This article provides a case study of a UK university working in close partnership with Parker Hannifin Corporation (PH), a Fortune 500 U.S. manufacturing company, to develop new innovation practices. We discuss how industrial design has been introduced as an in‐house function to one of the company's divisional headquarters, in Gateshead, UK, through a collaborative research partnership over three years. Case material from four projects is presented, which illustrates a progressive, negotiated adoption by the company of the capabilities of industrial design as an essential component of a customer‐centric innovation approach. It has involved developing the organization's own confidence about the value and fit of industrial design through a series of projects and regular reflection on what is working well and not so well and what is raising concerns. The approach described provides an alternative to attempting to develop and implement a preformulated grand plan for design.