This important and rather comprehensive question is raised in a newly published report by FORA

The answer in the report is ‘concept design’ - a new discipline that combines social science, business and design.

In the past most questions for consultancies has been ‘HOW? How do we develop a new product? How should it be designed?
Concept design is viewed as the means to answer the questions that a lot of companies are facing today: WHAT? What should we focus on? What problems should our products solve?

The FORA-report is based on an international study identifying a small number of ‘design hubs’ where companies working with concept design are located. The report concludes that San Francisco, New York, Chicago, London, Munich and Denmark are leading hubs - and 1508 is among the consultancies identified as a “concept design” company. Examples of other companies are Frog Design, IDEO, ReD Associates, LiveWork and Philips Design.

If you have read the publication, we would like to know your view on concept design. Is this really a new field? Do you see its potential? What are the potential (business) barriers of concept design?

The report is available for download in PDF.

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