How To Come Up With Award-Winning Product Designs
At Beyond Design, our Strategic Design Process (SDP) workshops help guide our approach to new ideas and New Product Development (NPD). It’s our specialized process that has led to breakthrough products and helped clients capture more market share or break into new product categories. Product designs that emerged from our process have earned us industry recognition from top design industry awards, including the Red Dot Design Awards, the International Design Excellence Awards, and the Excellence In Design Awards, among many others.
Brainstorming is an art and a science. Our SDP workshops are a day of dynamic team brainstorming exercises designed to spark original ideas and validate the most promising concepts. This is how we win awards, build NPD roadmaps, and discover the client’s next standout product.
How Beyond Design Facilitates Creativity
Creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it needs the right conditions to thrive. Therefore, we cultivate new ideas through thoughtful preparation and engaging activities in our SDP workshop sessions, where creativity can thrive.
Before each session, our design team collaborates with you to create visual mood boards, user personas, journey maps, compilations of competitive products, and key categorical buckets to guide conversations. Each SDP session is customized to solve specific problems that end users encounter. Our approach guarantees that the breakthroughs generated during the SDP workshop are equally innovative and relevant.
Once the SDP workshop is prepared, we bring together diverse stakeholders for an intensive day of brainstorming and discussions. Selecting the right participants for the SDP workshop is one of the most important factors for success.
Why Involving the Right People Leads to Better Ideas
People with different backgrounds and viewpoints are the fuel that ignites creativity. In our SDP workshops, we understand the process of gathering diverse teams that can bring out a wider range of designs and challenge pre-existing assumptions. We set aside groupthink and use the workshop as a constructive opportunity to bounce ideas off each other. These efforts lead to more sound decisions and NPD strategies that improve the odds of designing a successful product.
Every stakeholder brings something valuable to the table:
Designers focus on user experience and aesthetics.
Engineers consider feasibility and technical constraints.
Marketers ensure alignment with consumer needs and brand positioning.
Project Managers keep ideas in sync with timelines and resources.
Business Leaders align ideas with company goals and market viability.
End Users share real thoughts and feelings about problems and solutions.
The best results emerge when diverse minds collaborate and combine their creativity, technical expertise, strategic thinking, and user insights.
What to Expect from a Multi-Stakeholder Workshop
When multiple stakeholders collaborate in brainstorming, we achieve well-rounded, innovative, and feasible solutions. Here’s what to expect:
Holistic Ideas – Different perspectives ensure solutions balance aesthetics, usability, feasibility, and market demand.
User-Centric Solutions – Early user input ensures practical, well-received designs.
More Innovation – Cross-disciplinary input sparks unexpected ideas and novelties, leading to creative breakthroughs that can disrupt markets.
Fewer Blind Spots – Stakeholders challenge assumptions, preventing overlooked issues in design, engineering, or marketability.
Feasibility & Market Readiness – Filtering impractical ideas early increases the chances of success.
Stronger Buy-In – Involving key players early fosters ownership and smoother implementation.
Better Collaboration – Encourages teamwork, trust, and open communication across departments.
Faster Execution – Decision makers get involved early to approve direction and strategize quickly.
Our SDP workshops consider input from diverse stakeholders and turn holistic perspectives into creative, focused, and positive outcomes. Everyone has something to contribute based on their unique point of view. This approach to strategic design has led to numerous products that exceed client expectations and garnered prestigious design awards. The power of collaboration and a well-structured brainstorming process come together to design impactful and innovative product solutions.
SDP Workshop Breakdown
Designers and researchers plan and prepare for the SDP workshop in advance. This involves gathering all the necessary research materials, setting up creative work environments, and energizing participants for our intensive brainstorming sessions. We keep the schedule efficiently organized, typically across two days, to give ideas plenty of time to be discussed and developed.
Day 1:
Form groups.
Brainstorm ideas on index cards for different categories.
Rotate and share ideas across groups.
Vote on favorite ideas in each category.
Day 2:
Organize and prioritize ideas.
Cluster similar ideas into larger themes.
Refine and sketch detailed concepts on large paper.
Present final concepts and outline next steps.
Post Workshop Concept Development
Our team refines the SDP workshop ideas into deliverables that include detailed illustrations and storyboards. These materials help communicate core concepts internally to decision-makers and externally to potential users. Additionally, storyboards are valuable for qualitative and quantitative research purposes, ensuring that the finished products have a high likelihood of success before their official launch.
Why the SDP Workshop is Right For You
Many of our clients have implemented concepts from SDP workshops into successful, award-winning product launches. Gathering the right team and leading them through a valuable, creative process can generate ideas that are novel, practical, and more likely to succeed in the market.
By valuing diverse expertise and fostering an inclusive environment, teams can unlock ideas that wouldn’t emerge in siloed discussions. The best products and strategies come from thorough processes that foster creative collaboration.
Click here to learn more and watch a video about our SDP workshops.
Join us to discover your next big idea!
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