Pei Xue

Xue Pei holds a PhD in Design and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Design at Politecnico di Milano, where she is a member of the Design+Strategies and SIDE research groups. She supports the work of the Department’s Delegate for Innovation and Corporate Relations and serves as coordinator for Research Development and Strategic Partnerships for the BSc in Engineering–Industrial Design at the XJTU–POLIMI Joint School. She has held visiting research positions at Delft University of Technology and Chalmers University of Technology.

Her research explores how strategic design and design thinking contribute to innovation within organisations and ecosystems, with particular attention to the tensions between business innovation and broader societal impact. She investigates how design practices and capabilities can help organisations navigate these tensions and support meaningful change. Her interests include strategic design, design thinking, and design for organisational and systemic change, with applications in third sector organisations and industries pursuing sustainable transition.

She has extensive experience leading and contributing to interdisciplinary and intercultural research initiatives. She has coordinated projects supported by European funding programmes, including Horizon Europe, Horizon 2020, Interreg, and Erasmus+, as well as national and regional initiatives supported by PNRR MICS and Fondazione Cariplo. She also collaborates with industry partners on strategic and service design initiatives.

She teaches strategic design, design thinking, business design, product service system design, and design research at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her work is published in international peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.