Design scholarship has long roots in tackling wicked problems and sustainability, yet less is known about how professional designers interact with sustainability issues in practice. Based on interviews with 104 designers in 101 organizations in Finland, this study compares designer perceptions on the role of design in advancing sustainability. We identify six common roles, each with various foci on different design maturity levels in organisations. The findings support managers and designers in understanding which capabilities might be needed in advancing the role of design and sustainability.

Design thinking has a prominent role as established corporations ramp up innovation efforts focusing on user needs. Current literature provides a plethora of definitions for design thinking with variations in tools, methods and cultures. This study aims to identify differences in perception and maturity of design thinking across different contexts within a large corporation. The results are based on a thematic analysis of nine semi-structured interviews with industrial and user experience designers in the case company, operating in different countries and three different organizational contexts: lone designers of a region, unit-embedded design team managers and global-level design managers. The results echo the literature in finding no uniform definition of design thinking. Instead, it was seen as a continuous scale of practices, cognitive approaches and mindsets aiming for stronger user-centrism in the organization. Practices and maturity varied between contexts, indicating that to strengthen the role of design in an organization, a deep understanding of the context is crucial for a successful implementation.