Co-creation is key to design maturity
By Mat Ashley
0 min read
13 Aug 2024Businesses can enhance their competitiveness and user-centricity by co-creating a design framework and building a community of advocates to improve their design maturity.
In today's fast-paced business world, companies need to go beyond just adopting design. They must improve their design maturity to stay user-focused and meet growing customer needs. A design-mature business can create user-centred products and services with strong strategies, outcomes, cultures, and processes. This is crucial as companies invest in new tech like AI.
Studies show that while more companies are improving their design maturity, many have stalled. As of 2022, only 5% of businesses have a high level of design maturity. In Asia, the average score is just 45 out of 100.
Co-creation: the key to improvement
To boost design maturity, teams across the company should work together to develop design strategies. Steps to improve design maturity are:
- Create a design framework: Develop a framework that outlines the company's vision, culture, and principles. This should link to business goals like app ratings and task success, include practical steps like design training, and involve stakeholders from different markets.
- Build a community of advocates: Focus on the company's culture by creating a community skilled in design. Run design academies for in-depth training, offer design clinics to give teams real-time feedback, and host design jams for short workshops to boost design thinking and teamwork.
Real-world impact
We've spent the last 3 years investing in our design maturity at AIA. We created a design framework across 18 Asia Pacific markets and built a community of design advocates, developed the Qi Design System, and increased design and development efficiency.
As a result, we achieved an average star rating of 4.7 out of 5 for our AIA+ super apps, with 4.8 for Vietnam, 4.5 for Singapore, and 4.6 for both Thailand and Malaysia.
Improving design maturity takes time but brings real benefits like better efficiency and higher customer satisfaction. By focusing on co-creation, businesses can improve their design maturity. This will help them succeed in a changing business world.