Design Facilitation: mid-term impacts and outcomes of a design-led innovation readiness programme for micro-SMEs

This paper explores the mid-term impacts and outcomes of an innovation readiness programme using rapid design-led interventions, which has been deployed in 50 micro-SMEs in the North East of England. It builds on previous work by the lead author and his research group who developed and deployed this programme, which uses design facilitation, and who have reported on its evolution in the ADMC journal in 2018 and 2022.
This latest study develops an understanding of the specific impacts and outcomes of the programme on participants and their organisations after a period of between 2 and 5 years. It compares initial findings, reported in the authors’ previous studies which were based on data collected immediately after the programme interventions, with new findings based on data gathered 2-5 years later. Further, it considers how these impacts and outcomes may be sustained within these organisations.
The research has been conducted using a mixed methods approach employing thematic analysis of data gathered through co-reflection, surveys and semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that there is a maturing of the observations regarding initial impacts and outcomes reported immediately following the programme and those reported after 2-5 years.
This study makes a contribution to the field of design facilitation by considering the scope of application of the practice beyond focusing on developing new products, services and systems where deep design process knowledge is deemed to be critical.This study highlights design facilitation, focused on organisational change, which is shown to rely upon the creativity and expertise of design facilitators to lead design dialogues.
This study will be of interest to those researching and/or practising design facilitation and those who are seeking to develop design innovation support programmes, particularly for micro-SMEs, where lasting impacts are required.