Designmining™
Our name is also our method. Designmining is how we dig beneath the surface of a brief to find the real problem — then design, build, and refine a solution around it. Five phases, one accountable team, and you in the room the whole way through.
Real problems, not surface requests
We dig past the brief to the issue actually worth solving.
The right thing, built once
Aligning early means less rework, lower cost, and mitigated risk.
Working software, early
You react to something real each week, never a big-bang reveal.
Your team owns it
We hand over the knowledge to run it yourself or keep us on. No lock-in either way.
From buried problem to built-to-last.
Discover
We start by digging. Through workshops and stakeholder interviews, an audit of the systems, tools, and content you already have, and analysis of your own data, we build the personas and surface the real problem beneath the request, and we agree on the success metrics we'll measure against before any decision is made.
Define
We turn insight into a plan: the strategy, and the requirements to deliver it — both the technical ones and the non-functional ones like security, accessibility, and data privacy such as FERPA. Where it fits, we map the AI opportunities worth pursuing. We research and vet vendors, make the build-versus-buy call with you, and agree on the destination and scope before anyone builds.
Design
We shape the experience: interface; brand; and interaction; prototype it, and validate it with real users. Complex systems become something people navigate with confidence, on a design system that carries across apps, presentations, and every other asset.
Build
Design and engineering advance together in short cycles. We implement the platform, build custom workflows that match how your team actually works, and integrate AI where it earns its place: engineered for speed, accessibility, and maintainability, with working software you can react to every week.
Refine
Launch is a milestone, not the finish line. We test and QA, then pilot with a small group before full rollout, and handle data cleanup and migration: mapping; cleaning; and a rollback plan; so nothing is lost in the move.
Then we drive adoption: change management to win buy-in and work through resistance, and onboarding tailored by tier: admins, content creators, and end users. We hand over internal and external documentation, make clear who owns support and maintenance after handoff, and measure adoption against the metrics we set in Discover, refining from there.
Desirable, viable, and feasible by design.
Every phase weighs three questions at once: is it desirable for the people who'll use it, viable for your organization, and feasible to build and maintain? Holding all three together is how we avoid the two classic failures: beautiful things nobody adopts, and clever things nobody can sustain.
Designmining works on a one-hour whiteboard problem and on a year-long platform build alike. It's deliberately lightweight where it can be and rigorous where it counts, so you get momentum without gambling on a big reveal at the end. And across all five phases we plan the timeline, phase the work, and manage risk, so even a large, multi-stage program stays predictable rather than becoming a leap of faith.
Ready to put Designmining to work?
Tell us the problem you're facing. We'll come back within one business day with how the first phase would look for you.