary funder. Both over time, with increased competition, changing regulation, shifting consumer expectations and lethargy to innovate and evolve, had reached a critical end-of-life point and near immediacy of lost funding due to declining value propositions.Example 5: was a the classic corporate idea which built a white elephant .. ie a solution with no evidence of market need, it gained no traction and was retired to the sunk cost write-off garage to gather dust. Hopefully this gives you the energy to speak up about Discovery-led strategies. As long as the obstacles are not overwhelming from the...

Measuring impact or impact evaluation is a complicated and frail science. Having worked several years in healthcare, a lesson learned is to bring impact measures far closer and into your realm of control. In this way you save, time, budget and resources building your own evidence for impact, rather than chasing measures that are far from reach.Support Diary of a Business Designer Key takeaways I have worked on a lot of projects that have promised impact to improve health and wellbeing of the population, to create change through innovation. All of them promise so much and I have yet to see a successful, measurable impact outcome.The difficulty is setting an impact goal when the outcome is out of your control. Health is influenced by many programs and conditions which makes it difficult to attribute change to any single one program, yet funders and purchases of programs or interventions want to see evidence of impact even though it’s an unrealistic measure to attain.For example: a six-lesson swimming program to teach basic skills in the event of an emergency (which was evidence based and world class acknowledged). Had an impact assessment which showed nil to negligible skills gained result. Why? Because the average attendance was just one lesson .. it was impossible to yield a successful result!This is a frailties of impact evaluation - when you look at the program in isolation of the performance of the product or program across its entire customer/user journey. Impact managers are typically appointed to well-meaning social businesses without a real-world cause and effect correlation, or means to measure and demonstrate how it's really going to impact social problems.Over the years, I've refined a program called an Evaluation Framework.One thing I learned is that if you create a framework of measuring, that measures the real time program and product performance in terms of: how many people; what they think about the program; and how well the program and business is surviving and thriving as a commercial outcome. Then you have a viable way for businesses to measure impact by measuring the areas in their control.By aligning with existing secondary research to make statements about benefits gained, there is no need to wait for longitudinal research or random control trials.My recommendation, if you're going to do impact monitoring and you're going to spend money on it, start at the beginning of the relationship journey … don't start at the end.Links Shared Value Project - Shared value is a framework designed to create business solutions to social and environmental problems. Put differently, it’s a means to deliver on your purpose, profitably.  Measuring Outcomes: STRENGTHENING NONPROFITS Theory of Change.org – to be honest, I haven’t found a good book yet, what do you suggest?Timestamps: [00:46] Impact in Healthcare [02:09] Example 1 – swimming lessons for survival [04:46] Example 2 – adult education for social...

To SWOT or not - that is the question. Some consider it out dated and over simplified, I like to use a modernised quantitative version to inform my business strategies and plans. Listen on to learn how a SWOT can improve your business model and plans.Support Diary of a Business Designer What is a SWOT:SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is a framework used to evaluate a company's competitive position and to develop strategic planning. SWOT analysis assesses internal and external factors, as well as current and future potential. Strengths - Strengths describe what an organization excels at and what separates it from the competition: a strong brand, loyal customer base, a strong balance sheet, unique technology, and so on. Weaknesses - Weaknesses stop an organization from performing at its optimum level. They are areas where the business needs to improve to remain competitive: a weak brand, higher-than-average turnover, high levels of debt, an inadequate supply chain, or lack of capital. Opportunities - Opportunities refer to favorable external factors that could give an organization a competitive advantage. For example, change sin tariffs may speed up entering a new export market, increasing sales and market share. Threats - Threats refer to factors that have the potential to harm an organization. Common threats include things like rising costs for materials, increasing competition, tight labor supply.Disadvantages include: Many organizations spend half their time looking internally at strengths and weaknesses. Disruptive organizations stay focused on learning outside of the You have to be willing to walk away from some customers in order to run toward the future.The modern SWOTA modern approach to the SWOT using a Gap Analysis to see the gap between expectations. By establishing this SWOT as a survey, organisations can have more specific assessment in critical quadrants of the business modelBusiness model SWOTThe SWOT analysis help you explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business model and visualize on a canvas where business model canvas needs to improve.To analyse the company's business model against the 9 building blocks of the Business Model Canvas  we use a list of analytical questions (derived from OSTERWALDER and PIGNEUR 2010) that you should reflect on in order to determine exactly what areas of your business model need adaptations and where you should focus strategic or planning gaps.It also has the benefit that progress on achieving those objectives can be similarly measured using the same SWOT approach comparatively 2-3 years later.The numeric SWOTThe use of conventional SWOT analysis is based on the qualitative analysis and has no means of determining the importance of each SWOT factor. Turning your SWOT into a numeric representation provides a useful outcome by using the traditional brainstorming approach first and then to prioritise gaps providing a numeric value.Overall, it does helps organisations learn about themselves as well as competitors and can be used as the foundation for developmental strategies.Recommended...

Want to streamline your business efforts and grow faster at the same time? Then focus your business design on your key customer target straight away. Be bold, slice off the others … here are my examples where multiple customer segments nearly sunk these businesses.Support Diary of a Business Designer Key takeaways You can read all about segmentation and how to focus on specific customers in most marketing, business model, lean canvas, and design thinking books. The bottom-line premise is:Different groups have different needs, different problemsThey use different mediums and channels to purchaseThey have differing buyer behavior's, demographics, and personasDiffering common interests, social drivers, criteria, experience expectations and so onWhatever the need for your desperation to find more customers, it cant be said more than 100 times by all market gurus out there …Focus on one customer, one type, one category, delight a person of one, and create the perfect the experience for that one until you get it rightAnd if that doesn’t work, let go and move onto the next customer type, or maybe you got desperate for a good reason .. and something else needs to seriously change.WASTE ONE: … what happens when you chase all customers and delight none.WASTE TWO: …when you mix up the value proposition.In two companies, a start-up and a scale-up I worked with .. they both struggled with spreading the message widely across multiple audience groups.The first example was a scale-up. They were trying to meet the needs of current investors, the Board, advocacy groups, end-users, HR professionals, c-suite, two different industry targets, health professionals and provide public health information.Fast forward 2 years, the target audience has been re-focused into 3 purposeful groups: potential funders, health professional advisors and for impact advocacy. From 12 to 3, revenue began to lift, and profitability and stress levels improved.Frenetic desperation versus a focused measured path.The second example, a start-up.Over time, the desire to gain investment began to move the focus of the target audience away from the end-user customer and their experience, towards investor demographics and needs. The business was forgetting to delight the end-user audience of one and over several years end-user repeat business began to falter.Fast forward two years, we creating two separate distinct audiences, with separate websites and messaging .. and the result was yielding far better outcomes.In summary .. carve out a primary focus audience, once that one succeeds, then move onto the next.Good reads on AmazonThe Startup Owner's Manual - Steve Blank, the guru of customer development!Value Proposition Design – StrategyzerTimestamps: [00:49] What is segmentation?[01:29] The desperation factor[02:41] Waste 1 – Chasing all customers[04:01] Waste 2 – Mixed propositions[06:02] Example 1 – a scale-up[07:46] Example 2 – a start-up[09:26] Be bold

I have observed how business advisors have both enhanced and destroyed several business models, especially during the scaleup phase. If you are an entrepreneur or small business CEO, take heed .. there are lessons learned on building a solid business advisory network to help grow your business.Support Diary of a Business Designer Key takeaways Why business advisorsA business advisor is anyone who can help you solve business problems, lend an ear or shoulder, or bridge a gap in your knowledge and skills. When challenges seem insurmountable in your business, or you are stuck for growth, ideas or specific skills .. then see an advisor to help you achieve:have specific goals you can't meetare dealing with an issue you don’t know how to solveneed specialist support.Business ownersVisionary entrepreneurs have that constant desire to change things for the better, but may be more idealistic than realistic, meaning they may not be the best person to run or grow a business.Beyond problem-solving alone, most businesses are also looking for ways to ensure their practices are up to scratch, challenge their way of thinking, and accelerate their strategy, and as a business evolves, the range of challenges it’s likely to face can expand exponentially. Growth of the business.Expansion into new markets.Organisational change and transformation.Handling a major crisis or critical incident.Navigating a business sale, exit or acquisition.Tackling a specific business problem.Advisory Board Centre model notes that until businesses are generating $4m+ in revenue, they are unlikely to utilise Advisory Boards, or might have some occasional project-related advisors to stimulate business long the way.https://www.advisoryboardcentre.com/Smaller businesses generally seek advice informally.Incubator and accelerator programs aim for higher quality engagement of advisors in their programs.Established businesses are more likely to engage an advisory board during periods of change or growth.Advisory can go terribly wrongFriends and family can be inexperienced or too agreeableBoards from the same industry and same skills, can be too agreeable and have common blind-spotsAdvisory can go incredibly well with diversityGood readsBusiness Model ME: How I developed my own business modelBusiness Model You: A One-Page Method For Reinventing Your CareerIDEOU – Designing a Business Timestamps: [00:47] Why have a business advisor[03:12] Small business needs[04:34] When advisory goes terribly wrong[05:17] Example 1 – unprofitable model[06:19] Example 2 – lack of diversity[06:59] Example 3 – medical advisory boards[07:39] When advisory goes well

The three horizons framework has remained an enduring means to inform business strategy and build long term sustainability.In this episode I share my experiences where I used the three horizons to create business growth, identify innovation and pivot organisations. How have you used this framework?Support Diary of a Business Designer Key takeaways What is 3 horizonsThe three horizons framework—featured in The Alchemy of Growth, by Baghai, Coley, and White in 2000 —provides a structure for companies to assess potential opportunities for growth without neglecting performance in the present.Horizon one: represents the core business most readily identified in the company and provides the greatest profits and cash flow. Here the focus is on improving performance to maximize the remaining value.Horizon two: encompasses emerging opportunities, and potential entrepreneurial ventures likely to generate substantial profits in the future but that could require considerable investment.Horizon three: contains ideas for profitable growth down the road—for instance, small ventures such as research projects, pilot programs, or minority stakes in new businesses.Three horizons framework has been used for innovationHorizon 1 (H1) refers to the present to defend the current core business from competition and disruption in the short term, called “sustaining innovationsHorizon 2 (H2) is all about those emerging opportunities “disruptive innovation” requiring an entrepreneurial mindset.Horizon 3 (H3) is the future without restrictions and new emerging termed “transformative innovation”. Another interesting articled: Three horizons for business model change.Evolved over time - In the past we assigned relative delivery time to each of the Horizons. Today disruptive Horizon 3 ideas can be delivered as fast as ideas for Horizon 1 in the existing product line. Horizon 3 disruption is most often used not by the market leaders but by the challengers and new entrants (refer Steve Blank).My case studies:Opportunities for Growth, NOT INNOVATION or DISRUPTIONIn most cases, I have worked in H1 near-term incremental business improvement/ product improvement innovation. Eg classroom training to online LMS training or in H2 Adjacency growth onto the known domainRefer E7: customer journey map how adjacency opportunities might present themselvesRefer E4: white label example, another H2 growth opportunity Innovation towards future stateIn a few instances I have worked in a business which had a clear mandate to change from the status quo, to prepare for a sustainable future, to allocate resource, effort and investment into innovationIn urgent need to find a new business modelWe identified an emerging trend of the futureWith covid, which was a new territory...

Have you ever wondered what customer journeys maps are? For me, they are how person moves from one step to the next for some goal or outcome to be achieved .. this can be within a business or product cycle, or in a lifecycle.In this episode I describe how one customer journey map created a new $70m revenue business within 18 months.Support Diary of a Business Designer Key takeaways The concept of customer journey maps came about during the mid 1980S when outside-in management thinking was growing and understanding the touchpoints of a customer with a company was needed.I was asked to launch a new segment initiative, to establish a corporate B2B sales channel to chase down the segment. Within 6 months we had exceptional market traction selling the core product.Planning ahead, I was interested in exploring how innovation through adjacency could be realised, so I decided to try this new concept of a journey map .. thinking broader than the business relationship itself and into the entirety of the customers lifecycle journey.This scenario was for the provision of Overseas Visitors’ Health Insurance, a compulsory and mandatory working visa condition here in Australia. However, it was a once-only transaction, yet we knew the journey was far broader than this period and the customer journey spanned 4-6 years.It was across this journey I needed to understand more. In this case the scope boundary I placed on the journey was the topic of our company’s mission: HEALTHIER HAPPIER LIVES.A wavey line emerged where the emotions of such a tremendous journey were evident and once mapped, we decided to explore opportunities across the journey.We tested and failed on 3 experiments … I recommend listening to Episode 5 – From Lean Canvas to Idea canvas.Then like many innovation opportunities, it’s all in the timing, and having deep segment knowledge and industry relationship, we found that the Visa Medical part of the journey was a stale, outdated process, and poor customer experience.With business model innovation, utilising the lean production process mindset, digital innovation, and service model innovation, we opened the doors 12 months later across Australia providing thousands of visa medicals every week with a vastly improved experience.A new $70m business, all from a customer journey map, on a single page. Give it a go!Recommended reading on Amazon Blue Ocean Strategy – Kim, W. Chan; Renée Mauborgne Testing Business Ideas: A Field Guide for Rapid ExperimentationTimestamps: [01:00] – What is a journey map [02:05] – Innovation through adjacency [02:56] – Scenario – Overseas Visitor Health Insurance [04:25] – Discovery process [05:28] – Scope boundary [06:26] – Emotional journey map [08:11] – Three innovation experiments [09:30] – The opportunity came

Have you ever started a new job and went to listen to someone’s pride product or sat in on a management meeting and thought .. oh no this is a nightmare, its cringeworthy, fallen behind and just terrible!Yet everyone else is nodding like its the emperor’s new clothes, that everything is fine and alright because the boss has deemed it so, or its always worked this way?So how do you change the status quo? Let me share my 5 tips to being the change agent no matter what level you work at in any organisation.Support Diary of a Business Designer Key takeaways 1.      Listen, learn – don’t shoot off at the mouth Do product discoveryDo operations discovery2.      Find the coalition of the willing, the decision makes and the obstaclesEmperor’s new clothes …. a story by Hans Christian Andersen where only fools could not see the emperor’s new clothes - the emperor indeed walked around naked, and everyone (including himself) agreed they could see them. This was a situation in which people are afraid to criticize something because everyone else seems to think it is good or important.Through discovery, you find a coalition of the willing. Hence you realise that others were silently agreeing with your same observations and did not know how to break the status quo.3.      Fact base conversationsis not emotional statements, outbursts of proclamations nor negative commentaryasking permission to review further, to participate in suggestionscollect facts, metrics, measures, examplesbring others on the journeytransparency, and open offer to participateopen interviews with willing, unwilling and obstaclesavoid assumptionsYou do get a backlog of what a better solution might be, the magnitude of change, and an idea of how willing participation is.4.      Change by incremental areas of control (bottom up)"Sphere of influence, sphere of control."Popularised by Stephen Covey, this concept explores three spheres: ... Human beings can choose where they focus their energy and attention. The Zone of control (or span of control) includes all those things in a system that we can change on our own. The Sphere of influence includes activities that we can impact to some degree but can't exercise full control over.Weigh up the odds, from your backlog of what can be changed What are the risks or where will you fail?5.      Pick your battlesPeople would be well-advised to select a specific issue of importance to focus on, rather than trying to deal with too many things at onceCarefully determine who was in and out. Leave those battles for another dayRecommended Books:The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen R, Covey)Strategic Storytelling: How to Create Persuasive Business Presentations (McKinsey, Dave) Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations That Accelerate Change (Ertel, Chris; Solomon, Lisa Kay)Timestamps:...

Do passion projects spiral out of control in your organisation using valuable resources and budgets? How do you maintain enthusiasm for all new ideas and then quickly decide where to proceed? In this episode I describe how I turned the lean canvas into an idea canvas, so every idea is reviewed by the intrapreneur.Support Diary of a Business Designer Key takeaways Do passion projects spiral out of control in your organisation using valuable resources and budgets? How do you maintain enthusiasm for all new ideas and then quickly decide where to proceed? In this episode I describe how I turned the lean canvas into an idea canvas, so every idea is reviewed by the intrapreneur.Great ideas - sound logical but typically don’t have a well rounded view and forget important considerations like: Strategic alignment and measurable outcomes Testing the customer and their willingness to pay Capacity and hidden costs to create Channel effectiveness Customer – problem – solution fit Competitors Volume, margin, revenueI created a solution for Intrapreneurs .. changing the lean canvas to IDEA CANVAS You do need to customise for your organisation capturing Strat alignment Impact or success measures Competitor A scale for easy explanation A t-shirt sizeEvery time good idea is worth listening to!  Take one hour with the idea holder, using the Idea Canvas  Then I leave it to them to take a next step.Examples I share: Team insisted … one significant client asked, and it was such a great idea, insisted everyone would want it, and we would get major publicity from it. Canvas recommendation = do not proceed, there was a better alternative. A Passionate Manager … wanted to add a complimentary product from another vendor and clip the ticket. Canvas recommendation = do not proceed, nil product traction and nil ROI. Team had already … piloted their new solution, without a canvas, for the past 12 months. Canvas recommendation = do not continue, will always run at a significant loss. Another customer request … this time the team used an idea canvas first. Canvas recommended = good demand, trial solution for 4 months to determine ROI. This ceased after 4 months. A Pandemic idea … again the team used an idea canvas first. Canvas recommended = do a design sprint first to determine development cost. The product launched and became largest volume ever.Books Amazon Testing Business Ideas: A Field Guide for Rapid Experimentation The Lean Startup – Eric ReisTimestamps: ...

Key takeaways Support Diary of a Business Designer How many times have you seen great ideas in corporate businesses kickstart, then flounder and then sink and toss $-millions away? This is an example how I used Business Design to review one of these great ideas so well-informed decisions could be made on next steps… was I in time, or was I too late?This project was to white label their product and services.What is a white label?White labelling occurs when the manufacturer of an item uses the branding requested by the purchaser, or marketer, instead of its own. The product appears as though it has been produced by the purchaser.In this project, we were the selling organisation; there seemed uncertainty of what to progress amid many other priorities, where was this project ranked?A business model canvas approach1.  HIT THE STREET – UNDERSTAND THE NEED / PROBLEMTalk to prospective clients, these were significant corporates and we needed to talk to heads of market strategy.2. NEXT STEP -  INTERNAL DISCOVERY From right side of canvas to left side. First, lets validate was had been asked, agreed, signed and built Map what was built and the detail of the sunk cost so far = $XM3. MAP THE MARKET SOLUTION Mapped the customer requirements OUCH – we had prioritised the wrong end of the build.4. MISMATCH – VALUE PROPOSITIONNow what? Do we continue was the next question?5. EVALUATE BUSINESS ALIGNMENT ✔️ Good for THE customer journey ❌ High impact on staff and resource capacity although capability was there ✔️ Aligned to several strategy imperatives ❓ Was difficult to replicate if done well, although another had already done it ❌ The cost to develop was extremely high ❓ Doubtful to yield a positive ROI within several years due to the scouring of margin ❌ Complex project, with several risks due to external partner performance as a critical success factorTHREE MORE ASSESSMENTS: Competitive – revisit what would be required to be desirable and competitive? Viable - meeting with finance, actuaries, and product managers to explore 5 forces evaluation – trendsOUTCOME: For all that effort … it is easy to keep going due to sunk cost, but a sensible canvas evaluation at the start, even doing one midway, will save any organisation $-millions.Subscribe on my website to get new podcast releases straight to your inboxShare or Like to LinkedInRecommended reading on Amazon Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs

Episode 3: Key takeawaysSupport Diary of a Business Designer Are you always thinking of business ideas, naturally entrepreneurial and see opportunities everywhere? I do - Some I begin to gradually explore deeper, others I trash out quickly. How do I do that back of the envelop thinking helps me weed out feasible, viable and desirable concepts from bad personal investments?Each time my mind works intuitively and systematically as a business designer, skills I have learned over time very similar to a Lean canvas.Lean Canvas is a 1-page business plan template created by Ash Maurya that helps you deconstruct your idea into its key assumptions. It is adapted from Alex Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas and optimized for Lean Startups. It replaces elaborate business plans with a single page business model.The components of this business idea using Lean and Business Model Canvas Customer behaviour Why/problem Value prop Solution ChannelsExploring the Commercial model Price and cost Marketing and channels Retail sales and margin Annual earningsLooked too good to be true - what was missing in my business model design?When working through the Lean Canvas, it ticked all the boxes on desirability, feasibility, viability. It ticked all the boxes on customers, channels, product, problem, solution. Ticked all the boxes as unique, validated examples and doable as a one-person business.Next layer – time to scratch deeper using the Business Model Canvas Explore key resources Explore key activities – what would I be doing? Spotting the gap Considering the optionsMaking a decision on this business idea ...This business idea was not an innovation but a means to provide merchandise for the Australian Silo Art Trail, which I decided not to do. Please visit this amazing trail and support local communities along the way! https://www.australiansiloarttrail.com/[caption id="attachment_5082" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Painted silo by artist Adnate at Sheep Hill, Victoria[/caption]Segment: Recommended reading …Question: what is the difference between lean and business model canvas?https://blog.leanstack.com/why-lean-canvas-vs-business-model-canvas/Ash Mayura: “Design Goals: My main objective with Lean Canvas was making it as actionable as possible while staying entrepreneur-focused. The metaphor I had in mind was that of a grounds-up tactical plan or blueprint that guided the entrepreneur as they navigated their way from ideation to building a successful startup.“Recommended books on Amazon: The Lean Startup – Eric Reis

Business design is: a new business discipline that has taken design methodologies and blended those skills with strategic and commercial business skills. In Australia the term is not ever used, in other countries such as US and in parts of Europe jobs for Business Design is far more common.My description of Business Design is:We use customer-centricity, commercial acumen, strategic foresight and innovation methodology to find your competitive advantage for a successful future, and ideally demonstrate measurable impact.Dina Goebel 2022Support Diary of a Business Designer Refer to the Links below for different definitions of business design by IDEO, Indeed.com, Board of Innovation and Rotman School.The questions explored:What outcomes do Business Designers achieve?ONE: Business design is seeing things from a fresh perspective, through another lens, to enable managers, strategists and designers think more creatively to develop new ideas with a free hand.TWO: The biggest difference - they protect concepts from being over-evaluated (and killed) by the ‘traditional,’ often slow and painstaking way in which the organisation approaches developing the business case. They champion design thinking and innovation methodology.THREE: They embed the forward-thinking, creative questioning and supporting frameworks across the organisation. Usually they are custodians of the innovation processes or hub.In my next two episodes I give an example:Episode 3: a small business entrepreneur idea using business design thinkingEpisode 4: a corporate venture idea using business design thinkingWhere does a Business Designer sit in an organisation?A business designer is a part of a cross-functional team focused on improving customer experience and resolving issues. They consider how each step in an organisation’s model and processes affects customer experience. It is such a hard role to define and why each organisation has a different interpretation of what a business designer is.How do I become a business designer?Roles/individuals tend to evolve from: Chief cat-herder, intrapreneur, entrepreneurs, business development roles, product designers, management and consulting. Key skills:It’s important to understand business principles.Many study MBAs or entrepreneurship.Design methodologies are a core component of business design.Design / creative mindset refers to how you think about problems.Explore a veriety of ways to gain relevant experiences.I do think being a successful business designer comes from ‘years on canvas’ building a lot of experiences, i.e. you gather momentum as a generalist, this builds your credentials as a business designer.Segment: Recommended readingLove to hear your thoughts from this article in the comments below:https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/what-is-business-designerQuote from ‘Indeed.com’ on their Business Designer career page:"Business design helps organizations develop solutions with a customer-centric focus. It combines tools from business professionals, like analysts, business thinkers and strategists, with the mindsets and methods of designers....

Episode notes: “My core is connecting business innovation and growth strategies. Working with CEOs and executive teams, my experience spans guiding start-ups through to complex mature organisations and those aiming for social impact. It’s time to share the 40 lessons over 40 years of business pivots and opportunities launched.” Dina Goebel, August 2022 Links: My consulting business: DesignBiz AustraliaLinkedIn/dinagoebelArt by Dina see That Creative Feeling

Diary of a Business DesignerYour business needs a strategy and a great business plan to grow revenue or pivot for competitive advantage. For startups to corporate managers, this weekly podcast is about lessons learned in business model design.Sharing strategy lessons learned over 40 yearsTalking about business model designExperience launching startups, ventures and productsHear challenges of pivoting and transformationsLinks:My consulting: DesignBiz AustraliaLinkedIn/dinagoebel