Over the last 20 years, Stby has gone beyond using foundational research for product and design teams, and has also taken a more birds eye view. We have used a range of research methods to explore how clients can create environments that encourage new, and different ways of working that are driven by design thinking and impact. In doing so, these projects have focused on understanding how clients can create a wider culture that can sustainably nurture innovation and embed it in their organisations. A process of Innovating towards change by changing the culture to innovate.
To celebrate 20 years of Stby, we have created an interactive narrative that provides a peak into what it may look like to experience an embedded innovation process. What has set these projects apart from other Stby projects is the bespoke approach each project takes to suit the context, needs and aspirations of each client. Despite this, there are a few key qualities that help identify an embedded innovation project. In this narrative we highlight a number of these key markers.
Follow this link to immerse yourself in a Stby story of innovating towards change.
Finding a Direction
Clients often have a direction they may want to go in, but not necessarily a clear idea of how to get there. As a result, Clients collaborate with Stby to better articulate a specific problem they would like to tackle, or a wider goal they would like to work towards. Exploring and better establishing these challenges or aspirations serves as the first stepping stone towards knowing a clearer path forward. Here Stby and the client work together to understand what method appropriately fits the context of the client and eventually help best meet the objectives of the overall process.
Co-Ideating and Creating
This process is highly collaborative, where Stby and the client take on less of a client-to-service-provider dynamic, and work side by side throughout the whole process. Together, our teams work towards connecting different stakeholders and their knowledge and skill sets in order to co-ideate and create key insights. These are key to informing the final output and in doing so ensure a level of credibility internally that is likelier to fit the organisational context and translate into results that resonate across a wide range of people and can be implemented from the bottom up.
Sustaining an Agile Process
With this type of project, there are not always clear and defined steps. The process often has to account for a wide range of variables both internal and external to the project that may not always be evident at the beginning of the process. Here Stby and the client team work closely together to maintain an agile process that allows the consideration and adaptation around these factors, allowing for the final output to be as agile and dynamic as the process itself.
Grass roots change as a road to wider innovation
Embedding innovation into an organisation may sound like something that will manifest in the form of change in the wider organisational level but often translates into more of a grass-roots approach where smaller teams and individuals are provided the necessary resources to inform a more effective and impactful way of working. Many individuals involved in the embedded innovation process are left with new perspectives and means to build additional skills sets. This takes on more of a grass roots and bottom up approach where many “small things often lead to a big thing.”