Week 15 Guide: Strategic Design Thinking

24-week programme, Project 2 Phase.

Learning goal: turn your advanced research into a design strategy that balances competing stakeholders and sets clear priorities.
Estimated study time: 2 to 3 hours.
Evidence to upload: a completed stakeholder map and a one-page design strategy with prioritised principles.

The Real Problem This Solves

With two stakeholders and competing constraints, you cannot follow every need equally. Strategic design thinking is deciding, on purpose and with evidence, what your design will prioritise and what it will deliberately not do. A strategy stops later decisions from drifting.

Running projects. Set the strategy for your Project 2 design before you develop concepts.

Key Ideas You Need First

1. Map stakeholders by power and interest

Not everyone affected matters equally to every decision. Mapping who has high interest and high influence tells you whose needs lead.

2. Design principles turn research into direction

A design principle is a short rule your design will follow, drawn from research, for example "a partial reset beats a full pack-away". Three or four principles guide every later choice.

3. Deciding what not to do is strategy

Naming what you will not try is as important as naming what you will. It keeps the project focused.

Tools And Materials Needed

Your Week 14 research and insights.
The Stakeholder Map Template.

Step-By-Step Walkthrough

List every stakeholder affected by your Project 2 design.
Map them by interest and influence on the template. Note whose needs lead.
Write three or four design principles from your research insights.
State what you will not do so the project stays focused.
Write a one-page strategy combining the map, the principles, and the non-goals.

Demonstrated Example

Stakeholders mapped: the two desk-sharers (high interest, high influence, needs lead); a landlord who dislikes fixings (low interest, medium influence, a constraint); future users (low influence, keep in mind).

Principles: 1. A partial reset in under a minute beats a full pack-away. 2. Each user's five key tools stay visible. 3. No permanent fixings to the shared desk.

Will not do: will not try to store two full toolsets at once; will not add electronics.

Why this is strong: priorities are set from evidence, the competing needs are balanced deliberately, and the non-goals keep it focused.

Architecture and spatial track version. Map the quiet group, the noisy group, neighbours, and the site owner. Principles might be: fast switch between uses, sound separation without walls, daylight kept for both. Non-goal: no fixed partition.

Your Task This Week

Map your Project 2 stakeholders by interest and influence.
Write three or four design principles from your research.
State your non-goals and write a one-page strategy.

Submission Checklist

Upload item	Pass standard
Stakeholder map	All stakeholders placed, with whose needs lead.
Design strategy	Three or four evidence-based principles and clear non-goals.

Assessment And Pass Criteria

Stakeholders are mapped and priorities are justified from research.
Principles are specific and traceable to insights.
The strategy names what the design will not do.

Common Mistakes

Trying to please everyone. Decide whose needs lead.
Vague principles. "Make it good" guides nothing. Be specific.
No non-goals. Without them the project drifts.

Extension Challenge

Pressure-test a principle against your hardest stakeholder conflict. If it survives, it is a real principle.

When To Ask For Tutor Help

Book a tutor check-in if every stakeholder feels equally important, or if your principles are too vague to guide a decision. Bring your stakeholder map.

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