Product Design, UX & Strategy FAQsTEAMS Design

TEAMS Design is an international design company specializing in product design, digital design and strategic design. We work with companies to turn ideas, technologies and business challenges into physical products, digital experiences and scalable systems. Founded in 1956, TEAMS today brings together multidisciplinary expertise across five global studios and works with clients across a wide range of industries.

TEAMS designs physical products, digital experiences and strategic frameworks from early exploration through implementation. Our capabilities include product and industrial design, design engineering, UX research, digital product and HMI design, strategic design, AI-powered design, prototyping, CGI and circular innovation. The goal is not design for its own sake, but better products, clearer experiences and stronger business outcomes.

TEAMS combines both. We have the hands-on creative and development capabilities of a design agency with the strategic perspective of a consultancy. Depending on the challenge, we can design an individual product, build a digital experience, develop a design language or work with leadership on broader portfolio and innovation questions. This combination allows strategy and implementation to inform each other rather than live in separate phases.

TEAMS combines deep physical product expertise with digital design, strategy, engineering and research. We are particularly experienced in complex environments such as B2B, industrial equipment, safety and MedTech, where usability, technology, brand and business requirements need to work together. Our global studio network also lets us combine international experience with regional user and market understanding.

TEAMS has been designing products and experiences since 1956. Over 70 years, our work has evolved from industrial product design into a multidisciplinary practice spanning physical products, digital experiences, strategy and emerging technologies. That history includes long-term relationships with international companies and more than 1,500 design awards across our work with clients.

TEAMS has five studios in Stuttgart, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Chicago and Shanghai. This network allows multidisciplinary teams to work across Europe, North America and Asia while bringing local market and user perspectives into global projects. TEAMS currently brings together more than 100 employees from over 20 nationalities.

The earlier design is involved in important product decisions, the more it can influence the outcome. TEAMS can support companies when exploring a new opportunity, defining a product, improving an existing experience, creating a product platform or aligning a broader portfolio. We also join projects later when an outside perspective is needed to resolve usability, differentiation, engineering or implementation challenges.

A project usually starts by understanding the challenge, the business context and the people the solution needs to serve. Together, we clarify objectives, stakeholders, existing knowledge and open questions before defining an appropriate scope. Depending on the challenge, this may include an initial briefing or strategic workshop followed by research, concept development, prototyping and implementation.

You do not need a finished brief before speaking with TEAMS. It helps to share what you already know: the business challenge, target users, existing products or technology, timing, relevant stakeholders and what success would look like. Open questions are equally useful. Part of our role is helping turn an unclear or complex starting point into a focused design challenge and a realistic path forward.

The scope is built around the decisions the project needs to enable and the outcome it needs to create. Together, we look at objectives, users, technical constraints, stakeholders, existing research and the maturity of the product or idea. From there, the project can be structured around the right combination of research, strategy, design, engineering, prototyping and implementation rather than applying the same process to every challenge.

Project pricing depends on the scope, complexity, duration and expertise required. A focused design sprint has different requirements from a global research program or the development of a new product platform. Once the challenge and expected deliverables are understood, the project can be structured around the activities and team needed to reach the objective. For a specific estimate, the best starting point is an initial project discussion.

Yes. TEAMS regularly works collaboratively with client-side designers, engineers, product teams, researchers and business stakeholders. External design does not have to replace internal expertise. It can add specialist capabilities, an outside perspective, additional capacity or experience from other industries. Our integrated design approach is built around close collaboration between disciplines and stakeholders throughout the project.

Yes. TEAMS can support product development from early opportunity framing and concept generation through industrial design, engineering, prototyping and implementation. Our work can begin before a product has been defined and continue until it is ready for production and market launch. The exact combination of capabilities depends on the challenge and the expertise already available within the client’s organization.

Product design is the process of turning user needs, technology, business requirements and brand values into products people can understand and use. It considers not only how a product looks, but how it functions, feels, is manufactured and fits into a broader experience. At TEAMS, product design connects concept development, industrial design, engineering and prototyping with strategic and user-centered thinking.

Industrial design focuses strongly on the form, function, usability, ergonomics and physical expression of manufactured products. Product design can describe a broader development process that also includes research, strategy, engineering, prototyping and the relationship between physical and digital experiences. At TEAMS, these disciplines overlap: industrial design is a core part of creating a successful physical product, but rarely works in isolation.

You do not need a finished brief before speaking with TEAMS. It helps to share what you already know: the business challenge, target users, existing products or technology, timing, relevant stakeholders and what success would look like. Open questions are equally useful. Part of our role is helping turn an unclear or complex starting point into a focused design challenge and a realistic path forward.

A product design consultancy helps companies turn opportunities and technologies into products that are useful, feasible, distinctive and commercially relevant. This can include user research, opportunity framing, concept development, industrial design, engineering, prototyping, platform development and support through implementation. The value of an external consultancy also comes from bringing perspectives and experience from other products, industries and markets into the development process.

Yes. TEAMS combines industrial design and design engineering within the product development process. Designers and engineers work together to balance user experience, brand expression, materials, manufacturing, technical feasibility and cost. This helps promising concepts survive the transition from a design idea into a product that can actually be produced and used in the real world.

Yes. TEAMS can support the complete journey from initial concepts through design development, engineering, prototyping and production-ready implementation. We bring design and technical development together early so that feasibility, manufacturing, usability and product expression develop together rather than being solved separately at the end.

Yes. Physical and digital prototyping are part of the TEAMS development process. Prototypes make ideas tangible early enough to test assumptions, evaluate usability, understand technical constraints and improve a concept before committing to full implementation. Depending on the project, prototypes can range from early exploratory models to detailed functional or digital prototypes.

TEAMS develops systems that create recognizable relationships across different products without making every product look identical. This can include product architecture, visual brand language, design principles, value differentiation and platform strategies. The aim is to give teams a framework that helps individual products express a coherent brand while responding appropriately to their category, technology, users and market position.

User research reveals what people actually do, need and struggle with in the situations where products are used. These insights can influence everything from ergonomics and workflows to features, interfaces, maintenance and product architecture. At TEAMS, research is used to inform design decisions rather than simply validate a finished concept, helping development teams focus resources on problems that matter in real use.

Yes. TEAMS designs digital products, interfaces and systems alongside physical products. Our digital capabilities include digital product strategy, interaction design, user interface and HMI design, prototyping and digital design systems. This allows us to work on products where hardware, software, interfaces and services need to function as one connected experience.

HMI stands for Human-Machine Interface. HMI design defines how people understand, control and receive information from machines, devices and complex systems. This can include screens, controls, feedback, information architecture and interaction flows. Good HMI design makes complex technology easier and safer to use by presenting the right information and actions clearly in the context where they are needed.

UX research investigates users, their goals, behaviors, environments and the challenges they encounter while interacting with products or services. At TEAMS, this can include user and stakeholder research, usability testing, prototyping and UX evaluation. Research findings are translated into design decisions that improve relevance, usability, adoption and real-world performance.

Yes. Usability testing and prototyping are part of the TEAMS UX Research & Design offering. Testing allows design teams to observe how people interact with a product or interface, identify confusion or friction and improve concepts before costly implementation decisions are locked in. Testing can support physical products, digital interfaces and connected product experiences.

Physical and digital experiences work best when hardware, interfaces, information and services are designed around the same user journey. TEAMS looks at these touchpoints as parts of one experience rather than separate design tasks. This systemic approach helps create consistency between what a product communicates physically, how an interface behaves and how users interact with the wider service or ecosystem around it.

TEAMS uses AI both as a design tool and as part of new products and experiences. Our work includes AI-powered design processes, AI-enabled experiences and custom AI solutions built around specific data and workflows. Applications can range from accelerating exploration and prototyping to intelligent interfaces, adaptive experiences and tailored AI tools that support product development and decision-making.

Yes. TEAMS develops digital design systems that create consistency across products, interfaces and teams. A design system can define reusable components, interaction patterns, principles and standards that help designers and developers create coherent experiences more efficiently. For large organizations and complex product ecosystems, it can also provide the governance needed to maintain quality while digital products continue to evolve.

Strategic design applies design thinking and design expertise to decisions that go beyond a single product. It helps organizations understand opportunities, define direction and connect user needs, market conditions, technology and brand ambitions. At TEAMS, strategic design can include corporate creative strategy, visual brand language, innovation strategy, design analysis and design advisory.

Strategic design translates broad business ambitions into principles and decisions that can guide actual products and experiences. It can help clarify where to compete, which user needs matter, how a brand should be expressed and where investment should be focused. This creates a bridge between leadership-level objectives and the teams responsible for developing products, interfaces and services.

Yes. Developing visual brand languages is part of TEAMS’ strategic and product design expertise. A visual product language translates brand values into recognizable principles for form, proportion, details, materials, color and interaction. It can help create coherence across different product categories and generations while providing design teams with enough flexibility to respond to changing technologies, users and markets.

Yes. TEAMS uses strategic design to identify opportunities, frame future directions and translate them into actionable product and experience concepts. Innovation strategy can combine market, user, technology and business perspectives to decide where design can create meaningful differentiation. The result should not be innovation for its own sake, but a clearer direction for investment, development and implementation.

Design can create the principles that connect individual products into a coherent portfolio. Product platforms, visual brand languages and design systems can define what should remain consistent, where differentiation is needed and how new products fit into the wider family. This helps companies strengthen recognition, reduce unnecessary complexity and make future design decisions against a shared framework rather than starting from zero each time.

Yes. TEAMS develops digital design systems that create consistency across products, interfaces and teams. A design system can define reusable components, interaction patterns, principles and standards that help designers and developers create coherent experiences more efficiently. For large organizations and complex product ecosystems, it can also provide the governance needed to maintain quality while digital products continue to evolve.

TEAMS works across eight broad industry areas: Medical & Healthcare, Transportation & Mobility, Capital Goods, Professional Equipment, Consumer Goods & Electronics, Building & Infrastructure, Sports & Leisure and the Digital Economy. Our portfolio includes work for international brands such as Bosch, Kärcher, Dräger, Siemens Healthineers, GEA and many others. Cross-industry experience allows ideas and approaches from one field to create new perspectives in another.

Yes. TEAMS is part of Kearney and works closely with Kearney’s Product Excellence and Renewal Lab, or PERLab. TEAMS and PERLab have collaborated for more than a decade, combining design expertise with broader product, business and operational perspectives. This allows projects to connect questions of user experience, product design and innovation with issues such as portfolio strategy, product economics and transformation when the challenge requires it.