Why act now?

The broad spectrum of the practice doesn't allow for self-initiated onboarding. The integration requires education and research that comes from well-established teaching and developments. Although the holistic view of the design thinking practice is the core of the design-led methodology, it is harder to translate its environment to low-level design maturity space such as the non-creative SME sector. Lack of systematization within the field authorities creates an obstacle in accessing the design thinking practice through a practical path, hence making it harder for SMEs to efficiently onboard the practice.

The next step in developing Business Design Fund will take into account the current environment of internal and external barriers to accessing design thinking and the provided insights on the challenging journey of onboarding and implementing the practice. By guiding small and medium businesses down the route of which aspect of design thinking to acquire first, Business Design Fund’s onboarding platform could help SMEs make more efficient strategically decisions and foster organisational progress. Moreover, such a solution for effective implementation could enable easier integration of design thinking practice and toolkit into the organisational ecosystem. By catering for the practice and the innovation potential based on a given SME's needs and current structural position, this next part of an FMP will propose a three-stage packaged solution.