Sabine explores the meanings, roles and values human-centered design thinking and design methods have for organisations. One of her goals is to provide tools for designers and managers that show the many ways in which design can and is being used within the organisation. This includes visual tools for designers and managers to evaluate and reflect on the roles they assign design. She studies the links that exist between design and change and the implications this has for design in the organisation.

Her work has received attention from both designers (see IDSA/ICSID, San Francisco, 2007) and managers (see The Economic Power of Design, Tel Aviv 2008). It builds on her dissertation “Change in the Making: Organizational Change Through Human-Centered Product Development,” where she shows how design thinking and design methods can change large and complex organisations (The United States Postal Service, The United States Internal Revenue Service and the Australian Tax Office).