Service Design Systems Thinking Enterprise Strategy

BMW North America x SCAD Pro: an Innovation Strategy Blueprint

A multidisciplinary studio project developing an innovation strategy blueprint for BMW Americas — diagnosing organizational friction points and designing a phased solution to strengthen how ideas move from employees into the business.

This project was completed under an NDA with BMW. The specifics of the proposed solution and internal research findings are confidential — this page shares the process, methods, and general shape of the work rather than the full deliverable.

Client: BMW North America (via SCAD Pro)
Team: 20-person multidisciplinary team, 10 countries
My role: Service Designer
Methods: Stakeholder mapping, service blueprinting, prototyping

01 — Overview

A studio-scale challenge, run like a consultancy

SCAD Pro pairs student teams with real companies to solve live business problems. For this engagement, a 20-person, multidisciplinary team spanning 10 countries worked with BMW North America to diagnose organizational and process inefficiencies affecting employee motivation and innovation output — and to design a solution projected to increase employee motivation by 50%+.

Team members presenting research findings during a workshop session — Working sessions throughout the engagement — synthesizing research and testing ideas with the wider team.

02 — Research

Grounding the work in BMW's actual position

Before proposing anything, the team built a shared picture of BMW's brand position, competitive landscape, and internal employee experience — synthesizing secondary research and internal sentiment into a set of working boards the whole team could build from.

Research synthesis boards: brand positioning, competitive landscape, and employee experience research.

Part of the research also mapped BMW's existing innovation programs — the internal ecosystem of initiatives already in place for employees to submit ideas, upskill, and connect with startups — to understand where a new solution would need to fit rather than compete.

Landscape analysis slide mapping BMW's existing innovation programs — Mapping BMW's existing innovation program landscape before proposing anything new.

03 — Stakeholder mapping

Tracking how the ecosystem shifts over three stages

The proposed solution was designed to roll out in stages rather than all at once. To keep the team aligned on what was changing and for whom, we mapped the stakeholder ecosystem at each stage — showing which existing programs and teams were newly touched as the solution matured.

Stakeholder map showing the baseline innovation ecosystem before the proposed solution — Baseline ecosystem

Stakeholder map showing Stage 1 new or affected components — Stage 1 — new and affected components

Stakeholder map showing Stage 2 new or affected components — Stage 2 — expanding reach

Stakeholder map showing Stage 3 new or affected components — Stage 3 — full ecosystem integration

04 — Service blueprints

Blueprinting each stage of the rollout

For each stage, we blueprinted the experience across user actions, touchpoints, and backstage support processes — making sure every new capability had a clear owner and a documented handoff, not just a nice diagram.

Stage 1 service blueprint highlights showing user actions, touchpoints, and backstage processes — Stage 1 blueprint highlights

Stage 2 service blueprint highlights — Stage 2 blueprint highlights

Stage 3 service blueprint highlights — Stage 3 blueprint highlights — moving ideas from acceleration into deployment.

05 — Outcome

Presenting to BMW's senior leadership

The team delivered high-fidelity prototypes and interactive wireframes as proof-of-concept, presenting the full strategy directly to BMW senior leadership stakeholders. The team secured stakeholder buy-in and approval to advance the prototype into its next project phase.

50%+

Projected increase in employee motivation from the proposed solution.

20 people

Multidisciplinary team spanning 10 countries.

3 stages

Phased rollout, each with its own stakeholder map and service blueprint.

Full project team at the final presentation for the BMW x SCAD Pro Innovation Strategy Blueprint — The full team at the final presentation of the BMW x SCAD Pro Innovation Strategy Blueprint.