More organisations are adopting customer-centric innovation practices to increase business value; however, very little is known about the factors driving customer-centric innovation or the conditions under which innovation succeeds.Similarly, very little is known about the role of design artefacts as inputs in customer-centric innovation processes or as instruments that support the organisational change required for successful change. A practice-led case study was conducted to examine the role of design artefacts and to demonstrate how they are flexible and persuasive tools that mediate the social and intertwined demands of customer-centric innovation strategies. Five distinct roles of design artefacts are proposed and their value in contributing to innovation and organisational change are considered.

The best service designers know their job isn't done until they pass it on to the client company.

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More organisations are adopting customer-centric innovation practices to increase business value; however, very little is known about the factors driving customer-centric innovation or the conditions under which innovation succeeds. Similarly, very little is known about the role of design artefacts as inputs in customer-centric innovation processes or as instruments that support the organisational change required for successful change. A practice-led case study was conducted to examine the role of design artefacts and to demonstrate how they are flexible and persuasive tools that mediate the social and intertwined demands of customer-centric innovation strategies. Five distinct roles of design artefacts are proposed and their value in contributing to innovation and organisational change are considered.