How a Design Prototype Became an $800M Business Opportunity for Philips

When Sean joined Philips, CEO Frans van Houten gave him a clear brief: make design central to the business. Which meant that design needed to prove its value in business terms.

So Sean Carney and his team got to work, and what followed was a clear demonstration of design contributing directly to business transformation and aiding a positive change in the world.

Find out how it happened in our podcast or read the insights below:

Step 1: Understanding business context

Unlike many companies where design is siloed, Sean’s Design team collaborated with the Strategy & Research teams to understand the business context to create a 'whitelist' of opportunity spaces – areas where Philips had technical capabilities, brand strength, market access and ability to deliver impact quickly.

The NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) was identified as a key area with clear clinical need, market demand, and Philips’ existing strengths in monitoring and medical tech.

Step 2: Exploring emerging needs  

Sean and his team began by identifying long-term trends in healthcare. “We thought about the emerging patterns of care, how they would evolve in the coming 10 years,” he explains. Sean emphasised that looking at today’s user in today’s context will help you produce a product which “by the time it comes to the market is potentially already out of date and trailing behind the competition”. 

So Sean’s team engaged with key opinion leaders on future technology and neonatal care, and also did in-depth research with parents of premature babies to understand their challenges and emotional needs.

Step 3: Building a tangible vision

The vision for the future NICU was immersive and intuitive: “You would walk in, the doors would slide open, Star Trek style, the lights would come up, it would prompt you to wash your hands, it would tell you the status of the baby.” 

And it was brought to life in a full-scale prototype: “We built this NICU of the future. And we physically built this. This was a complete room with state-of-the-art technology and emerging technology. Cloud-based solutions, touchscreens, ambient lighting solutions, all the things you would need to give the baby the best possible start…” 

The system was “context aware” – offering tailored dashboards based on who entered the room. “It would recognise the parents and flip over to a parental view without scaring them with lots of complex medical data.”

Step 4: Iterating with customers

Sean and his team invited doctors and parents to visit the facility and give feedback – what they loved, hated, or felt was missing. This input helped them understand how to refine and evolve the environment further, not as a one-off concept room, but as a foundation for actual healthcare solutions Philips could scale and deliver.

What happened next?

While co-developing NICU innovations with doctors, Sean Carney shared that “we were creating demand in the market because the heads of paediatrics from the hospitals around the world, were saying to us before they left – please call me when these things are available. I want to be the first customer when these things come to market.” This clear market interest revealed an opportunity “to bundle some of our existing products, software and services around the Paediatric Intensive Care Units to think about the way care is delivered today, and not just the future, creating immediate sales opportunities while shaping future innovations.”

The result?

This design-led prototype became the catalyst for real transformation. A new business unit, Healthcare Transformation Services, was created specifically to build on the momentum and demonstrate how Philips could combine technology, design, and consulting into high-value solutions. As Sean described, “We ended up signing a long-term strategic project worth 800 million US dollars over 10 years to create a new hospital and equip it.”

This case study wasn’t just about design. It’s about how collaboration with different departments that have other strengths – from business to research – can create new opportunities, transform entire businesses and deliver real impact on people’s lives.