Transformation By Design: Infrastructuring A New Organisational Logic In A Fashion Organisation

Transformation and design have been related from multiple perspectives, whether from strategic standpoints or more tactical ones: strategic design, transformation design, and service design have all been associated with community and organisational transformation. In a context where product-centred organisations face many challenges that require transformation, this relationship gains special relevance. In the particular case of fashion retail, the initial ages of e-commerce brought about the need for digital transformation; right now, it is important to assume and enact a new logic to future-proof businesses in the face of the most recent challenges. This can be achieved by a new logic that shifts the focus of the organisations from themselves as product creators and places it on the relationships between actors, especially considering the main beneficiaries (their customers, and potential customer) who are the real value determiners.

This PhD research is being developed at Mango, an international fashion retailer undergoing a transformation process. This transformation effort is enacted in a longitudinal initiative called “Customer Centric”, which reflects and acts upon the existing practices, by establishing new ones, as well as tools that support the former.

This research intends to contribute to design knowledge by introducing the infrastructuring concept as a valid construct to interpret and analyse the strategic design work being done at Mango. It suggests that designers can benefit from placing their focus beyond methods and tools, considering the hidden infrastructures and the way the new ones accrete on existing socio-technical systems. This requires them to assume the performativity, connectedness and multidimensional nature of their work and calls for them to acquire new socio-political navigation skills. This ongoing effort means they need to constantly set the conditions for design work to occur.

When it comes to more tangible outcomes, any deterministic model or tool must be discarded. In this sense, a potential outcome is a set of strategic design principles for transformation through infrastructuring, and a potential toolset to visualise and guide informal relationships.