Design at scale

Driving growth at scale through design

Where most innovation models focus on maintaining incremental growth or setting up incubators, garages, and labs on the sidelines, McKinsey Design is focused on making disruptive innovation integral to your everyday operational culture.

You don’t have to start big. In fact, the evidence is clear that the obvious routes of chasing the biggest return on investment or satisfying the largest group may not get you there. Many innovations start small—but the prizes aren’t.

Test

It’s an elusive prize.

In creating the McKinsey Design Index, we rigorously linked design actions to financial performance, and our research revealed just how challenging it is to drive design thinking at scale:

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>50%

of companies surveyed

had no objective way to set or assess targets for their design initiatives

>40%

of companies

are not talking to their end users during development

95%

of executives

were unable to make objective decisions about design actions

We’ve found that innovation is driven from the top.

And through incentives, metrics, clear roles—and clear goals—it becomes everyone’s job to put the consumer at the center of every decision. But how? The McKinsey Design Index reveals four key principles we use to help companies design at scale:

Design is more than...

a feeling: it’s analytical leadership.

Measure and drive design performance with the same rigor as revenues and costs

a product: it’s user experience.

Break down internal walls between physical, digital, and service design

a department: it’s cross-functional talent.

Make user-centric design everyone’s responsibility, not a siloed function

a phase: it’s continuous iteration.

De-risk development by continually listening, testing, and iterating with end users

First to scale beats first to market.

Embracing a culture of design does require meaningful changes—but in our experience, these changes are not only within reach, they will also reenergize your organization as we help you make innovation and customer delight central to your DNA.

Our People

Our creativity is fueled by a diverse, international team of passionate design leaders and practitioners.

How we help clients

Product Design

Experience Design

Design at scale

Design at scale

Test

It’s an elusive prize.