MA Design Management students at Birmingham City University delivered an impressive showcase of design-led innovation at the annual Dragon’s Den–style pitch, created in partnership with Made Smarter Innovation – Centre for People-Led Digitalisation.
This live industry brief is part of their module Design Strategy and Innovation led by Dr. Mersha Aftab. The modules' learning and teaching enable students to respond to real organisational challenges through creativity, research, and design-led strategy. This year’s brief focused on dignity as a driver for people-led digital transformation, a theme increasingly relevant as organisations seek to balance technological change with employee wellbeing and cultural resilience.
To our delight, the 2025 edition of Dragon’s Den featured three creative teams that used design thinking to propose new applications for the Dignity at Work Cards developed by Dr. Karen Lancaster, University of Nottingham, delivering visually engaging, research-informed presentations. Their work demonstrated the power of design to bring dignity, visibility, and humanity into organisational systems.
Team 1 with Dahyun Kim, Shirin Senaie, and Lihn Chi Nyugen, won the best idea award for their dignity-led Product-Service System Canvas, which tackles issues faced by undervalued and unheard employees. Their proposal integrates listening tools, co-designed development pathways, and recognition systems to build a future-ready workforce culture.
Team 2, with Natalie Weston, Apoorva Karunakar Shetty, Baljeet Kaur, and Zainab Nadeem, introduced a Dignity Framework that strengthens both a company's internal culture and its external reputation. The framework helps organisations enhance transparency, inclusion, and authenticity.
Team 3, with Prachi Vijay Gharat, Patricia Cherono, and Zain Minsaria, created a new set of Dignity Cards to make invisible labour visible, enabling peers to appreciate the self-employed construction workers.
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This year’s event was strengthened by an outstanding, truly interdisciplinary panel of dragons: Dr Susan Lattanzio, Dr Karen Lancaster, Dr Jieling Xiao, Dr Ilnaz Ashayeri, Dr Scott Lichtenstein, and Nick Irvin. Their combined expertise, spanning design, business, psychology, digital innovation, management, and applied research, embodies BCU’s commitment to world-class #STEAM practice. Their insights, questions, and feedback elevated our students' learning experience and reinforced the value of university–industry collaboration.
Dr Susan Lattanzio, Co-Director, Centre for People-led Digitalisation, University of Bath, said, ‘A new generation of people-led people! …It’s fantastic to see our tools being applied in such innovative ways. Great work to everyone involved – it’s inspiring to hear how this project has shifted your thinking. Best of luck with the rest of your Master’s course; you’re off to an amazing start!’
Zainab Nadeem, MA Design Management student, stated, ‘I have enjoyed this module a lot. It is such a different way of teaching, and I learnt so much by taking part in Dragon’s Den and seeing how an idea can translate into confidence!'
Prachi Gharat, MA Design Management student, also wrote, ‘a big thank you for today and honestly, for this entire experience. Mersha pushed me out of my comfort zone in the best possible way. I learnt how to work with people, encourage them, and leverage my team members' strengths to deliver a compelling story during our pitch.’
The 2024–25 Dragon’s Den challenge proves that when design, digitalisation, and dignity come together, organisations can imagine and build better futures. Our students aren’t just responding to change; they’re designing it.