What comes next? Case writing, interviews, looking towards REMODEL 2.0

With having completed the 7-week REMODEL design sprint where 10 Danish manufacturing companies used meticulously crafted design tools to explore new open source-based business models, it is now time to parse the massive dataset of observations, learnings as well as feedback from companies, mentors and experts that we have accumulated over the course of the program. The goal: To give clear insights on how any manufacturing/hardware business can go open source.
 
In the Danish Design Centre, our work model is based on deriving learnings and insights from hands-on experiments with businesses in the market across all industries. When doing so we not only help facilitate the innovation journey of companies through the use of design, but also meticulously collect data throughout the process via in-field observations, in-depth anthropologic interviews and detailed survey systems from all stakeholders (in this case both the companies and the expert panel mentors that we have had the honor and pleasure of having with us in the REMODEL program).
 

A potent cocktail of business innovation potential

All these systematic efforts and measures coupled with the market expertise of 10 leading Danish innovation companies and the brain trust and cutting-edge knowledge of open source business mechanisms embedded in the expert panel makes up an extremely potent cocktail of business innovation potential. This massive data trove of the REMODEL program is what we are currently condensing and analysing in order to identify with highest amount of clarity the most poignant and enlightening learnings of how manufacturing/hardware companies can boost their business and innovation muscle by adopting open source principles in their business strategy.

The outputs of the program

Concretely we are now in the middle of crafting a series of outputs to convey learnings to companies and other potential adopters across Denmark and globally. These include:

1.     Writing business cases on all 10 companies that describe the economic rationale behind the radical new open source-based business models and strategies that the companies developed. These will also point towards the coming implementation of such strategies.

2.     Writing up articles that crystallize the learnings and explain in clear terms which revelations as well as pitfalls the companies encountered along the way, as well as which general conclusions towards building business strategy that they outline in combination.

3.     Editing video interviews into short videos with some of the most intriguing points made by the companies REMODEL-teams.

4.     Preparing the REMODEL Conference; a 1-day event taking place on October 9, 2018, in Copenhagen. The event will be open to the public and participants will be able to hear presentations from all 10 companies as well as keynote talks from expert panel members – and further engage in discussions (in various formats – workshops, interactive panels, and more). The goal is to have as many stakeholders (companies, academics, business developers) stand on the shoulders of our work and boost their own enterprise based thereon.

Open for re-use, re-appropriation and re-mixing

All materials will be published under one of the most open and liberal open licenses available, namely the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. This license encourages free sharing, remixing and repurposing of all the materials (including for commercial purposes) and we hope this will motivate much further work based on the work that we’ve done so far in collaboration with the companies and the global REMODEL Expert Panel.

Looking ahead: REMODEL 2.0?

Lastly, we are also currently discussing – both internally and with a wide range of potential external partners nationally and abroad – which next steps to take in order to continue to build on all these efforts. Our working title is “REMODEL 2.0” and while it is still not clear which way(s) we will take, we do know that whatever will come next will be a new iteration and not only replays the program we have already done, but instead aims for reaching a level higher and pushing the boundaries even further. If you have ideas, suggestions or comments for us to consider – or if you are curious to have a role yourself – please do get in touch with program lead Christian Villum on cvi@ddc.dk.

This article is part of a series about the REMODEL programme

Want to learn more about what the REMODEL programme is? Go here: About REMODEL 

Or curious to know which 10 innovative manufacturing companies are taking part?  Go here: 10 manufacturing companies are ready to experiment with open source

To get the grand overview of all writings about the REMODEL business experiments in open source manufacturing, go here: REMODEL