A business design competency model
Business Design has emerged as a critical set of practices and mindsets for organizations to quickly adapt to changing market conditions. While there is a shared need for these skills, there isn’t yet an agreed-upon definition for Business Design. This is further complicated by the overlapping disciplines that converge in a Business Designer’s toolkit. So we set out to craft a definition.
We started Certified Business Design to help Business Designers better understand their growth opportunities.
Our mission in creating this model is to facilitate amazing careers and results in Business Design, each step of the way.
The Business Design competency model is made of three disciplines: Design Thinking, Business Strategy, and Innovation Management. Each discipline divides into three categories containing a total of 27 competencies. The competencies are measured using one knowledge area and three applied skills.
How to use the Competency Model
Looking for a Business Designer
Business Designers can contribute to new innovation and ventures. They will harness the design process, leading the project from early discovery and definition through launch and evaluation. An experienced Business Designer will be ready to contribute using skills across the model. Individual experiences and knowledge will vary, but look for a Business Designer who is well-balanced across the disciplines and categories.
Evaluating your Business Design career path
Use the competency model to assess your personal skills and growth over time. Explore the categories and competencies to identify your strengths and areas in which to grow. Current Business Designers can fill in skill gaps and lean into personal areas of strength, while aspiring Business Designers can locate areas for learning and exploration.
Design Thinking
Design Thinking works to understand users and their problems, then co-create cohesive, impactful concepts.
Research & Insights
Ideate and design concepts for products, services, and businesses that solve user and business challenges. This category includes:
Problem Scoping
Knowledge of brief-shaping tools and past briefs that yielded successful results
Setting challenge parameters: skill in establishing constraints and enablers that set up the project for success
Articulating the challenge brief: skill in articulating the brief with statements and materials that accurately represent the direction of the project
Context gathering: skill in quickly gathering the context of a new organization, industry, technology, people, or other key information
Design Research
Knowledge of ethnographic and qualitative research methods, such as interviews and surveys
Setting research goals: skill in defining the objectives of research and selecting appropriate methods to meet those goals
Complete research activities: skill to lead preparation and execution of research activities, such as designing and carrying out interview guides
Document research effectively: skill in documenting quotes, stories, and discussions in a way that can be used during insights synthesis, design, and storytelling
Insights Synthesis
Knowledge of data synthesis methods and the structure of appropriate outputs
Prepare and structure raw data: skill in turning raw data into structured sets tagged for patterns and themes to be used in synthesis
Extract useful insights from research: skill to identify actionable insights that will enable the design of concepts at the strategic and tactical levels
Articulate insights using frameworks: skill in articulating research results using appropriate categorization (E.g., pain points, unmet needs, or insights)
Ideation & Concepting
Ideate and design concepts for products, services, and businesses that solve user and business challenges. This category includes:
Idea Generation
Knowledge of relevant trends in experience, technology, and design that enable ideation
Generating novel thought: skill in using research, strategy, and business modeling as generative design tools
Creating comprehensive lists of ideas: skill to create and compile ideas for products, services, business lines, and slices thereof
Assembling cohesive concepts: skill to turn ideas that vary in scope and utility into whole concepts, defining what they are and are not
Selecting Concepts
Knowledge of business objectives, downstream implications, and past projects to consider when assessing and developing concepts
Setting selection and development criteria: skill in defining a successful concept in the context of the project
Completing assessment activities: skill to lead the preparation and execution of assessment activities across Desirability-Viability-Feasibility (DVF)
Rationalizing decision-making: skill to clearly document why concepts are prioritized and what downstream considerations should be made
Articulating Direction
Knowledge of best practices and information required for pitching early stage concept(s)
Set a clear direction for concepts: skill to clearly identify the structure and argument for concept(s) (E.g., whether they are linked on a roadmap or stand-alone and why)
Develop cohesion of each concept: skill to align and develop concepts so that all components support the same direction
Present a concept or set of concepts: skill in inspiring and uniting collaborators around a clearly defined set of solutions that can be tested
Facilitation & Storytelling
Lead stakeholders through a collaborative process to explore concepts, anticipating and balancing needs while delivering strong customer-centric solutions. This category includes:
Storytelling
Knowledge of storytelling methods and presentation principles, as well as when and to whom they are appropriate
Designing an engaging, cohesive story: skill to combine key information into a story arc that makes sense and inspires
Connecting the audience with the right information at the right time: skill in using story to address the audience in their context
Using visualization and experience to present information: skill in bringing humans, technologies, conceptual relationships, business models, and more alive with visual and experiential storytelling
Leading Process
Knowledge of the design thinking process, including how to structure a project and how outputs relate to outcomes
Planning a design thinking engagement: skill in building a plan that fits the unique context of an engagement and understanding when to change it
Communicating and tracking a design plan: skill in continuously engaging stakeholders in an appropriate plan based on project context
Gather and balance stakeholder needs: skill to discover and relate internal and external stakeholder requirements, expectations and needs, optimizing for beneficial solutions
Group Facilitation
Knowledge of group facilitation structures and techniques that invite contributions from diverse perspectives and achieve targeted outcomes
Set objectives for group sessions: skill to identify the requirements for a session and align participants on why it will occur
Design and prepare for group sessions: skill in creating bespoke session plans that address needs; making supplementary materials, logistical preparations, etc.
Facilitate sessions and codify results: skill to lead diverse groups through exercises and achieve alignment on outcomes
Business Strategy
Business Strategy is all about building the business case, testing, and measuring outcomes.
Venture Modeling & Analysis
Position a new venture for future success: identify opportunities in the market, secure financial resources, and execute a strategy to promote and sell new products and services. This category includes:
Ecosystem Mapping
Knowledge of key players, dynamics, trends, policies, and best practices in the market of focus
Ecosystem research planning: skill to set appropriate goals and related parameters for ecosystem research
Research and relate external parties: skill in discovering and capturing the details of key players (E.g., product launches), as well as their relationship to each other
Synthesize and map key relationships: skill to identify and articulate the most important aspects, trends, and relationships of the ecosytem
Business Model Design
Knowledge of many business models and tools, with case study examples for each
Identify relevant, plausible, and creative business models: skill to explore and document a set of possible revenue streams and cost structures
Design business model alternatives: skill in using revenue streams and cost structures to creatively map cohesive business model possibilities
Analyze and present business models: skill to use simple calculations to understand the implications of business models on the bottom line of a project, service or business, and present the best options with rationale
Business Casing & Pitching
Knowledge of the best practices, formats, and contents of a business plan, as well as fundraising objectives
Develop stage appropriate financial cases: skill to apply financial analysis to concepts at each stage of development and deliver a cogent picture of financial performance
Articulate and develop elements of strategy into a cohesive plan: skill in using inputs from concept design and venture analysis to develop a clear plan that addresses all primary business concerns
Present effectively to raise support or capital: skill in designing a pitch and fundraising strategy commensurate with business needs and ethos
Measurement & Projection
Apply general knowledge of business and financial indicators to advance the organization’s goals, interpreting key metrics to make better decisions. This category includes:
Identify and Communicate KPIs
Knowledge of successful KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in a variety of circumstances, as well as their implications and improvements
Identify parent metrics or vision statements: skill to compile existing foundational perspectives on what is important, understanding how KPIs will ladder up to these perspectives
Analyze and select appropriate KPIs: skill in using a broad base of creatively selected financial and organizational metrics to identify KPIs that drive business outcomes and can be collected reliably at reasonable cost
Track and present KPIs: skill to inspire and guide the business through the appropriate communication of KPIs
Develop and Maintain Financials
Knowledge of common financial tracking instruments, analytical principles, and benchmarks
Identify and develop assumptions: skill to create a mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive (MECE) list of strategic and financial assumptions required to create financial documentation
Build financial tracking and projection documentation: skill to assemble appropriate documentation and use assumptions and/or real data to populate
Analyze and present financial insights: skill in synthesizing key findings from financial analysis to present results, recommendations, and KPIs
Select and Improve Organizational Metrics
Knowledge of common metrics and their relative benefits across the entire business
Usage metrics selection and tracking: skill in creatively identifying useful usage metrics and how they will be used for the product, service, or business (E.g., total number of users reported weekly)
Development metrics selection and tracking: skill to creatively identify useful development metrics and how they will be tracked for the product, service, or business (E.g., developer team velocity reported biweekly)
Business metrics selection and tracking: skill in creatively identifying business metrics and how they will be tracked for the product, service, or business (E.g., NPS scores will be reported monthly)
Experimentation & Launch
Advance products, services, and businesses from concept to reality through iterative testing, from early prototypes to continuous experimentation. This category includes:
Go-to-market Strategy
Knowledge of common components of go-to-market strategy documentation with examples of go-to-market successes and failures
Define customer base and beachhead: skill to understand, specify, and provide rationale for which population is being targeted for adoption and when
Craft a strategy for reaching customers: skill to consider and select appropriate channels to reach and grow the customer base
Compile and present a cohesive plan: skill to organize a compelling go-to-market plan into a format that will be used and improved by the organization
Business Model Validation
Knowledge of a variety of approaches to business model experimentation, as well as their relative strengths and weaknesses
Design experiments to test key business model assumptions: skill to select critical assumptions of the business model, creatively designing measurable experiments to test them
Build and deploy experiments: skill to leverage physical, technical, and interpersonal tools to execute experiments and track results
Organize and synthesize the results of experiments: skill in validating or invalidating assumptions, presenting the synthesized insights to appropriate stakeholders
Learning through Prototypes
Knowledge of common prototyping methods, pilot fundamentals, and their relative strengths
Plan a prototype or pilot test: skill in identifying what you want to learn (E.g., how long it takes a user to complete a service) and creating an appropriate plan for the development and use of a prototype or pilot
Create tangible prototypes, fast: skill to creatively design and resource prototypes that can be deployed rapidly for testing
Use development observations and test results to inform future development: skill to quickly capture learnings from the process of creating prototypes and pilot products, sharing with appropriate stakeholders
Innovation Management
Innovation Management focuses on creating the conditions for innovation to thrive.
Innovation Strategy
Take a long-term view to build a shared vision and create an environment rich with innovative potential. This category includes:
Setting Vision and Direction
Knowledge of organizational design principles and practices, with examples of successes and failures
Setting the organization’s vision: skill in translating intelligence, strategy, and stakeholder input into a clear, concise vision that can act as the cornerstone to innovation efforts and culture
Define high-level approaches to organizational design: skill to set out and document approaches to organizational structure, procedures, communication, and policies
Connect vision to lower-level strategies, objectives, and timelines: skill in collaborating with stakeholders to continuously align all aspects of organizational efforts to high-level vision
Cultivating Intelligence Resources
Knowledge of knowledge management practices and systems, as well as their relative strengths
Identify and develop intelligence sources: skill to find internal and external sources of tacit, implicit, and explicit knowledge for the organization
Rationalize, organize, and codify information: skill in bringing the organization together around key facts and sources of truth to elevate insights from noise
Create pipelines for information exchange: skill to design and implement systems and venues for regular information discovery and collaboration
Building Teams and Capabilities
Knowledge of talent development and capability-building approaches, with examples of case studies
Identify and assess resources and processes: skill to figure out which existing resources and processes are (or could be) creating the most value in an organization
Synthesize and present capability findings: skill in clearly defining where mismatches of effort and value occur on the value chain, presenting this effectively to stakeholders
Optimize the processes and resources that create value in the organization: skill in developing and implementing a plan to invest in the appropriate parts of the organization
Innovation System
Effectively manage an innovation portfolio with systems to enable prioritization and resource allocation. This category includes:
Blueprinting Innovation Management Systems
Knowledge of innovation management systems and processes (E.g., Stage Gate or accelerator programs)
Identify innovation stakeholders and objectives: skill in understanding the needs of all users of the system, documenting and communicating the results
Design process and structure: skill to collaboratively blueprint a process and structure for advancing innovations to market (E.g., the steps each project takes, how decisions are made, which stakeholders contribute what)
Clearly communicate the innovation system to stakeholders: skill to visually describe the process and present it to stakeholders in a way that is inspiring and easy to reference
Prioritizing and Resourcing Projects
Knowledge of portfolio management practices and systems
Define and organize the types of innovations: skill to identify categories of innovations and align typification to innovation and direction
Establish key metrics and visualizations for decision-making: skill in using stakeholder objectives to set prioritization criteria and supply appropriate information
Facilitate completion of actual decisions, then document and share: skill to get the appropriate stakeholders into a decision-making venue and ensure decisions are completed
Assessing Program Resourcing
Knowledge of program management process and tools, especially human resource allocation
Select or design appropriate frameworks for assessing resourcing requirements: skill to create or leverage tools that accurately estimate resource requirements for projects
Create standard venues for assessment of program resourcing: skill in working with stakeholders to define a reasonably easy and consistent resourcing estimation process across the organization
Relate resourcing estimates to availability: skill in providing decision makers with scenarios that represent how resources can be used
Project Implementation
Maximize the accuracy, velocity, and creativity of teams solving human problems in service of business objectives. This category includes:
Assessing Project Feasibility
Knowledge of project-relevant feasibility considerations (E.g., technology constraints)
Conduct research to understand feasibility challenges: skill to generate mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive (MECE) feasibility considerations and assess each before project planning
Lead resource estimations: skill to guide the design and/or build team to accurately represent resources needed to meet project requirements, based on feasibility and effort research
Communicate feasibility and resource requirements to stakeholders: skill to strategize and prepare for stakeholder conversations with rationale, alternatives, and clarity centered on what’s best for users, the business, and the team
Project Management
Knowledge of project management practices and tools from project initiation to close
Creating a project plan: skill to translate stakeholder objectives and ideas into a plan that establishes agreed scope, schedule, quality, resources, and risk
Facilitate project management process: Skill in working directly with teams to support advancement of the project and communication of the results
Continuously track and communicate changes or new information: skill to document and escalate (where appropriate) the developments of a project so the right parties receive the right information and impacts are tracked and accounted for
Iterative Development
Knowledge of agile methods, practices and tools, and iterative development frameworks
Effectively manage iterative teams: skill to engage design and/or build teams in a meaningful way, centering on end-users and business requirements
Deploying rapidly and consistently: skill to size deployments appropriately and see them through the release on a regular, pre-determined schedule
Integrate changing requirements: skill to adapt to (and encourage) changing requirements based on new intelligence for the design and/or build team, while advocating for the stability of the team
A note: I created this project with a Business Designer colleague, Mark Etem. Our ambition when crafting this competency model was to establish a certification program in which Business Designers could complete an assessment, receive a personalized profile highlighting their experience to date, and be awarded a certification if they met requirements. Some personal events arose shortly after we launched, leading us to halt the project for a time. We hope to return to it at some point.
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