The Enterprise Design Facet Model

Enterprise Design approach is based on the Facet Model, which consists of three facets and their intersections.

These facets exist in all enterprises. They are characteristics and qualities, that enterprises have by their nature, no matter of the size, no matter if they are intentionally designed or not. The facets represent the perspectives, the viewpoints, from which an enterprise can be observed.

The facets are:

Identity – why do we[1] and our enterprise exist, what motivates and drives us?
Experience – what people[2] need, feel and want to get done with our help?
Architecture – how and with what we are running our enterprise?

The intersections[3] are:

Organisation – how are we organized ourselves?
Brand – what is the reputation and image we provide?
Product – what do we make and offer?

The Facet Model scales to different levels within an enterprise [4].

[1] ‘We are the people’, so it is all about us. We are the people who make the enterprise happen. Human-centrism is the fundamental characteristic of the Enterprise Design with EDGY. [2] People refer to customers, employees, partners, owners, investors, and other stakeholder groups that are interested in or influenced by the enterprise. [3] Intersections connect the facets. Intersections are shared between adjacent facets. So the suggestion is: when observing a facet, two intersections on the edges are to be observed too. The facets are interconnected via the intersections. [4] Scaling. An enterprise is fractal. These same characteristics, the facets, exist and appear, not only in the enterprise itself but also in all its parts. E.g. in an organization unit, in a capability, or in a product-/service area etc. These same facets and their intersections can be seen in each and every design challenge, no matter the size and scope (e.g. large business transformation program, program/project, concept etc.).

The facets represent the perspectives, the viewpoints, from which an enterprise can be observed.

Facets – the perspectives

Facets are the perspectives which altogether cover the whole enterprise. Faces are the lenses, through which we can zoom into details. When we change the perspective from one facet to another, and then we can observe other aspects and possible interconnections to other elements.

Identity

Identity[5] defines what is going on in and around the enterprise. It defines what is the mission and purpose of the enterprise, what is story and goals, and beliefs and values. Identity motivates people and drives the enterprise and all its change activities. Identity is the fundamental, if not crucial, reason for being.

Identity is covering existential matters and questions: why something exists, where it comes from, where it is now, and where it is going. Identity covers the past, the present and the future of the enterprise.

The values and beliefs enterprises exhibit through their messages and actions. [3]

Experience

Experience defines people’s tasks and journeys, and with which channels they interact with the products and/or services of the enterprise. The tasks define what people are doing: what are their needs, what are the jobs to be done, and what they want to achieve. Through journeys it is possible to define what are the activities, and the steps they are taking when they are achieving their tasks.

Experience is a personal view of the enterprise, which is observed from a person’s perspective, focusing on the value created for people. Experience is supported by architecture, which is needed to create products and services, which are supporting people’s tasks in their journeys.

The impact through interactions the enterprise has on people and their lives. [3]

Architecture

Architecture[6] defines how the enterprise operates. How are all the parts working together in the enterprise and around it. With architecture, the enterprise is capable of producing outcomes. This is performed by processes and assets they are using, those of which together form the capabilities of the enterprise.

Architecture realises the products and/or services of the enterprise. With architecture, the enterprise delivers its products and/or services – on promises.

The structures needed to make an enterprise operate and connect to the ecosystem. [3]

[5] Identity covers existential matters and questions: why does something exist in the first place, where it comes from, where it is now, and where it is going? Why we do what we do? Identity defines the purpose of an entity. And, identity covers the past, the present and the future of an entity. Every entity has an identity, or identification, characteristics of the purpose, and reason for being, doesn’t it? Person, organization, system, product… Identity comes to life in culture. [6] Architecture in this context, refers to business architecture, to enterprise’s operations: how it works, how the business runs in processes etc. The ‘real’ construction architecture of designing buildings is not the focus area. However, the architecture ‘house’ icon symbolizes how the enterprise is structured and constructed. The Facet Model can be applied to all kinds of architectures.

Intersections – where the perspectives overlap

With the intersections, the facets overlap and are interconnected. The intersections make the Facet Model complete, a coherent whole, by connecting the dots – the elements of the enterprise. With the help of the Facet Model, the enterprise can be seen as a system, in which the elements are interconnected with each other, directly or indirectly. This makes it possible to explore and analyse cause and effects, how a change in an element in one facet affects other elements in other facets via intersections.

Organisation

Organisation structure is needed so that an enterprise can perform its activities that are needed for business operations, and for realizing the products and services for serving the customers. Organisation structure defines how people are organized in units, groups or teams etc. So organization defines how people communicate and interact with each other, and how the work and responsibilities are shared between the people.

Organisation structure defines how people are organised to perform the activities of the enterprise.

Product

Products and services are what the enterprise makes and provides to people. Products and/or services are the results of the work of the employees, those of which comprise the organization of the enterprise. Products and/or services appear in people’s lives, as they go on their journeys when doing their tasks. Products and/or services are realized (delivered) by the architecture. It can be said the products and/or services are the reason why the architecture is needed in the first place.

Why do we need products and services? Customers have tasks to do, they have needs. Products and services are what they can use when doing their tasks. Products and services are what an enterprise provides for people’s benefit. Products and services are important because they concretize what an enterprise offers: what is the value added for customers (customer value) and value for business owners and investors (business value).

Products and services are what the enterprise makes, offers and delivers for people’s benefit.

Brand

The brand represents the identity of the enterprise internally and externally in the business environment. Brand reflects the organization’s identity in the experiences of people, in and around the enterprise. Brand is an ‘actor’ in people’s lives. It manifests the story of the enterprise and makes its identity visible. The brand is the first impression we get when we see or hear the name of the enterprise or some of its products or services. The brand is the ‘face of the enterprise’ or ‘fingerprint’ with which we can identify the enterprise.

Brand reflects the identity of an enterprise as it is perceived in people’s experience.

Using the Facet Model

Design Challenges

An enterprise is constantly changing. Everything moves, everything changes, all the time. Conditions in the business environment are continuously changing, which requires infinite intervention: change activities by managers and mandated change agents (e.g. enterprise designers):

Enterprise Design approach with the Facet Model tackles any design challenges[7] from strategic challenges to operational change challenges. This helps enterprises of all sizes to innovate and transform. The Facet Model can be used as a tool in any kind of design challenges, problems to be solved, business transformations of any kind, size and scope etc. The Facet Model can be used for asking fundamental questions: why the enterprise exists, what is its role in people’s lives and how it is working.

The Facet Model supports enterprise innovation and transformation design of all kinds.

Enterprise Design covers change activities such as co-design and reframing design challenges. The EDGY Facet Model helps people to ask questions when reframing in co-designing, as shown in the figure below.

[7] A design challenge is any need for change that can be initiated or triggered by any event or changed condition in the environment of the enterprise. E.g. change demand, change initiative, concept design, problem solving, innovation planning, business transformation of any size and scope etc. A design challenge, instead, can cover any aspect of the enterprise. It can concern new business ideas or innovations, or problematic matters (e.g. complexity or inefficiency business operations,) as well. In all the cases, the Facet Model can be used for reframing the challenge and asking questions in different perspectives, which helps enterprise designers to find better solutions.

Asking Questions, Considering & Thinking Differently

Reframing – Perspective Switching

Reframing means changing the perspectives and thinking holistically to clarify what needs to be done and why. The Facet Model can be used for reframing, thinking differently from different perspective. The perspectives refer to facets Identity, Experience and Architecture.

The Facet Model can be used for asking questions from different perspectives, to analysing and finding alternative designs & solutions for creating better outcomes. The facets answer to questions why, what and how things are happening in the enterprise.

Any of these perspectives be taken as a starting point, depending on the case of the initial design challenge. A challenge is what has been given to be designed.

Design Challenge is a certain matter or issue to be resolved. It can be anything from the strategic level to the operational level. For example, to “design a new digital-first strategy based on a vision”, or “define strategic goals and course of actions for business transformation”, or “plan product portfolio roadmap for digitalization”, or “consolidate complex application landscape for digital transformation” etc.

Reframing encourages co-designers to think of other aspects instead of only considering the most obvious perspective. Typically, we tend to think of the most obvious solution first [8]. However, reframing enables us to think of other ways to solve the problem. We can challenge ourselves e.g. by using the how might we (HMW) -technique to find alternative opportunities to think and do things differently.

Holistic thinking. Reframing with the help of the Facet Model makes it possible to see the whole enterprise at once, and change the perspective for exploring the adjacent facets and/or intersections. The Facet Model enlarges and feeds our inspirations for thinking holistically out of the box. The perspectives can be used in any order, according to what is appropriate in the case of the design challenge. With the Facet Model, we can change the thinking from the enterprise level (Identity, Architecture) to the personal level (Experience). The Facet Model helps co-designers ask the right questions to get the best insight. Such deeper questions help co-designers find the fundamental reasons and root causes behind the design challenges, which in turn leads to better designs. The Facet Model is the best available tool for reframing.

Reframing is looking at a challenge from different perspectives and thinking holistically.

All the perspectives of different disciplines are relevant but restricted. All the perspectives are meaningful but have limited scope. Some may focus on costs, human resources and money, some may focus on customer insight and -experience, whereas others may focus on business insight, organizational structures, employee experience, or operations etc. However, all of those different perspectives and specialised frameworks of different disciplines are somewhat overlapping: they share the same elements but use specialized terminology. Reframing the design challenges with the EDGY Facet Model, helps co-designers to change perspectives, discuss, and find common, shared understanding.

“Everything can change if we change our perspective.”

[8] Obvious choices. It’s in human nature to take the most obvious, the straightest and shortest path first, because of the many biases we have, e.g. confirmation bias, anchoring bias etc. Biases are psychological mechanisms to make new things easier for ourselves, and for our mental models. Biases are natural, as our brains are ‘lazy’ by their default ‘factory settings’. Biases are obstacles to open, unprejudiced, and fresh thinking. In addition, we tend to jump straight to conclusions because we think we know enough. It is a good practice “not to suppose anything”. Don’t think about what needs to be done, instead, come and see and ask what is needed.

Changing perspectives from one to another

The relations between the elements help enterprise designers to catch the connections with adjacent facets or intersections.

The figures on this page introduce the elements and their relations per each facet. These facet-driven models can be used as starting points for all the modelling cases, and especially for reframing design challenges

Identity

When exploring the Identity elements, Purpose, Story and Content, it is useful to include Brand- and Organisation -elements in the picture too, for getting the most extensive overview.

Figure: Identity-related elements.

Experience

When exploring the Experience elements, Task, Journey and Channel, it is useful to include Brand- and Product -elements in the picture too, for getting the most extensive overview.

Figure: Experience-related elements.

Architecture

When exploring the Architecture elements, Capability, Process and Asset, it is useful to include Organisation- and Product -elements in the picture too, for getting the most extensive overview.

Figure: Architecture-related elements.

Reframing Design Challenges

When reframing by using the Facet Model, we can model a design challenge overview diagram. The perspective to be taken depends on the case. The positions of the elements can be changed according to the design challenge. Reframing can take advantage of the EDGY language’s feature for translating generic base elements into specialized faceted elements. This makes it easy to change the perspective, as there are corresponding elements for activities, objects and outcomes on each facet.

Figure: Reframing with the cornerstone elements.

Why reframing? Some reason causes the need for change in the enterprise. The reason for reframing can be e.g. an event that has occurred in the business environment, which has changed some conditions or circumstances. Such an occurrence can be either positive or negative in its effects. An occurrence can be e.g. or new innovative product or service, a new disruptive technology innovation, increased market share, or decreased customer satisfaction etc.

It is practical to formulate the need for change explicitly and exactly so that it can be concretised, implemented, coordinated, and measured. A good practice is to use a table format and/or diagram as shown below.

The initial brief of a challenge can concern certain structural objects, that represent the substance of the enterprise: Content, Channel or Asset. In addition, the initial brief can be concerning other structural objects, Organisation, Brand or Product too. Next, the related outcomes are identified, Purpose, Task or Capability, after which related intersections are analysed. And finally, the other perspectives can be covered when appropriate.

The following example patterns illustrate the paths from the initial brief to other perspectives.

Pattern Example 1: Reframing Identity to Experience and Architecture.

Given that a challenge is initially concerning the Identity perspective, formulated e.g. “create a vision for digital transformation”. Then reframing starts from the vision statement, which is modelled with the content element. That expresses the purpose, after which the perspective can be changed via intersections of Brand and Organisation to other perspectives a) to Experience with Tasks, and b) to Architecture with Capabilities. And finally, the offered products and/or services can be evaluated.

Figure: Reframing Identity to Experience and Architecture.

Pattern Example 2: Reframing Experience to Architecture and Identity.

Given that the challenge is related to the Experience perspective, the initial brief could be e.g. “design enterprise’s channel strategy for better customer experience”. Then reframing starts by identifying the channel(s), after which the tasks that customers are trying to achieve are evaluated. Then the perspective can be changed via intersections: a) Product(s) can be evaluated and then changed to the Architecture perspective to evaluate concerning capabilities; b) analyse the Brand and change to the Identity perspective and analyse the purpose(s) of the enterprise. Finally, the organizational structures can be analysed.

Figure: Reframing Experience to Architecture and Identity.

Pattern Example 3: Reframing Architecture to Identity and Experience.

Given that the challenge is covering the Architecture perspective, the initial design brief could be for example “consolidate complex legacy application landscape for digitalization”. Then reframing starts by identifying the application assets, from which we get into the capabilities that lead us to concerning products and organization structures. Then we can change the perspective via these intersections. We can a) analyse purpose(s) and change to the Identity perspective. And, we can b) evaluate the tasks and change to the Experience perspective. Finally, we can end up analysing the brand of the enterprise.