Todd Bracher Studio
Todd Bracher Studio guides some of the world’s most prestigious brands around the world to realize strategic differentiation through expert-based design. Named global design influencer by Wallpaper* Magazine in 2015 and International Designer of the Year in 2015 and 2016, Todd Bracher Studio’s designs are driven by science, nature, and truth.
As a short term engagement with the studio, I facilitated a series of workshops to increase their value as a design leader across industries and moving into adjacent spaces.
Facilitated while working as a Strategic Design Consultant at Todd Bracher Studio in New York City.
Service
Design Thinking Workshops
Project for
Todd Bracher Studio
Year
2017
OBjECTIVE
The goal of this series of workshops was to analyze the studio’s brand identity, core values and capabilities. The purpose of these workshops was to identify new opportunities for business growth by ecosystem mapping, exploring strategic partnerships and business model generation.
OUTCOME
The workshops created a space for the team to map key resources, key players and partners of the studio, which led to the framing future goals.
We also focused on the Brand DNA of the studio – determining who they are, what they do and what drives them to do what they do. Writing down the core values and culture of the team helped bring out the personality of the studio.
Ecosystem Mapping
Using ecosystem mapping as a tool, we mapped the resource flows into and within the ecosystem of Todd Bracher Studio. Creating a visualization of the direct and indirect resources the studio engages with helped reveal constraints, bottlenecks, and underused sources.
By clearly highlighting the key players, we could easily pinpoint roles missing from their ecosystem. After identifying these challenges, we brainstormed about alternate resource strategies for the studio and new operating partnerships with potential complementary organizations.
CORE Business Model
Valentina Beltran, Business Development Lead and Design Strategist, was invited to talk to us about her CORE Business Model Strategy. CORE is a simple framework that helps a business address the complex challenge of sustainability by assessing and redesigning a business with a holistic perspective. The CORE strategy guided the team to see which areas of the business model canvas fall under customer value, revenue generation, operational ecology and engaging communities.
Value Proposition
She started with helping define the studio’s value proposition and higher purpose. Having a statement in place that communicates the studio’s business advantage, design process and philosophy is always challenging. However, a value proposition is very much at the core of communicating the studio’s strengths to potential clients.
Ideating. Mapping. Learning.
The purpose of this exercise was to understand, visualize and assess the business to see what aspects need to be redesigned or substituted to create maximum impact for the studio. In order to get a more comprehensive understanding of the advantages, opportunities and challenges that the studio currently faces, we used a chart to plot out all the key areas we identified.
Future Goals
While ideating key players in the studio’s business development - partnerships, advisors and referrals – we identified untapped resources that could potentially lead to new ventures. The studio’s future goals were all aligned with increasing their value as a design leader across industries and moving into adjacent spaces.
