Spanning inter-organisational boundries Mirorring

Key insights:

• Designers who are part of multidisciplinary NPD teams have an additional contribution beyond the aims of design. The practice of designers spans complex boundaries in teams.
• The boundary spanning capability is conceptualised as 'mirroring': interpreting and translating what the team does into expressive representations of the product that are easily grasped by all involved. This enables others to cross-disciplinary reflect on their choices.
• Mirroring should be conceived as an ongoing process of redrafting what the product will be, rather than visualizing a concept that needs to be executed.
• The means deployed to visualize strongly shapes subsequent discussions, and thus one needs to be aware of the means deployed.
• Designers seem to be unaware of their mirroring capability. H owever, this may require a somewhat different approach to their work.