Design Age Accelerator Survey 2021.
How can design help you succeed in the healthy ageing market?
06.05.2021.
“We innovate by starting with the customer and working backwards.
That becomes the touchstone for how we invent.” Jeff Bezos, Amazon
Design alone isn’t the panacea for entrepreneurs looking for answers to their business challenges. However, using design effectively goes a long way to setting an idea on the correct heading, to launching it into a market on the right trajectory and to ensure users love it and want more.
So why do so many entrepreneurs fail to exploit design? What value do they expect from design? And how do they currently use design?
“Despite the UK’s enormous strengths in design there remains a significant opportunity for more businesses to exploit that potential: recognising, adopting and investing in the best quality design to innovate more effectively, compete successfully and grow faster. For businesses that truly embed design into their innovation strategies the potential benefits are considerable.” Dr Ian Campbell, Executive Chair, Innovate UK
Searching for answers to these questions motivated the 2021 Design Age Accelerator Survey “How can design help you succeed in the healthy ageing market?”
Why did we launch the survey?
There’s plenty of research proving the value of design — McKinsey reports that businesses who value design out-perform industry benchmark growth by 2 to 1; and the UK Design Council demonstrates a ROI of £7 for every £1 invested in design.
However, 42% of start-ups fail because they lack a deep understanding of their market and only 50% of businesses conduct user-research before generating first stage ideas. And as highlighted in Innovate UK’s design and innovation strategy, 66% of UK firms are only at level 1 or 2 on the Design Ladder with ‘no design’ or ‘only using design as a final finish’ in projects. The UK is behind Europe, despite having what many believe is the world’s leading design industry.
Design Age Accelerator wanted to dig deeper into this paradox — a lack of commitment to design by UK businesses despite having access to UK based world-class providers who can help them. Because we believe that start-up and scale-up businesses who invest in design early in their innovation cycle have a greater likelihood of rapid and sustained growth.
The insight from our Survey informs the development of the Innovate UK — funded Design Age Accelerator as we progress rapidly from proposition prototype to feasibility study, with a cohort of 9 Pathfinder entrepreneurs. The survey quantifies and validates our hypotheses, narrowing options so we can prioritise the design services that we are now stress-testing with our Pathfinders.
The Survey results build on the qualitative insight gathered during 4 months of Accelerator proposition co-design during which we heard from hundreds of businesses, designers, advisors and investors — through: the Healthy Ageing Challenge Community of Practice; 70 in-depth interviews; 4 co-design workshops with 40 participants; and panel discussions and presentations at Longevity Week and Innovate UK conferences and seminars.
What did we want to understand?
The Design Age Accelerator Survey focused on listening to the demand side of the Healthy Ageing market — primarily start-up and scale-up solution providers at the leading edge of the market, innovating and disrupting with new propositions or pivoting into the industry.
We set out to understand Entrepreneurs’:
- awareness of design’s benefits
- appreciation of the strategic value of design
- potential commitment to invest in design
We also wanted to know more about three factors that slow businesses down or provide a competitive advantage, where design plays a vital role in addressing:
- the pains that design thinking can cure
- the challenges that design thinking can overcome
- the opportunities that design thinking can exploit
How did we do it?
We put ourselves in the shoes of our applicants to design a survey that:
- Made it simple. An effective survey isn’t hard work to complete and has a clear focus on how to help entrepreneurs succeed.
- Made it valuable. If you reach the right people, they will find a few minutes to reflect on their situation, learn something and share their views for a cause they believe in.
- Made it short. Entrepreneurs are pushed for time and there’s nothing more annoying than long surveys that are not completed, so we asked 5 questions that could be answered in 5 minutes.
- Had help from our friends. This is a diverse, niche market so gaining the widest reach to build a meaningful sample is key and we’re very grateful to the Healthy Ageing Challenge, Innovate UK, Age2.0 and investor networks for casting the net wide. We will all benefit from the insights.
Over six weeks between February and March 2021 we gathered responses from 64 respondents. The level of responses is strong given the context of the pandemic and a busy time for businesses gearing up for the year ahead. The sample is small, specialist and highly targeted and statistically robust enough to develop meaningful conclusions.
What’s the top-line?
The purpose of the Design Age Accelerator is to embed design thinking into the culture and operating model of the growing band of innovators, entrepreneurs and existing businesses seeking growth in the emerging Healthy Ageing market, with the purpose of helping them to become more customer-focused, more agile, resilient and more investor attractive …. ultimately enabling them to deliver better services and user experiences.
To refine our service-package we’re interested in confirmation that entrepreneurs value design and buy into the ethos of the Accelerator service. In summary entrepreneurs …
- want to leverage design’s greatest asset — empathy — to improve their services with users
- overwhelmingly recognise that design’s value is to translate users’ needs into sticky propositions
- value a service that can help to drive their growth and increase their connectivity
However, many solutions providers don’t have a wider appreciation of design as a strategic tool and lack the knowledge of the power of design to develop their business models and attract from investors.
Who responded?
The Survey captured 64 responses, 70% of whom were entrepreneurs, businesses or investors. We heard from the audience we wanted — 80% are currently committed to the healthy ageing market and 20% are potentially targeting the market. And, importantly just short of 60% were SME’s — the heartland target audience who can drive the most rapid growth and need the most help.
We asked three questions
Q1 What do you think the value of design is?
Q2 What healthy ageing design services would help you?
Q3 What do you expect a healthy ageing design service to do for you?
And here’s what we discovered
Q1 What do you think the value of design is, for you and your organisation, when targeting the healthy ageing market?
Participants could select 3 options from 11
So, the good news …
We know from our co-design workshops that design is firmly rooted in understanding users better.
- 61% believe design could improve the product/service experience for their users
- 37% want design to prototype and test new ideas with customers or users
- 36% believe design can help in prototyping and testing new ideas with customers or users
- 34% believe design can help by including their customers/users in developing the service
What does this mean?
Well, firstly, there’s a clear emphasis on the need for design to translate user insight into more effective propositions and experiences. However, the bullseye is that our respondents understand how they can turn design interventions into value.
And the not so good news!
- Design is not perceived by many as a priority in going digital.
- Design is not perceived by many as driving an understanding of the size and scope of the future market opportunity and product market fit.
- Design is not perceived by many as helping to develop a new strategy for development and growth or making a business more competitive.
This suggests …
Overall, very positive conclusions, however we need to understand if the narrow views on design are based on respondent’s personal experience or if there something more fundamental in play.
And, given the consumer shift online, pressure to digitise services and design’s clear UX/UI talent, the findings reinforces the classic problem that entrepreneurs start with the tech rather than with users.
Q2 What healthy ageing design services would help you or your organisation most?
Participants could select 3 options from 11
So, the good news …
We know from our qualitative work how important access to the older market is and this is validated.
- 52% of respondents highlighted the need for access to older users for research, co-design and testing propositions
- 50% of respondents want access to healthy ageing insight and knowledge.
What does this mean?
The primary opportunity for designers is to use their empathy skills and walk in users’ shoes — translating genuine user insights to practice. It also recognises the challenge that small businesses have in accessing and co-designing with users in a strategic, consistent and structured way.
The user-research challenge appears to be less of an issue for scale-ups who already have an established customer base and large firms who regularly canvas users or outsource research. Naturally, there is no shortage of older users out there, however SME’s need to find structured, rapid and low-cost ways of listening to them and, importantly, translating that into well-designed user experiences.
A real positive is that 35% want help accessing and securing support from investors and collaborators. And 33% of respondents are interested in joining an advisory, consultancy and design service to accelerate innovation to gain access to investors and collaborators.
What does this mean?
There’s a strong interest in how design can expand the ecosystem, and increase connectivity for entrepreneurs to increase collaboration and facilitate partnerships.
And the not so good news!
Only 15% of these respondents were interested in export and international growth opportunities. This may reflect the profile of the small businesses who responded believing there’s plenty of headroom in domestic markets. Export is more of a question for scale ups and mid-caps with the resources and greater pressure to pivot.
Q3 Which statement do you most agree with? ‘I would benefit from a healthy ageing design service that…’
Participants could select one option from 6
So, the good news …
The majority of participants are positive about a healthy ageing design service, and unsurprisingly the expectations are evenly spread, probably influenced by the needs of the participants at the moment of completing the survey.
- 28% think a service will help them grow their business — through growth advice and coaching
- 25% think a service will bring solution providers together with designers — through matchmaking
- 25% think a service will improve the quality of their users’ experience
What does this mean?
The answers validate the need and opportunity for an independent service that blends design advice and coaching with signposting to a search and select a design marketplace and a community of interest to increase collaboration.
And last but not least …
Do you want a healthy ageing design service?
An overwhelming 86% of respondents expressed an interest in potentially using a design service either now or in the future of which 30% said they would consider using a service now.
Unsurprisingly only 6% said they would be willing to pay, which reinforces the need for support and subsidies for cash-strapped small firms with stretched resources. However, if investors see the value, investment in design will flow.
Learning by listening
The insight we’ve gained has been invaluable in helping us shape the shape the Design Age Accelerator service and apply these learnings to our Pathfinder cohort who will test and try the proposition.
What next?
We believe this is the first Survey canvasing the views of UK entrepreneurs in the Healthy Ageing market about design, so the insight from these pioneers is without precedent or benchmarks. Repeating the Survey annually will enable us to track changes in attitudes and adoption and feed into industry trends.
A big mission and opportunity
Design has played a limited role in a market focused on care, mobility, physical aids or home adaptations. There are exceptions, but apart from some notable products, designers of places and homes, services, brands and propositions and digital user experiences are not engaged by commissioners at scale to develop and advance core learning or make a systemic impact.
Many businesses with powerful propositions continue to re-invent, duplicate solutions and make the same mistakes because they don’t recognise design as having value.
Many thanks to everyone who took part and spread the word and more on our Design Age Accelerator Pathfinder cohort of businesses soon.
Healthy ageing provides an opportunity to bring business and design together in a mutually and highly productive relationship. Design capability can help develop propositions that genuinely meet users’ needs, enables solution providers to scale, increase their competitive advantage and be more attractive to investors.
If you’d like to join our healthy ageing by design mission email John at:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/healthy-ageing-by-design/
https://www.designageaccelerator.com/
Entrepreneurs see opportunities. Designers understand users. Together they can accelerate impact.
About us
John Mathers and Julian Grice advise the UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge, review projects and help organisation’s capitalise on user-centred design thinking to accelerate innovation, increase adoption and create value for product and service providers to drive growth. We are working with Jo Blundell at Future Public on thr development of the Design Age Accelerator.
In the challenging times our population is facing it’s increasingly important that as we age, we age healthily. Our older population has changed from being a minor segment to be ignored to become a hugely important and vibrant part of our economy. The Healthy Ageing Challenge is leading the UK’s biggest transformation in the lives of older people, funding a raft of innovative projects.
For more information and advice about your Healthy Ageing by Design project contact John or Julian:john.mathers2@btinternet.com or julianmpgrice@gmail.com
For information and advice about UKRI’s Healthy Ageing Challenge visit:
For more about healthy ageing:
Future Public: https://www.futurepublic.org/
https://ilcuk.org.uk/future-of-ageing-2020-together-for-tomorrow/
https://www.rca.ac.uk/research-innovation/research-centres/design-age-institute/
UKRI are committed to embedding design into all the Grand Challenges. For more information about UKRI’s Design strategy visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/innovate-uk-launches-four-year-design-strategy
