Established in 2012, the CRCWSC is part of the Commonwealth Government’s Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) Programme. The program is essentially an Australian research centre that brings together many disciplines, world-renowned subject matter experts, and industry thought leaders who want to revolutionise urban water management in Australia and overseas. The purpose of the CRCWSC is to help change the way we design, build and manage our cities and towns by valuing the contribution water makes to economic development, our quality of life, and the ecosystems in which cities coexist. GHD is a proud participating partner of the CRC alongside three of Australia’s leading universities, key State government organisations and water corporations.
The Challenge
The CRCWSC has developed the Water Sensitive City Index - a common framework, process and online platform to engage and align urban water stakeholders committed to the advancement of Water Sensitive Cities on a local, national and global scale. The CRCWSC needed assistance to define the competitive landscape, potential customers, potential partners and the business model to scale the offering within Australia and globally.
This is an important challenge in Australia as "the conversion of research and design activities into commercial outcomes is relatively low" (Australia’s National Science Statement, 2017).
The Solution
To assist the CRCWSC, GHD introduced a “Design to Scale” Framework based on the principles of design-led innovation, design thinking and agile product development. The framework provided a roadmap to progress from customer, solution and value discovery through to enterprise design, allowing for iterations and feedback loops to inform and improve the design. GHD’s research and analysis focused on the initial stages of the framework to discover customer needs and expectations in relation to the market offering. The customer research helped define the value proposition to each customer segment, which was incorporated in a scalable business model to sustainably deliver value to the Australian and global market.
The Benefit
CRCWSC now has a fresh perspective and deep insight into customer needs and expectations. The project outputs were incorporated into a preliminary business model that could compete globally and sustainably deliver value at scale. This was accomplished with a "client in the loop delivery" ensuring key project stakeholders were across insights, assumptions and opportunities as they came to hand.