Design-driven development: How Norway's best companies grow
What characterizes the fastest-growing Norwegian companies? DOGA and NoA Ignite asked 16 executives at companies like Vipps, reMarkable, and Cognite, and identified four things they all do. We recognize them from nearly 30 years in the industry.
32 percent faster growth. 56 percent higher profitability. These aren't random numbers; they are what McKinsey found when they analyzed 300 companies globally over five years to understand what design-driven businesses achieve compared to those that don't work this way.
DOGA and NoA Ignite recently published the study Design as a growth driver, based on in-depth interviews with 16 executives at some of Norway's most exciting growth companies, from Vipps and reMarkable to Oda and Cognite.
The findings are clear: those that grow the most work in a design-driven way. Not as a phase in a project, but as a fundamental way of thinking and leading. At Increo, we have worked this way since 1997.
Norway's best growth companies are design-driven. It’s not a coincidence, and it’s not reserved for startups. DOGA and NoA Ignite have documented it. Increo has practiced it since 1997.
Four things the best do differently
The study points to four characteristics of how growth companies work with design in practice. We see them in almost every project we deliver.
- They start with the users, not the solution. The best companies spend time understanding needs before they start building. It sounds obvious, but it is surprisingly rare in practice. At Increo, we call it listening before we draw. We map, interview, and observe before we present a single concept
- They work cross-functionally from day one. The study concludes that design is no longer just a delivery skill; it is a leadership skill. This means that designers, developers, and business advisors must sit around the same table, rather than passing a baton to one another. This is how Increo is organized. A project with us is not led by one department that then passes the work on, but by a cross-functional team that owns the whole together.
- They test early and adjust along the way. The growth companies in the study aren't afraid to launch something incomplete. They are afraid of spending months building the wrong thing. The iterative principle is about building to learn, and learning to build correctly. We have design sprints as one of our core services precisely because we believe in this: four days of concentrated collaboration provide better answers than four months of planning meetings.
- They think holistically, not in silos. Brand, product, and user experience are not three separate projects. The best companies understand that everything is connected, and that a weak link between them costs them customers and trust.
What happens when it actually works
An example of this that we have worked on is AtB, Trøndelag’s public transport company, on developing two concepts for the future of public transport. The challenge was that a design process that would normally take two years had to be completed in one month. Two concepts, two weeks for each.
We chose design sprints as our method. The first round yielded a strong result, but what happened in the subsequent iteration round truly demonstrated the value of working this way. Brand new test users clicked through the prototype in half the time it took the first time. Not because we had made major, dramatic changes, but because we had listened carefully to what was causing friction and made precise adjustments.
One of the solutions was an integrated ride-sharing app for people in rural areas without access to buses, which went straight from prototype to pilot project that same autumn.
That is what happens when you work in a user-centric, interdisciplinary, iterative, and holistic way. Not one principle at a time, but all four, in parallel.
AI doesn’t change what we do – it changes how fast we learn
A natural question in 2026 is how artificial intelligence fits into a design-driven way of working. The answer is: very well. AI tools like Midjourney and Figma AI make it possible to generate visual concepts in hours instead of days, while tools like Maze and Dovetail help us analyze user tests faster than ever before.
This doesn’t mean we skip the four principles, but it does mean we can iterate through them faster. We still listen first. We still test early. But the distance between insight and prototype is shrinking, which leaves more time for what actually separates great solutions from mediocre ones: understanding the people we are designing for.
What does this mean for your business?
The study is created for and about startups and growth companies. But the principles are universal. We see them being just as crucial in established public organizations, in traditional industries, and in companies that have existed for a long time and are now facing digital competition they aren't used to.
The question is not whether design-driven development works. We know that now. The question is whether your organization is set up to work this way, and whether you have the right partners around you when you are ready to get started.
We would love to have a chat about where you are and what the next step could be.
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