Public defence in Visual Communication Design, MA Heikki Rajasalo

Title of the thesis: Design Governance – The Establishment of the Data-Driven Decision-Making in Industrial Innovation Management in Digital Convergence

Thesis defender: Heikki Rajasalo
Opponent: Prof. Toni-Matti Karjalainen, The University of the Arts Helsinki
Custos: Prof. Masood Masoodian,Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture

Design Governance. The establishment of data-driven decision-making in industrial innovation management in the years 2000–2010 

It appears that the period 2000–2010, which is referred as an era of digital convergence, became a foundation for data driven management systems. A more strategic approach to design also grew significantly across all business functions. The design process was confronted by data-driven systems and new demands to measure the quantitative and economic impact of design emerged. Digital convergence pushed the industries to create and implement new systems, to establish new roles, and new kind of organizational structures. 

This research has explored and described how industries that are competing in product markets were creating and using new methods for design decision-making during digital convergence. This research has examined the decision-making procedure, and if existing, the design governance policies of 12 European and Japanese automotive and electronics industries. 

The analysis was executed using the academic literature of design management, brand management, business management, industrial production management, and organizational theories, secondly using the comparative material delivered by the interviews with the industries, and thirdly using the empirical observations.

The result is that all the observed organizations followed a design process, the most important moments for design decision-making were found, the industries used a mixture of methods and meetings to support design decision-making, and methods to measure the quantitative and economic impact of design were not in use when making decisions in designing new products. Moreover, organizational phenomena, such as non-authorized design committees, seem to have had a bad influence in design decision-making – explicitly due to poor recognition of design governance. 

The result shows that design governance builds another managerial framework in a industrial organization. At the same time it creates more certainty and solves issues that nonexistent systems create. The results can be applied by all industrial organizations that aim to produce product innovations by using a design process.

Keywords: Industrial manufacturing, strategy, governance, decision-making, brand, research, development and innovation, design process, design management

Thesis available for public display 7 days prior to the defence at Aaltodoc. 

Contact information:

heikki.rajasalo@aalto.fi 
heikki.rajasalo@gmail.com 
+358505830609