This thesis explores the friction between strategic design and business contexts. This friction has been experienced by the author and later echoed by many other designers in interviews and conversations. While organizations increasingly recognize the need for creative approaches to tackle complex challenges, the integration of strategic design remains difficult in practice. To better understand this phenomenon, two research questions were posed: RQ 1: Why does strategic design often struggle to become integrated in organizations? And RQ 2: What can be done to make strategic design work within organizational realities?

To answer these questions, the thesis combined a literature review, a qualitative research approach, and a design intervention. The literature review revealed that strategic designers operates through a distinct reasoning style: the abduction-2 logic. This allows designers to reframe problems and navigate complex, ‘wicked’ problems. This way of thinking can expand the problem-solving arsenal of organizations. However, models such as the CK-theory and the IDER model highlight that innovation can not be embedded unless an organizational context itself evolves. This insight reframes the role of the strategic designer: not as someone who brings the innovation, but as the innovation itself.

The interviews revealed that designers often struggle to position themselves within rigid structures and face misconceptions about the nature and value of their work. Four recurring tensions were identified: rigidity vs. flexibility, misunderstood vs. recognized, evidence vs. intuition, and exclusive vs. inclusive. Each was linked to an underlying value, trust, respect, empathy, and equality, which form the foundation for successful collaboration between design and business.

Based on these insights, a design intervention was developed: an interactive workshop with provotypes, designed to trigger reflection and dialogue at a strategic level. The goal was not to transfer knowledge, but to create space for mutual understanding, reflection and reframing. Two validation sessions showed that the workshop evoked rich and reflective conversations, but also revealed a lack of shared understanding of strategic design. As a result, the concept was redesigned into a three-part workshop series: starting with building shared understanding, followed by reflection through provotypes, and ending with translating insights into action.

This thesis contributes to the field by repositioning the designer as an additional strategic force: the innovation itself. It also emphasizes the importance of organizational readiness. Practically, it offers a tool for strategic designers and business professionals to meet as equals. Ultimately, making strategic design work means looking beyond tools or roles, and focusing instead on openness, shared values, the co-creation new ways of working.

Background:
Miscarriage is a common experience, affecting 15% of recognized pregnancies, but societal ignorance and taboos often downplay the mental distress and personal impact following a miscarriage. Emerging stories on social media in which women express their miscarriage grief are breaking such taboos. Research in the area of online health communities is increasingly focused on studying how people share their health experiences on social media. However, a clear understanding on the social support involved in this type of sharing of health experiences is lacking.

Objective:
This study explored the use of Instagram in sharing miscarriage experiences, guided by the following research question: How is social community support given to women who share their miscarriage experiences on social media? Considering that social media is increasingly used as a source of social support, in this study, we chose Instagram as the social media platform. The purpose of this research was to create a better understanding of how social media provides support in expressing personal miscarriage experiences and how people engage with such posts.

Methods:
This study used a qualitative inductive research method in which a phenomenological strategy and thematic analysis were followed to create a comprehensive understanding of the social community support phenomenon. The dataset was established from a sample of 258 Instagram posts and 736 comments collected over a period of 6 months after initial posts and from 6 different women. These data were categorized and clustered through a thematic analysis.

Results:
Three themes were identified: (1) storytelling of emotional turmoil and grief after miscarriage, (2) sharing positivity amidst miscarriage grief, and (3) mentioning personal medical information about miscarriage. Theme 1 represents the emotional experience of women who have had a miscarriage. It encompasses the initial posts that included miscarriage storytelling that express deep grief and mental distress and the emotional impact on both the posters and the commenters. Theme 2 highlights the importance of finding moments of joy and positivity in the midst of mental distress and pain. The posts shared with the online community convey a sense of moving forward and a refusal to let grief become the defining aspect of one’s life. Theme 3 focuses on sharing medical and practical advice. This theme includes posts and comments about medications, in vitro fertilization procedures, hospital experiences, and personal physical symptoms.

Conclusions:
As an overarching theme for this social support phenomenon, we introduce the term communal load sharing to describe the therapeutic role of social media in helping women cope with miscarriage by providing a platform for sharing similar experiences, breaking social taboos, and fostering load sharing.