Our Why – Design Thinking Culture

Our Why is Your Success

Delivering long lasting impact through consistent innovation

At Alliance Systems, we define our success directly as the success of our clients. Delivering a project on time and on budget are just pieces of a larger equation. We care about multiple perspectives that go beyond tech and systems. While we commonly attract Startups and Manufacturing clients, we’re always excited to collaborate with companies across various disciplines.

Together, we hope to lead the way and deliver innovative solutions never thought possible.

How does Alliance Systems stay ahead of the curve and deliver consistent innovation?

Our DNA for problem solving is centered around an innovation framework called Design Thinking. Some of the most innovative and creative brands such as Apple, Google, GE and Samsung have been leveraging principles from this framework to deliver impact through their products and services.

Design Thinking is being taught at leading universities around the world including MIT, Harvard and Stanford. It’s popular, because it is effective and built around a designer work process that can help systematically extract, teach, and apply human-centered techniques to solve problems.

We Love Falling in Love with the Problem

What is Design Thinking?

The best way to define a theme for Design Thinking is to not immediately to try solving a problem, it is to genuinely fall in love with the problem. This angle of creative and deep thinking allows you to have intimate knowledge and root problems that need to be addressed.

A literal definition of Design Thinking can be described as an iterative process that challenges assumptions, while building empathy for the user and redefining problems to arrive at strategies and solutions that aren’t instantly apparent. This iterative process breaks down into three vantage points which provide a wholistic view to problem solving. These three vantage points are:

Design View

Places emphasis on making sure people desire and want to use the product or service.

Technology View

Ensures the solution is viable by selecting the right level and variation of technology.

Business View

Places priority on making sure the cost of operations are sustainable to deliver the product or service to the market.

Ultimately there is a deep interest in developing an understanding the people that will end up using the products and services that our clients have us develop. True empathy for users allows to to question and challenge all assumptions.

It's At Our Core

Design Thinking Concepts

While there are variants to phases used within Design Thinking, the core principles Alliance System uses can be seen through these five categories:

1.

Empathize - with your users, fall in love with the problem

2.

Define - your users needs, their problem, and team insights

3.

Ideate - challenge assumptions and create ideas for innovative solutions

4.

Prototype - start creating solutions quickly within and agile system and arrive at MVP (Minimal Viable Product) as quickly as possible

5.

Test - Reconcile solution against real users for iterative feedback

We Avoid Silos

The traditional digital design model is flawed.

Older approaches to designing and developing systems are flawed. Teams used to work in silos and project management was pre-planned to every detail. It is unfortunate, but many consulting firms and agencies still use these old methodologies. Clients have increased exposure to risk, increased costs through and after production, which lowers the percentage of success.

Our agile design process involves teams working together.

From day one, without silos, we work together so we can categorize and organize ideas and solve them across design, technology, and business vantage points. Remember, Design Thinking is essentially a problem-solving approach, which combines a holistic user-centered perspective with rational and analytical research.

The Alliance System team is well represented by designers, technologists, and business analysts that care for one thing; and that is the macrolevel success and impact our projects make on our clients end-users. Our passion for innovative problem solving is shared by everyone across all stages of our projects. It’s built into the DNA of our team and culture.

From Concept Through Post-MVP

Start Up Ecosystem

Alliance Systems thrives when it comes to working with startups. Our organization was born out of the same entrepreneurial spirit. We attract leaders of these organizations because of how we define success. We don’t define success as merely solving the technical challenges and delivering them on time and on budget. While these are critical factors, we understand the entrepreneurial challenges that go beyond the build. From operational costs to marketing and determining the right level of MVP (Minimal Viable Product) and conducting UX research throughout various phases to ensure end-user adoption.

What does this mean for startups?

We help you with your business model at a strategic level

We provide though leadership and practical know how

We understand the importance of sales & marketing

We can we connect people with experts and investors

These are all important factors that aid in building a successful and sustainable business. The team that cares about all these details goes well beyond a traditional vendor. In this regard, you can think of Alliance Systems as a strategic partner. Our executive team has founded various companies and has empathy for what it takes to become successful. Our philosophy of Design Thinking brings a wholistic approach with different vantage points which include design, technology and business models. All three vantage points are required to mitigate risk and launch successful products.

Another unique value we provide is that our Alliance brand brings together other offerings outside of our systems group. To learn more about these additional portfolio offerings, read more about the Alliance Brand.