Key learning outcomes include that students: understand manufacturing paradigms and their impact on the product development process and the design process; understand the impact of organisational structures, strategies and processes on the design process; develop and gain experience of using key skills that will enable them to work successfully with various organisational members in the product development process. These skills include teamwork, decision-making and communication, analysis and problem solving. Develop and gain experience of using distance communication and virtual teamwork skills, skills that are becoming increasingly important in new product development.

Design Management 1 focuses on the development of the product / service audit process and study of a firm's corporate image, identity, brand, and products as perceived by the target groups it aims to reach. Students will study the approach taken to develop a strategic design management plan that guides the way a firm presents itself to its target audience and differentiates itself against its competition in the targeted markets. Foundation design principles involving the evaluation of two-dimensional and three-dimensional design are explored through a series of firm-level case studies of firms with prominent and commercially successful design management strategies.

In Design Management 2 students will develop, based on the Corporate Image Brief and Research established in Semester 1, a methodology and program to study a corporation's approach(es) to communicate with its market audience. The evaluation of the study leads to the formulation of the corporate identity design strategy and brief. The information summarised in the design brief is then used to establish the corporate identity design program, which informs the development of the components of a client company's corporate identity. The company chosen by the students as a case study in Design Management 1, on which the assignments are based, should be followed through to Design Management 2.

Design Management 4 focuses on fundamental issues of the design process and design management. It exposes students to the various theories and models underlying trade-offs and choices made during the design process and issues of intellectual property. Experiential exercises and contemporary case studies are used throughout the unit. Students will consider how models of design processes impact on existing products and their own design work. This unit is part of a sequence of four units that constitute the sub-major in Design Management and eight units that constitute the major in International Design Management and Innovation Design Management.