The technological capabilities available to businesses today are becoming more and more diverse.
As businesses accelerate innovation to meet the demands of today’s market and future markets, they need to be strategic. The technology choices they make today will have far-reaching impact—more than they may realize.
Stack Strategically, named as one of the five top tech trends in Accenture’s Technology Vision 2021: Experts at Change at a Moment of Truth report, puts the spotlight on organizations’ ability to combine their business and technology strategies and to find and apply their most valuable combination of technologies to maximize competitive advantage and connect with their customers.
This creates limitless opportunities—for enterprises and for future leaders looking to hone their craft and advance their careers.
Stacking strategically for success
Take Drinkworks®—a design-driven, user-centric beverage-innovation company that designed, prototyped and launched the Home Bar, a new-to-the-world cocktail system, in only 18 months. Now that’s agility.
Formed as a joint venture between Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest beverage-alcohol company, and Keurig Dr Pepper, Drinkworks chose Accenture to partner with on product strategy and design, engineering and market launch.
With the perfect blend of strategy, technology and human ingenuity—in other words, “stacking strategically”—Drinkworks was able tap into a new market at record speed with a product and experience that reflected its brand values and that resonated with its customers.
Philip Leung, who designs and develops new connected products at Accenture, served as the project lead for Drinkworks. He led a team made up of industrial designers, user experience and interface designers, brand designers, mechanical engineers and go-to-market strategists.
“I had the opportunity to work on everything from design direction on the creative output through to technical oversight on interactions, touchpoints, usability and ergonomics, all while facilitating client output,” says Philip.
Drinkworks leveraged the best of Accenture’s capabilities and expertise across a range of specialties—from industrial design, branding and mechanical engineering to digital design, user experience and ecosystem and project strategy—to create a new design language and build a connected product.
Design with the human in mind
“Every day is new and different at Accenture. You may find me working with a client, contributing to design ideas, sketching and brainstorming, reviewing technical approaches, creating mockups and prototypes and even modeling a concept in computer-aided design (CAD),” says Philip.
“What I like most about working at Accenture is the people. With the diverse perspectives and varied levels of expertise, we can take on challenges of any size.”
Philip’s advice to those looking to build a career in product design and development?
“Be empathetic and design with the human in mind. Be iterative in the way you work, to understand, design, test and learn.”
By Philip Leung
About the author: Philip Leung is Industry X North America Industrial Design Lead, Boston.
This article originally appeared at https://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/blogs-careers/a-home-bar-with-a-perfect-blend-of-strategy-technology-and-ingenuity and is republished with permission.
