Prototyping design and business

It is increasingly common that design firms go from working with their client's development department on specific products, to discussing strategic issues directly with the company's management [1]. In this new territory designers face a number of challenges. Designers are traditionally trained to 'look into the future,' to find unidentified opportunities through an open process and to validate their decisions through repeated prototyping. Management, on the other hand, is traditionally trained to 'look into to the past' and make decisions based on thoroughly analyzing existing information [9]. This paper suggests a model, 'The Strategic Design Matrix,' to bridge the gap between the design approach and the management approach to strategic development processes. Through common references, a common language and a common basis understanding, the model aims to create a communicative platform for collaboration and interdisciplinary development. Based on the thinking behind a prototype presentation [10] the paper describes a specific case where the model is used in collaboration between a team of designers and the management of a medium-sized company.