Design Thinking
Design Thinking is one of the more hyped (and frequently misunderstood) terms in business. Many companies have jumped on the Design Thinking bandwagon without really knowing what it means. The term is frequently trotted out to describe just about any organization — even organizations with a pretty superficial appreciation of Design.
Sometimes the Design Thinking term gets confused with its props and artifacts. It can be easy to assume that all an organization needs to “do” Design Thinking is an offsite, a whiteboard, and a stack of sticky note pads. As a result, Design Thinking has lost much of its meaning.
IDEO popularized the methodology of Design Thinking. Here’s how IDEO CEO Tim Brown defines it:
“Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”
Underlying this methodology is an appreciation for Design as a discipline. As Tim describes in his classic HBR article:
“Historically, design has been treated as a downstream step in the development process—the point where designers, who have played no earlier role in the substantive work of innovation, come along and put a beautiful wrapper around the idea.
“Now, however, rather than asking designers to make an already developed idea more attractive to consumers, companies are asking them to create ideas that better meet consumers’ needs and desires. The former role is tactical, and results in limited value creation; the latter is strategic, and leads to dramatic new forms of value.”
Here are a few practical resources I’ve found on how to start adopting Design Thinking:
- Stanford D-School Introduction To Design Thinking: This is a nice high-level primer on the process of Design Thinking. The D-School was started by D-School Founder David Kelley.
- Talking to Humans: This is a very cool practical guide on the “human-centered” part of Design Thinking (free PDF here). It was created by Giff Constable of Neo and Frank Rimalovski of the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute. I’m admittedly biased because I had a chance to collaborate with them on cartoons for every chapter.
- Google Ventures Design Sprint: This is a wonderful DIY resource on how to hold a Design sprint in any organization.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on Design Thinking.
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I Teach Your Team How to Achieve Product-Market Fit So You Finally Profit From Your Investment | 3 Books on Innovation | 20+Yrs of Global Experience in Building Products | 500+ UX/CX/EX Workshops | Fractional CPO
9 年Agreed. Design Thinking is a great set of tools that can improve the whole company (if introduced in a simple way). I see this every day. I teach DT to every part of our company and see teams reach great results really quickly (we usually have an easy-to-use, tested prototype for complex problems in just 2 days instead of months if done differently).
Creative Director
9 年In the age of Photoshop the thing is, everyone thinks they can design.
End to End Customer Experience - Strategic/Tactical | Global Brand Development | Consumer Products
9 年To remain competitive in the marketplace, you either "Change by Design" and evolve, or your products will quickly become irrelevant. The consumer will be the first to state, your product did not meet their expectations! There should also be a "True Spirit" of collaboration between business units (Design/Engineering/Marketing/R&D). Peers need to work together to resolve issues or prevent them, unified to insure quality, performance, and best-in-class products for the end-user. You can rest assured, superior companies communicate holistically, and perform with flawless execution. Or at least that is the goal. Not one business is perfect, however those that innovate may concede in using the word "innovative" to describe themselves. Their products will simply revolutionize, how we view and interact within our world. Apple is extremely consistent in utilizing the process of Design Thinking.
Engagement, Communications and Marketing leader
9 年Malcolm Anderson you may be interested in this article.
ARTIST: CONTEMPORARY ABSTRACT PAINTING + BOOK DESIGN
9 年There is usually a clear difference in outcome between people who are naturally Design Thinkers and people who just learn how to use tools of the trade. Ditto... either you've got it or you don't.