Strategic Design

Have you ever wondered what truly makes a product or service stand out in the market? While aesthetics and price are important factors, there is something even more fundamental behind success: strategic design.

This concept goes beyond the appearance or technical aspects of a product. Strategic design is an approach that aims to create solutions capable of meeting users' needs, desires, and expectations—solving real problems and generating value for both the consumer and the business. This competitive advantage can be a decisive factor in a brand's success.

What Is Strategic Design?

Strategic design integrates design into business strategic planning. It goes beyond creating visually appealing products or services and focuses on solving real user pain points while aligning these solutions with the company's objectives.

The key is to deeply understand the problem and develop solutions that truly make an impact and add value for all stakeholders.

The Pillars of Strategic Design

Strategic design is built on three essential pillars:

Needs (People): the foundation of strategic design is deeply understanding users' needs, desires, and expectations. Design should be human-centered, always aiming to solve real problems and enhance the user experience.

Viability (Business): for a solution to be effective, it must be viable for the business. This includes factors such as costs, return on investment, and alignment with the company's objectives.

Technical Feasibility: the proposed solution must be technically feasible, meaning it should be implementable with available technology or developed within an appropriate timeframe and budget.

Although the pillars of strategic design serve as the foundation guiding decisions, there are various product development processes that can be applied in daily operations, each with its own specific characteristics. At Rentcars, we have chosen to follow the Dual Track approach.

The Dual Track Process

This approach allows us to work in a parallel and agile manner, dividing the process into two essential tracks: discovery and delivery.

Discovery: the focus of this phase is to deeply understand the problem we are trying to solve. We use techniques such as user research, interviews, and concept testing to validate hypotheses and ensure we are on the right track.

Delivery: once the hypotheses are validated, we move into the delivery phase, where we develop the product or service and iterate based on continuous user feedback.

There are numerous methodologies and approaches for the discovery phase, with Design Thinking being one of the most well-known.

Design Thinking: an approach for everyone

Design Thinking is a human-centered methodology that, through empathy, observation, and user interviews, seeks to identify real needs and pain points. This helps create more effective solutions and ensures we are on the right track before moving on to the delivery phase.

Empathy: the first step is to deeply understand users' needs and challenges.

Definition: once the needs are understood, it’s time to clearly define the problem. A well-defined problem is crucial to ensure the entire team is aligned and focused on the right solution.

Ideation: this phase encourages creativity, aiming to generate as many solutions as possible. Techniques such as brainstorming and mind mapping are often used to explore all possibilities.

Prototyping: the selected ideas are transformed into tangible prototypes, which can be tested and refined.

Testing: finally, prototypes are validated with users. This is an iterative process where user feedback is essential for continuously improving the solution.

Benefits of Strategic Design

Strategic design offers a range of advantages for companies looking to stand out in the market:

Competitive Differentiation: by focusing on users' real needs, the solutions created generate value, setting the product or service apart in the market.

Innovation: a user-centered approach fosters creative and innovative solutions, which can be disruptive within the industry.

Efficiency: by considering technical and business viability, Strategic Design prevents resource waste, ensuring sustainable solutions.

User Engagement: products and services that meet and exceed user expectations drive greater engagement and customer loyalty.

Strategic design is a powerful tool for companies that want to stand out and innovate. By deeply understanding user needs and aligning solutions with business goals and technical feasibility, it's possible to create products and services that not only meet expectations but also deliver outstanding experiences.