Combining user needs and stakeholder requirements : the value design method

In the emerging design landscape, knowledge integration and collaboration with external partners are being valued in the design process due to the increasing scale and complexity of the design problems. It becomes important for designers to be in close contact with stakeholders, such as the people, communities and organizations who are affecting, or being affected by, the problem or the solution from the early stages of the design process. The majority of the methods that are utilized in design practice have until now been user-focused, aiming at understanding the users and designing for the user experience. Stakeholder involvement in the design process is a new topic of study in the design field. Approaches and methods that guide the designers in developing design solutions by considering diverse stakeholder perspectives are limited.
With the purpose of assisting the designers in considering the stakeholder perspec-tives in the design process, we present the Value Design Method that aims to inte-grate the user insights, business insights, and stakeholder expectations and roles at the early stages of the design process. We introduce the method alongside the Value Design Canvas. The Value Design Canvas is a visual probe that can be ap-plied in collaborative multi-stakeholder design workshops. We provide advice on how to apply the method and on aspects that should be attended to while organiz-ing multi-stakeholder workshops.