Best practice for using a joypad and navmesh at the same time?

I'm wondering what the most graceful way to use a navmesh in conjunction with a joypad is. I like the implementation of Neverwinter Nights on Android wherein the forward vector is represented by a destination just in front of the agent, which it moves towards continuously.

Before I go down this path, is there an easier (or less costly) way, which people have explored to achieve the same effect?

 

You can set the velocity of your navmesh agent manually. https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/AI.NavMeshAgent-velocity.html