Shaping a DesignedUp Organisation：The Journey to Design Maturity

"The special sauce that makes this book an essential reading is that, in all the explanations of how to navigate the organisation, she never loses sight of the fact that we are talking about humans relating to other humans. Shaping a DesignedUp Organisation is, in this sense, truly human-centred."—Andy Polaine, Design Leadership Coach

Although many organisations talk about being design driven, customer centric and human centred, the majority are still teetering on the periphery of understanding what this really means. For many, design is treated as a tick-box exercise, and while others might get it intellectually, they don’t feel or live it as designers do—and yet they must if they want to lead in this competitive world.

Shaping a DesignedUp Organisation was born out of both love and frustration—love for what design brings to people and organisations, and pure frustration because it’s still so hard to get many organisations to shift left on design maturity. Moving organisations towards greater “design maturity” is not just about hiring more designers; it’s about a shift in mindset, a commitment to seeing the world from a human-centered perspective and understanding that design is more than just making things look good. It’s about problem-solving at every level and can add value across all the points on the business start model.

Whether you’re in product, tech, business, or design, you’ll find practical ways in this book to integrate design into the heart of your organisation. With this book, you can make sure that design doesn’t just get involved when there is UI to be designed but is involved when there is a problem, and that problem impacts a human. Design doesn’t sit on the surface but is involved from the ground up—solving the right problems, balancing business goals, and enhancing the human experience. Growing design maturity is a team effort.

If you’re ready to learn how to advocate for design, understand its broader value, or drive your organisation toward a design-led approach, then welcome to the journey. Dive into this book and make change happen