Design and meanings : innovating by making sense of things -- Radical pushes : placing design-driven innovation in the strategy of a firm -- Technology epiphanies : the interplay between technology-push and design-driven innovation -- The value and the challenges : why companies do or do not invest in design-driven innovation -- The interpreters : doing research with the design discourse -- Listening : finding and attracting key interpreters -- Interpreting : developing your own vision -- Addressing : leveraging the seductive power of the interpreters -- The design-driven lab : how to start -- Businesspeople : the key role of top executives and their culture.

With fascinating examples from leading European and American companies, Roberto Verganti shows that for truly breakthrough products and services, we must look beyond customers and users to those he calls 'interpreters' - the experts who deeply understand and shape the markets they work in.