The EPIC design maturity model: Empathy, Process, Impact, Culture
The EPIC design maturity model shows where innovation leaks in an organisation. It looks at four domains: Empathy (do decision-makers really know their users?), Process (do you test cheaply and early, and decide on evidence?), Impact (do you measure the value you create, not the activity?) and Culture (does the person leading innovation have the authority to match the responsibility?). Each domain sits at one of three levels: ad hoc, emerging or embedded. It was developed by Jan Van Caneghem of WAAI Design and described in his 2022 book.
Your organisation is built to perform today: serving customers, users or citizens as well as possible. Performing tomorrow needs different capabilities. Most organisations have some of them. Few have all four, and your strongest domain can't compensate for your weakest.
The four domains
- Empathy. When did someone who makes innovation decisions last talk to a user about their problem? And when research contradicts what management believes, which one wins? Typical sign of a gap: designing for customers you've never met.
- Process. Do you test an idea cheaply before real money goes in, and do your projects have decision moments with criteria to stop? Typical sign of a gap: betting big before you know anything.
- Impact. Do you measure the value innovation creates, or the number of ideas and launches? Are projects stopped on evidence, or do they just fade? Typical sign of a gap: counting activity and calling it progress.
- Culture. Does the person leading innovation have authority over budget and go/no-go decisions? Is a well-run experiment that "failed" treated as learning? Typical sign of a gap: responsibility without authority.
Three levels of maturity
- Ad hoc. It happens by accident, depends on individuals, or not at all.
- Emerging. It happens, but late, inconsistently, or without changing decisions.
- Embedded. It is part of how the organisation decides. The risk now is routine and bureaucracy.
The level of each domain matters less than the gap between them. A strong process can't save a culture where every decision goes up the line. That weakest domain is your bottleneck: it is where innovation stalls first.
Why maturity, and not just methods?
A design thinking workshop proves very little. The question is whether the organisation can do it again next quarter, with other people, on a harder problem. EPIC looks at that capability, not at the tools.
Find your bottleneck in four minutes
The free EPIC scan asks twelve questions, three per domain. You get a personal report with a score per domain, your bottleneck, and three concrete actions for Monday.
For a leadership team, the EPIC assessment is part of the Mandate Sprint: it shows where ambition and capability are furthest apart, before the board agrees its innovation mandate. The in-company masterclass is built on the model.
Questions people ask
Who developed the EPIC design maturity model?
Jan Van Caneghem, designer, lecturer at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences and founder of WAAI Design. He describes it in The book that helps you become the EPIC designer of our tomorrows (2022).
What are the EPIC maturity levels?
Three: ad hoc, emerging and embedded. Each of the four domains gets its own level.
Is EPIC only for design teams?
No. It is aimed at organisations: innovation teams, leadership teams and public bodies that want innovation to become repeatable.
How long does the EPIC scan take?
About four minutes for twelve questions. A full assessment with interviews fits inside the three-week Mandate Sprint.
Read more in the book, or take the EPIC scan.
STUCK ON A CASE LIKE THIS?
Find out where your organisation gets stuck with the free EPIC scan: twelve questions, four minutes, a personal report. Or skip the scan and talk to Jan about your case.
