Embedding design capacity in research driven innovation teams

Design has in recent years increasingly been seen as an important support for innovation, or as a mean to drive innovation. Verganti [1] argues for design as such a driver by contributing to a shift of meaning, while Kumar [3] see design as a tool to identify and cultivate value. In contemporary innovation policy, innovation is regarded to be done in innovation clusters, innovation systems, or innovation networks. This stands in contrast to the industrial perspective where its often a single innovation actor. Given that innovation is a shared and distributed practice across several different actors, more knowledge needs to be created on the role of design in innovation in these innovation systems. Over the past two years we have followed a group within a Swedish research institute, working with high technology development. During these two years the organizations has been complemented with design competence that has been embedded within a development team giving us a unique opportunity to create an understanding for how design can contribute in such settings. During this period we have seen that different mindsets e.g. in regards to what different competences focus on in the development or see as audience in projects may cause frictions in the development work. In conclusion, it becomes important to notice and handle the issues of friction and gaps that may occur between different mindsets when embedding design capacity in order for design to be able to contribute in its full capacity.