Design management

"Simply put, _design management_ is the business side of design. Design management encompasses the ongoing processes, business decisions, and strategies that enable innovation and create effectively-designed products, services, communications, environments, and brands that enhance our quality of life and provide organizational success."
This means that **design management** is not limited on a single design discipline.  In his 'Classification of Design' (1976), Gorb divided design into three different classes; design management operates in and across all three categories:
- Product (e.g. industrial design, packaging design, service design)
- Information (e.g. graphic design, branding, media design, web design)
- Environment (e.g. retail design, exhibition design, interior design)

Design management is not independent from the organization and product context, and plays three integrative key roles in the interface of design, organisation and market:
1. align design strategy with corporate and/or brand strategy
1. manage quality and consistency of design outcomes across and within different design disciplines (design classes)
1. enhance new ways of user experience and differentiation from competitors

Supportive activities are used in design management to manage design more efficient ('doing the things right') and effectively ('doing the right things'). Depending on a multitude of factors (such as industry, company size, design focus, market situation and the position / role of design within the company), design managers have a broad range of job profiles, with very different roles, activities and responsibilities.

## Historical development

It is difficult to exactly trace the history of design management. Even though design management as an expression is first mentioned in literature in 1964, earlier contributions created the context in which design management could arise. Throughout its history design management was influenced by a number of different disciplines (e.g. architecture, industrial design, management, software development, engineering) and movements (e.g. system theory, design methodologies) and in its understanding it can be attributed neither directly to design nor to management.

Historical development of design management:
|style="width:130px; text-align:left;"|**PERIOD**|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|**MAIN PERSPECTIVE**|**DESIGN ROLE**|**DESIGN MANAGEMENT FOCUS**|**MAIN ACTORS**|
|Design as style|Quality communication|Project management|Alessi, Braun|
|Design as process|Innovation|NPD innovation management|Philips, Sony|
|Design as leadership|Creativity strategy|Brand|Apple|
|Design thinking|New business model|Creative organisation|IDEO|

## Design Management Hierarchy

Design management can be divided by its different fields of application into the three different levels:

1. _operational design management_
Operational design management is concerned with the management of individual design projects and design teams.
1. _tactical design management_
Tactical design management addressed the organisation of design resources and design processes.
1. _strategic design management_
Strategic design management involves the creation of the strategic, long-term vision & planning for design and deals with defining the role of design within the company.

## Related pages

- Design
- Innovation
- Marketing

## Further reading

**Books**

### Organisations

- Design Management Institute
- Design Business Council(AUS)

### Awards

- Design Management Europe Award

### Conferences

- **6th German Conference of Design Management** , 2010 May, Cologne (DE) organized by  Bergische Universität Wuppertal and PARK advanced design management.