Innovative Business Model Design Techniques for Success

Innovative Business Model Design Techniques

This section describes a number of techniques and tools from the world of design that can help you design better and more innovative business models. A designer’s job is to extend the boundaries of thought, to generate new options, and, ultimately, to create value for users. This requires the ability to imagine “that which does not exist.”

Integrating Design into Business

Business people unknowingly practice design every day. We design organizations, strategies, business models, processes, and projects. To do this, we must take into account a complex web of factors, such as competitors, technology, the legal environment, and more. Increasingly, we must do so in unfamiliar, uncharted territory. This is precisely what design is about. What businesspeople lack are design tools that complement their business skills.

The Six Core Design Techniques

The six business model design techniques are:

• Customer Insights
• Ideation
• Visual Thinking
• Prototyping
• Storytelling
• Scenarios

Technique Nº 1: Customer Insights

Companies invest heavily in market research, yet often wind up neglecting the customer perspective when designing products, services, and business models. Good business model design avoids this error. It views the business model through customers' eyes, an approach that can lead to the discovery of completely new opportunities.

Successful innovation requires a deep understanding of customers, including environment, daily routines, concerns, and aspirations. The challenge is to develop a sound understanding of customers on which to base business model design choices. In the field of product and service design, several leading companies work with social scientists to achieve this understanding. The challenge of innovation is developing a deeper understanding of customers rather than just asking them what they want.

Adopting the customer perspective is a guiding principle for the entire business model design process. Customer perspectives should inform our choices regarding Value Propositions, Distribution Channels, Customer Relationships, and Revenue Streams.

Another challenge lies in knowing which customers to heed and which customers to ignore. Sometimes tomorrow’s growth segments wait at the periphery of today’s cash cows. Therefore, business model innovators should avoid focusing exclusively on existing Customer Segments and set their sights on new or unreached segments. A number of business model innovations have succeeded precisely because they satisfied the unmet needs of new customers.