Making the Case: collaborative concept development of products and services for a new design museum

This paper describes the role practice-led research has played in identifying an opportunity for innovative organizational progress (for a globally recognized museum), and discusses one role of practice-led research in product and service development for the new business. It looks at why collaborative research is employed to explore concept development, how this is being investigated and what the insights thus far indicate. Two projects are discussed, one in the area of curatorial practice for communicating design and craft innovation and, the other in the design of residency programmes in terms of nurturing innovation in design and craft practices. The design of knowledge exchange is presented as a context for concept development and why collaborative research is used as a means of exploring design as a core business competency; a visioning tool shaping company developments for achieving sustained growth. Case Study as a methodology is applied to investigate the concept development phase of innovation especially in terms of researching the actors within the design activity and the context within which the activity takes place. The paper closes by sharing the insights gained from the collaborative research and presents six values emerging from the collaborative research thus far.