Re-defining company values through applying design thinking
In a strategic initiative to redefine Bowtie's company culture, I received a special design task from my manager to re-establish our company core values through design thinking. I was initially shocked by the request, as I never expected to apply design thinking to such an abstract and foundational aspect of the organization. The final values were presented to the CEO, leadership team and the entire company, who embraced them wholeheartedly.
Role
Lead Product Designer
Collaborated with CEO (Michael Chan) and Senior Design Manager (Joanne Kwok)
Key Methods
User Interviews, Affinity Mapping, Iterative prototyping
Results
Created 5 new Bowtie core values
Duration
7 months
PROBLEM STATEMENT
How might we ensure Bowtie’s core values are both aspirational and actionable for employees at all roles and levels?
context
The need for redefinition
Bowtie was experiencing rapid growth, and its existing core values no longer reflected the company’s current stage or future aspirations. While initial surveys provided quantitative feedback, they lacked depth in understanding how employees interpreted and applied these values in their work. This misalignment risked creating a disjointed culture and inconsistent performance reviews, especially as 50% of appraisals were based on core values.
assumptions
Employees valued collaboration, innovation and practicality equally
In January 2024, we conducted a company-wide survey to understand how employees interpreted Bowtie’s existing core values. The survey revealed critical insights:
Live with Purpose: Felt vague and unclear—employees struggled to define what "purpose" meant in their work.
Be Kind: Highly favored and voted to keep, but needed a clearer definition to guide behavior.
Own It: Strongly supported and retained as a core value.
Unbreakable: The least favored among the four, yet no one voted to remove it entirely.
Emerging themes like Teamwork, Craftsmanship, Creativity, Hospitality, Pragmatism, Bias for Action, and Don’t Be a Robot highlighted a desire for values that emphasized collaboration, excellence, innovation, empathy, and practicality.
research
10 in-depth user interviews
To uncover insights from the survey, I conducted 10 in-depth interviews with colleagues from different departments and levels who embodied Bowtie’s values the most. Participants were selected based on their ability to influence, empathize, and demonstrate reliability within the organization.
I covered the following questions in the interview:
How do you define a core value?
How do you interpret the existing values and apply them to work?
Considering the company's needs, which are your 3 favourite emerging values?
goal
Core values that are both aspirational and actionable for all roles and levels
It's important to note that Bowtie's core values made up 50% of performance appraisals. Initial feedback showed that employees from different departments and levels had difficulty applying core values to their work. The nature of their role did not match with what was expected of them which heavily affected their performance reviews.
As a result, input from our CEO and leadership team was essential to understand what behaviours they expect from employees in order to shape a culture embraced by employees from all roles and levels.
challenges
Leaders defined core values differently from their peers
For a topic as subjective and critical as defining core values, it was no surprise that the process required numerous iterations to reach a final list. Adding to the complexity, my key stakeholders involved the CEO and leadership team, whose demanding schedules meant I had limited time to present and convince them. This made the challenge even greater, requiring clear, data-driven arguments and concise communication to align their vision with employee insights effectively.
For instance, some stakeholders favored bold, visionary statements, while others prioritized practicality.
design process
Affinity mapping
This helped me identify common themes among the insights gathered from the user interview.
Applying frameworks
50% of our performance appraisals were core values so it was important to consider them from that perspective.
Visual presentations
We discovered that employees interpret core values as interconnected principles which placed together, form a company culture. What better way to explain this but through visuals?
outcome
Bowtie's 5 new core values
With performance appraisals approaching, leadership prioritized rolling out our core values and their descriptions ahead of the final illustrations. To drive early adoption, we created an interim solution: representing each value with distinctive emojis. This allowed employees to immediately start using and recognizing them in Slack conversations!
🔏 Own it
We expect everyone to have a strong sense of ownership. We own our work. We own our commitments to our customers, to each other, to our partners, and to our investors.
Ownership is not only what we do, but also what we should have done in our areas.
🎯 For the greater good
We are purpose-driven people who prioritize team and mission success over personal gains. Sometimes we need to take an extra two steps, to go outside our responsible areas, to help others.
Selflessness never goes unnoticed. In fact, it is contagio us. It spreads and elevates us all to do better. It lifts us to achieve greater things than any one of us could do ourselves, and is one of the greatest feelings.
📦 Get one piece done
We believe more is learnt from action than endless planning. Focus on what matters most, and act quickly to drive initial progress. We’ll learn more from touching reality - new worlds open up and we’ll iterate towards a better solution.
Companies often lose touch with reality as they grow bigger. They start planning grander and grander things that require more and more coordination. We need to actively fight this to stay grounded in reality.
🖌 Craftsmanship
We care about quality. Our ambition is on the global stage - we aim to be world-class, not just “good enough” for Hong Kong. To stay world-class, we need to keep improving ourselves.
Quality is particularly important for an insurance company - our customers trust us to take care of all the details. Trust is hard-earned, but easily lost. We care about keeping world-class quality in both the areas visible to our customers, and areas that customers don’t see.
💝 Be kind
Kindness is a choice. Avoiding tough conversations is easy, but true kindness means addressing issues honestly. We value performance and teamwork over mere friendliness, and we aspire to be kind persons to our teammates to our customers.
impact
A cohesive and motivated workforce
✦ Cultural Alignment
The new values guide everyday decisions and actions, fostering a culture of collaboration and appreciation. This has strengthened team unity, boosted morale, and created a more motivated and cohesive workforce.
✦ Consistent and Accurate Performance Appraisals
With 50% of performance reviews now tied to our core values, teams can evaluate employees more effectively, ensuring their skills and behaviors align with Bowtie’s expectations. This has made the appraisal process fairer, clearer, and more consistent across the organization.
✦ Faster onboarding process
By clarifying company culture, the updated values have streamlined onboarding. New hires now integrate faster, understand Bowtie’s expectations more clearly, and become productive sooner, improving overall communication and efficiency.