Making sense of flying: Designers give sense to the aviation manufacturing industry

This article aims to extend the body of knowledge on Sensemaking as a capability for organizational and strategic change by investigating how design methods could support Sensemaking activities. In order to investigate how design methods can consciously influence Sensemaking activities and how this supports an organization, the case of a large aviation industry manufacturer is taken into consideration. The company under investigation is dealing with implementing their newly established strategy to its everyday work and product innovation practices moving towards service enabling systems. This strategy has been chosen as industry is forced to find new drivers such as passenger experience to gain competitive advantage. As a consequence, manufacturers must also change strategy to support airlines in achieving their goals. Sensemaking is an essential mechanism that manufacturers use to understand the service goals of airlines.

Sensemaking is defined as the process of cognitively organizing the unknown in order to give it meaning and to be able to act on it. In three separate moments of the innovation process, each taking place in a different project, design methods were used to explore their ability to support the manufacturer in Sensemaking activities.