Abstract:Design management has evolved from the simple view as the management of design projects and processes, to include more upstream responsibilities and skills, at the intersection of design and strategic management. Recent literature highlights the role of design in leading and shaping company strategy, conceiving new business models, and in driving organizational change and renewal. Yet existing tools and frameworks for assessing design management capabilities fall short in catching up with the transition that has been undergoing in the ways design is utilized and managed inside organizations. This paper presents a new Design Management Audit Framework that aims to fill the gaps in existing tools by incorporating new capabilities that are increasingly emphasized by the emerging design, design management and strategic management literature. The tool also seeks to provide an answer to the question: "What are the new capabilities to be integrated into design management practices of our future economies?"

This article investigates the influence of product design practices on new service development processes of manufacturers that are moving toward service provision using a multiple case study conducted with four companies. Technological developments, a competitive business environment, and diverse customer demands have forced manufacturing firms to pursue growth strategies through new service development. On the other hand, studies on design, particularly the interplay between product design and new service development processes, in this shift are scant. This is significant because a manufacturer's transition from only selling products toward delivering services requires the simultaneous management of practices that reflect their histories of product design and processes that comprise service design and development. As a result of the analysis, three themes emerged regarding the influence of product design practices on new service development within the context of manufacturing: (1) accumulation of product design expertise, (2) increased customer loyalty through high‐quality products, and (3) design problems as tools for fostering innovation culture. Each theme is thoroughly discussed with examples from the case study companies. Consequently, this article highlights the interplay between product and service design processes and provides insights on how established product design practices would assist a manufacturer in service provision.

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Digital technologies have enabled manufacturing companies to extend their product-based portfolios with innovative service offerings. Various aspects of this shift have been explored from a service and system design perspective. However, the transformative effects of the deployment of digital technologies on product design practices, particularly in manufacturing firms have been relatively neglected. To explore this issue, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 manufacturing industry experts. Four product design practices that underwent a change process as a result of digital transformation were identified: Modifying product designs to enable diverse servicing options at the outset, redefining the role of customer data in the design process, focusing on the outcomes to facilitate cocreation, and designing feedback mechanisms about the past and current product status. The articulation of these themes contribute to the design literature on the effects of digital transformation, as well as to the literature on service transitions in manufacturing firms.