A strategy that doesn’t reach the front line
What you’re experiencing
The plan is clear at the top, blurry on the ground.
The answer
Connect each objective to the teams and processes that carry it.
Enterprise Design
See how everything connects, and solve complex problems at the source. For the whole organization, or one project at a time.
When Enterprise Design makes the difference
Situations leadership teams face, at the scale of a single project or the whole organization.
A merger or acquisition
What you’re experiencing
Two cultures, two ways of working, synergies to deliver.
The answer
Decide what to unite, what to preserve and what to transform.
A transformation running out of steam
What you’re experiencing
Projects pile up, the experience barely changes.
The answer
Invest where it really matters.
Costly silos
What you’re experiencing
Each team optimizes its own part; the customer lives the gaps.
The answer
Make journeys and shared responsibilities visible.
AI arriving in the organization
What you’re experiencing
Initiatives everywhere, with no big picture.
The answer
Place AI within the organization before choosing the tools.
Growth or repositioning
What you’re experiencing
The company has changed, but not its structure or its brand.
The answer
Realign identity, organization and offering.
Launching a new service
What you’re experiencing
It touches several teams and no one sees the whole picture.
The answer
Design the service and the organization that delivers it, together.
Is your situation different?
A project, a team or the whole organization: tell us about your challenge.
Everyone is right… in their own language
Finance talks costs, IT talks systems, marketing talks customers, operations talks deadlines. Everyone sees clearly, but no one sees the whole.
The solution: a shared language, simple and visual, understood from the boardroom to the front line. That’s what EDGY brings →
Three familiar symptoms
The Tower of Babel
Meetings go in circles: everyone uses their own words.
The ivory tower
Decisions are made far from the people who apply them.
The Jenga tower
Pull out one piece, and three others move without warning.
Enterprise Design in brief
Enterprise Design applies the design approach to the organization itself, whether it’s a project, a team or the whole company.
Starting or realigning a project calls for several choices:
- Who should be involved?
- What processes should we put in place?
- What experience do we want to offer customers and employees?
- What ambition are we aiming for?
- How will we talk about it with stakeholders?
Enterprise Design sheds light on these decisions and connects them into a coherent whole that can evolve over time.
The big picture
See the connections before acting.
A collaborative approach
Design with the people who will bring the change to life.
Intentional choices
Decide, rather than pile up projects.
The right scale
Start where the challenge is.
EDGY, a shared language for designing the enterprise
One of the tools of Enterprise Design: an open visual language to map an organization, a team or a project on a single canvas.
Identity: purpose, values, culture
Architecture: capabilities, processes, resources
Experience: customer and employee journeys
A common vocabulary, from the boardroom to the front line.
What it changes in practice
For your leadership team, four concrete effects.
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Better-informed decisions
See the impact of a choice before committing to it.
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An aligned leadership team
One map, one language.
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Less risky transformations
Blind spots surface early.
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A strategy you can execute
Every direction is connected to the people who deliver it.
No off-the-shelf solutions
Every organization is unique. Our approach, in three steps:
Spark the right conversations
Bring the right perspectives together around the problem.
Map to clarify
Visualize the organization with EDGY to decide together.
Build on solid ground
Put in place a stable system that can evolve.
Above all: with you, not for you.
Three ways in
Workshops and support
From a single workshop to supporting a full transformation, for a project, a team or the whole organization.
EDGY training
From EDGY fundamentals to its use by leadership teams. Practical and immediately applicable.
Boardroom Adventure: the game
The not-so-serious game of Enterprise Design: build an organization and see how every decision affects the whole.
Template La Partie prenante (PDF) Template The Boardroom Adventure (PDF) Miro templates and instructions
Frequently asked questions about Enterprise Design
What we are asked most often about the discipline, about &friends and about Intersection, the global Enterprise Design conference.
The discipline
What is Enterprise Design?
Enterprise Design applies the design approach to the organization itself: its identity, its architecture (capabilities, processes, resources) and the experience of its customers and employees. Instead of optimizing each part in its silo, it looks at how everything connects, to solve complex problems at the source. It works for a project, a team or the whole company. Enterprise Design in brief.
How is Enterprise Design different from design thinking and service design?
Design thinking is a method: understand, imagine, prototype, test. Service design applies it to one service or customer journey. Enterprise Design applies it to the whole organization, connecting strategy, structure, processes and experience on a single map. The three complement each other, and we practice all of them. See our services.
What is EDGY?
EDGY is an open visual language for mapping an organization on a single canvas, around three facets: identity, architecture and experience. It gives the boardroom, IT, marketing and operations one shared vocabulary. EDGY is published by the Enterprise Design Association, of which &friends is a partner. EDGY, a shared language.
When is Enterprise Design useful?
When a strategy never reaches the front line, during a merger or acquisition, when a transformation runs out of steam, when silos get expensive, when AI arrives in the organization, during growth or repositioning, or when launching a service that touches several teams. Sound familiar?
Can Enterprise Design help with AI?
Yes. The common mistake is choosing tools before knowing where AI fits in the organization. Enterprise Design first situates AI in the processes, roles and experience, then we build small, useful tools with your teams. Our approach to AI and design engineering (in French).
How do we start? Do we need to involve the whole organization?
No. We start where the challenge is: a one-off workshop, support for a project or a team, or an organization-wide effort. Our approach has three steps: spark the right conversations, map with EDGY to clarify, then build on solid ground. Always with you, not for you. Three ways in.
&friends
Why is &friends a reference in Enterprise Design in Quebec?
Because we have practiced the discipline in the field since our first workshops in 2016, we are a partner of the Enterprise Design Association, we teach EDGY trainings, and we have designed tools used well beyond our own projects: the game The Boardroom Adventure, its French original La Partie prenante, and Miro templates. In October 2026 we hosted Intersection 26, the global Enterprise Design conference, in Montreal. Our story.
Who is behind &friends?
Two colleagues who became friends, a designer and a strategist: Éric Letarte and Jean-Sébastien Daigle. First collaboration in 2012, first workshops in 2016, incorporation of Conseil &friends inc. in 2023, in Montreal. Depending on the project, we bring in trusted allies in digital, facilitation and AI engineering. About us.
Which organizations have you worked with?
Among others Aliments du Québec, Quebec Tech, Capitale numérique, the Musée de la civilisation Sépaq, the Palais des congrès de Montréal, CSSDGS, Worximity and the Association des libraires du Québec. And we produced Intersection 26 in Montréal. Our case studies show the approach, from framing to implementation.
Intersection
What is Intersection?
Intersection is the global Enterprise Design conference. Every year it brings together practitioners, researchers and leaders around one question: how to design coherent organizations. Its 12th edition, Intersection 26, took place in Montreal in October 2026, a first in North America, hosted by &friends. Our Intersection 26 case study.
What was &friends’ role in Intersection 26?
We hosted the event in Montreal: three days, 37 speakers. We also made it our testing ground, putting AI to work on the whole organization, from budget to badges, with a single database and a dozen small apps. Intersection 26, our testing ground (in French).
Can we benefit from what you learned at Intersection 26?
Yes. We share, unfiltered, what worked and what didn’t, in a one-hour talk or a one-day workshop, and we translate those lessons to your context. Let’s talk.
