Oticon Intiga

Challenge: How do you design a product to replace a much-loved classic?

Oticon is a hearing instrument manufacturer, who created a new market for “hearing-instruments that don’t look like hearing instruments”. The original device, Oticon Delta was a unique, “design classic”, that performed very well yet didn’t look at all conventional.

When the time came for a successor, how could the team ensure that the new instrument would have a similar level of desirability and integrity? A new and remarkable design was needed for first-time users.

The project manager used the INTENT method to form a cross-disciplinary team of audiologists, mechanical engineers, electro-acoustic engineers, software developers and marketers. The project complexity was addressed and the “essence of success” discovered and captured in the INTENT. This was used to brief the industrial designer, as well as inspire the ideation, development and communication of the solution.

The result was a fully aligned team, who knew what they were doing and why. Together they delivered a successful and award winning product – the Oticon Intiga – which won the Danish Design Award and a number of international awards.

This is an example of how the INTENT method produces alignment and synergy in complex development environments. Similar projects have been carried out at

• Coloplast
• FOSS
• GN Resound
• Otometrics
• Struers