Top tips

Mark Delaney gives his top tips on how to use design to aid success in international markets

• Take a total-quality approach
  You have to consider every aspect of the customer experience, from how the customer discovers your product or service through to the purchasing process, the packaging and the after-sales service you offer. This total-quality approach will help ensure that your product is differentiated and create demand for it in overseas markets.
• Be a supportive client
  As the client you have a lot of expert knowledge to share and feed into the design process. The quality of briefing you give the design team and the effort you put into supporting them during the design process will be directly reflected in the end result.
• Involve designers as early as possible
  Get the designers involved in the product development right from the start. This way the research will feed directly into the design process and the designers can help steer it towards specific areas of interest.
• Conduct an ethnographic study
  Outstanding design calls for incredible insight and understanding of the user. Understanding people takes time but, if done correctly, the insights can create products that can break down many cultural barriers.