OT_201: Design Council (2007) — the Double Diamond design process model (Eleven Lessons study)

OT_201: Design Council (2007) — the Double Diamond design process model (Eleven Lessons study)

Source

https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/resources/the-double-diamond/ — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)

Summary

Eleven lessons: managing design in eleven global brands is the Design Council’s 2007 qualitative study of how design is managed inside eleven world-leading firms (Alessi, BSkyB, BT, LEGO, Microsoft, Sony, Starbucks, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Whirlpool, Xerox and Yahoo!), based on face-to-face interviews with each company’s design or creative head conducted between March and May 2007. It is the publication that gave the Double Diamond design-process model its canonical public articulation: a simple graphical map of the design process, developed through in-house Design Council research in 2005, that divides design work into four phases, Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver, and maps the alternating divergent and convergent modes of thinking designers use. For the project this is the umbrella design process: the macro-structure within which the project’s more specific methods (design-science research, thematic analysis, purposive sampling) sit. The report presents the model as a descriptive, adaptable account of shared practice rather than a rigid prescription, noting that the studied firms use their own terminology for the same stages and that discovery and iteration recur throughout a real project.

Key thesis insights

• The Double Diamond model and its origin. The report states that “the double diamond diagram was developed through in-house research at the Design Council in 2005 as a simple graphical way of describing the design process,” and that, “divided into four distinct phases, Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver, it maps the divergent and convergent stages of the design process, showing the different modes of thinking that designers use.” The 2007 study is where this model received its authoritative public exposition. OT_201
• Two diamonds = a divergent then convergent cycle, run twice. Each diamond opens out (divergent thinking) then narrows (convergent thinking): Discover is “a phase of divergent thought” where teams keep perspectives wide, and Define acts as “a filter where the review, selection and discarding of ideas takes place”; the second diamond repeats the pattern across Develop and Deliver. This divergent/convergent rhythm, not a fixed set of tools, is the core idea the model contributes to a research design. OT_201
• The four phases and their key activities (verbatim). Discover (initial idea/inspiration): market research, user research, managing information, design research groups. Define (interpretation and alignment of needs to objectives): project development, project management, project sign-off. Develop (design-led solutions developed, iterated and tested): multi-disciplinary working, visual management, development methods, testing. Deliver (product/service finalised and launched): final testing, approval and launch; targets, evaluation and feedback loops. OT_201
• The “eleven lessons” evidence base — descriptive, not prescriptive. The model is generalised from a qualitative study of eleven global brands, and the report is explicit that “though the terminology they use may differ from that of the double diamond model, there are some core stages within a design process that are common across the participating companies” (LEGO call Discover “Exploring”, Microsoft “Understand”, Starbucks “Concept Heights”). It also stresses the model “is not the only model of the design process” and that discovery continues throughout a project. This licenses the thesis to adopt the Double Diamond as a flexible organising frame while filling each phase with its own chosen methods. OT_201

Research targets

None opened and none resolved. This is a proactively-retrieved, foundational methodology citation, not a source filling a specific backlog gap.

Notes

• Provenance / host caveat. The archived Design Council PDF at designcouncil.org.uk now returns 404. The raw was obtained from idi-design.ie, which hosts a verbatim reproduction of the original file. Identity is confirmed by the embedded PDF metadata (Creator “Acrobat PDFMaker 6.0 for Word”, Producer “Acrobat Distiller 6.0 (Windows)”, CreationDate 29 Nov 2007), consistent with a genuine 2007 Design Council document, and by the recurring “Design Council, 34 Bow Street, London WC2E 7DL” footer throughout. Authoritative primary publication.
• Reading scope. Read verbatim: the front matter (Background and methodology, Methodology) and the “The design process” section that names the Double Diamond model and defines the four phases. The eleven company case studies that make up the bulk of the 144-page report were not read; the phase definitions and activity lists quoted above all sit in the “The design process” section.
• Scope. UK design-industry study. No NZ-specific data and nothing that feeds an NI calculation cell. data_quality: high (authoritative Design Council flagship study and the canonical source for the model; not verified, which the project reserves for figures corroborated by an independent source).
• The model is often summarised elsewhere as first diamond = “designing the right thing” and second = “designing the thing right”; that gloss is a later popularisation and does not appear verbatim in this 2007 report, which uses the divergent/convergent language quoted above.

Connections

Referenced by

Concepts (1): Research Methodology