This day explores what drives you personally, your business values and connects these to your business purpose and future aspirations. This provides a solid foundation for guiding your business and communicating confidently.

Here you explore stakeholders who can affect the success of your business with a particular focus on customers. You will also be introduced to practical approaches to customer research and create a plan to gather meaningful data to strengthen your business offer.

On the final day the cohort share the learning from their research then delve into the core components of their individual businesses. You will then identify actions to take forward, prioritise these and create a high-level action plan to help you make the necessary changes to support your business.

It is important that you can attend all three days of the programme as the outputs of each session feed into the next to ensure you get the most out of the programme.

There is light ‘homework’ between Day 2 and Day 3 to allow the group to move at a pace while allowing for experimentation and feedback on the use of the tools and techniques.

The programme runs over three days March/April 2026:

Day 1 & Day 2
Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 March.

Day 3
Monday 13 March

 Each day starts at 09.30 and finishes at 16.30. Refreshments and lunch will be provided each day. Please advise us if you have any dietary requirements.

The programme was originally developed for Creative Lancashire by Catherine Docherty (Journey Associates), who works with Nesta and British Council to deliver creative business support globally, and Jonathan Ball (Designmine) a design associate for both Design Council and a lead instructor for LUMA Institute, Pittsburgh.

Jonathan Ball is a Lancashire based independent designer who has built his career on using the practice of human-centred design to help organisations achieve new levels of innovation. After a successful career in product design, he now works independently through Designmine, in collaboration with a global network of like-minded associates to deliver a diverse range of projects, including the Creative Decision Making Playbook for BBC Digital and the Design Thinking Accelerator programme for V&A Dundee. He is a longstanding Design Associate for Design Council and was a part of the team that developed the Double Diamond and created the Design Opportunities Tool for their business support programme, Designing Demand. He is also a Certified Lead Instructor for LUMA Institute in Pittsburgh.

Catherine Docherty is a design strategist, facilitator, and researcher with over 25 years experience in design-led innovation and organisational change. She has led national and international programmes supporting person-centred innovation across private, public and third sector organisations. Passionate about enabling leaders to develop meaningful change through new strategies, services and products, Catherine has worked with senior leaders across sectors including broadcasting, creative industries, construction, criminal justice, government, mental health and social care. She has co-created high-impact, national capacity building programmes for entrepreneurs and business leaders for Elevator UK, the V&A Dundee, Scottish Enterprise and Creative Lancashire; and international programmes for Nesta, the British Council and Hivos, delivered in 25 cities worldwide, reaching over 2000 businesses. Catherine has published in peer-reviewed academic journals, is author of the Creative Hub Leaders Toolkit and co-developer of the Creative Enterprise Toolkit for Nesta and the British Council.