Become an innovative business with DFM

Transformation. By design.

The future is an object of design. Through evidence-based insights, design thinking and transdisciplinary collaboration, Swinburne Design Factory Melbourne (DFM) will work with you and your team to develop the transformation roadmap that will help you achieve your organisational objectives.

DFM has the academic expertise, applied research and pragmatic, real-world experience to help your organisation through these journeys:

strategic transformation to enable relevance
business transformation to fuel market competitiveness
cultural engagement to activate innovation and fortify engagement.

Why work with Design Factory Melbourne?

New thinking

Gain a different perspectives and creative fresh outlooks on your projects.

R&D exploration

Deep-dive into design-led research and diverse human centred methodologies.

Front door to Swinburne’s expertise

Access the university’s cutting-edge facilities, experts and global best practice.

Build capability

Discover new ways of working and doing – and bring this to your company.

Unleash the creative capacity in your people

Discover programs tailored to address the shifting expectations across three workforce cohorts – from entry level employees to mid-level emerging leaders, to seasoned professionals preparing to transition their career.

Every engagement is built on the power of experiential learning, offering both face-to-face as well as online – depending on your specific learning objective. The features of our programs include:

theory reinforced by relevant practice
a customised Tool Time Playbook to capture ongoing learning and provide a reference during and after the course
a certificate of participation from Swinburne University of Technology upon completion

DFM will also conduct a pre- and post-participant assessment to evaluate whether your organisation’s strategic intent was achieved.

STEAM Camp

Designed for entry to mid-level employees

Duration

7 hours

Delivery

Face-to-face

Class size

12 to 24 participants

Summary

The greatest defensive play against uncertainty is creativity. Organisations stay ahead of the game when employees know how to think and work within a culture of ideation and experimentation that leads to breakthrough products, innovative services, pragmatic processes and coherent strategy.

Organisations that unlock the creativity in their people unleash possibility. They future-proof themselves against disruption, while establishing an engaged workforce capable of driving sustainable growth. Therefore, creativity is not an optional skill – it’s critical part of employability.

STEAM Camp will equip participants with both hard and soft skills, making them adaptable to diverse roles in the 21st-century workforce. As employers prioritise creativity and collaboration alongside technical expertise, they will begin investing in their own competitive advantage.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) are the cornerstones of our modern economic landscape. However, without Agile, Adaptable, Ambidextrous thinking, an organisation will never reach its full potential.

STEAM Camp is an introduction into the artistry and discipline of applied creativity. This full day experiential learning session will focus on a client-specific problem to be defined, refined and reframed in a highly interactive, collaborative environment.

Transformed by Design

Designed for emerging leaders

Duration

5 to 9 weeks

Delivery

Face-to-face

Class size

9 participants

Summary

Created for high-potential teams, this program is a pragmatic, applied learning series that won’t teach what to think. Instead, it will demonstrate how to think – how to problem find, define, refine and solve by leveraging the disciplines of dialogue and design methodologies to turbo-charge critical thinking, navigate critical conversations and improve decision making.

Organisations operate in dynamic environments where stakeholder preferences, technologies, economic conditions constantly evolve. Yet, there’s always room to improve.

Strategic transformation enables relevance. Business transformation fuels market competitiveness. Cultural transformation activates innovation and fortifies engagement.

Everything can be transformed for the better by design, including in situations where you are trying to:

adapt to volatile markets
meet capricious customer demands
enhance efficiency
accelerate productivity
cultivate innovation
unlock creativity and agility
embed a purpose-led culture
improve a system, policy, procedure or performance.

Peripheral Wisdom

Designed for employees in their 50s and 60s transitioning to the next stage

Duration

2.5 days

Delivery

Face-to-face

Class size

12 to 15 participants

Summary

Far too often, senior staff that have given their best to an organisation are left to fend for themselves in their later years of employment. What could be an invaluable workforce investment is simply left to chance. The opportunity to enhance intergenerational culture goes unrealised.

By offering these employees a pathway forward, leaders can demonstrate commitment to purpose-led wellbeing, as well as foster loyalty and trust across the organisation. So rather than expecting your most experienced talent to step towards retirement with precious little guidance, leaders now have a better alternative.

Peripheral Wisdom celebrates the experience and discernment earned over time while exploring the edges of future possibilities. Given we regard the future as an object of design, this program will:

leverage critical thinking methodologies to improve decision-making
engage in experiential learning to establish clear objectives
conduct collegial conversations to fuel creative reflection.

This program will align your organisation’s values by promoting holistic employee development and supporting diversity in career transitions. Peripheral Wisdom’s overall goal is to celebrate the skills and tenured experience of one of the most underutilised talent pools in most organisations, while setting them on a meaningful path after their full-time role draws to a close.

Working with enterprise leaders ready to make an impact

Leveraging a transdisciplinary, inter-generational, applied research approach, we design, develop and deliver discrete client-led products and services.

Innovation as an Asset Audit^TM

Working in concert with Swinburne Innovation Studio, DFM is uniquely positioned to conduct a comprehensive assessment of your organisation’s innovation capabilities and performance, then provide practical recommendations on how to unlock top-line growth.

Design to Innovate Lab^TM

We leverage over 10 years of global lab-centric experience to guide you in creating your own internal innovation environment and design-led capability within your organisation.

Designed to Disrupt Make-shop^TM

This is not your average ‘workshop’ facilitation. DFM specialises in the practice of opportunity scoping, problem framing, stakeholder understanding, and innovation sprints, integrating evidence-based research to deliver useful, usable insights that inform strategic decision-making.

“DFM were very clear in ensuring that they knew exactly what business problems we were trying to solve. They were super-efficient and great communicators in terms of relating to us what was the next step they felt we should take as an organisation.”

Grainne Oates , Quitch Founder