[…] the act of arriving at a solution by strict calculation is not regarded as designing […] design involves a prescription or model, the intention of embodiment as hardware and the presence of a creative step (Archer, 1965, p. 4). […] the design job has significantly changed over time. You say today what’s the difference between analysis and design? Now there’s none (Design Capability Owner, Eng. Co.). The design of products and services has long been seen as an activity requiring human intellect, creativity and problem solving (Archer, 1965; Simon, 1996). Yet managers, such as the one in the second quotation, believe that human knowledge can be captured in systems that make new product development (NPD) processes more efficient (Løwendahl, 2005; Martin, 2009). Rather than fundamentally conflicting, these two perspectives can be seen as stages in the process of developing design capabilities (Mutanen, 2008). A design capability can be defined as a collective capability held by an organisation, which allows it to deploy a particular form of design in developing products and services. Firms develop capabilities in, for example, the design of electronic systems, mechanical components or customer experiences, according to the offerings they deliver to their customers. Changes in technology, customer preferences or business models, however, may make such capabilities redundant. For example, if a product’s mechanical components are replaced by electronics, then mechanical design gives way to a need for electronic design capabilities. Servitization represents a business model innovation (BMI), altering a manufacturing firm’s revenue model, value propositions and capabilities to focus on co-creating value with customers, rather than exchanging goods (Storbacka 2011; Smith et al., 2014; Raja et al., 2018). It is both caused by changes in the operating environment and results in changes to how manufacturing firms operate, creating an imperative to update capabilities (Pawar et al., 2009; Benedettini et al., 2015).