In Design Thinking we Trust

Prelude: In the past few years of my experience as a Design Thinking (DT) coach, one thing is clear. There is absolutely no other better way that we know as of now to go about solving a real world problem using human-centered approach than what Design Thinking as a philosophy and methodology offers. We have had passionate intellectuals debate on this statement for years and we have had many brilliant approaches come up last few years, but none come close to the agility, the versatility and free flowing creative approach that DT offers. Now that I have established my allegiance to Design Thinking in a not-so-subtle way, I choose to substantiate why I feel so and why DT is here to stay.

PDCA et al: The Plan -> Do -> Check -> Act (PDCA) process has managed to permeate into most of the facets of our lives be it work or otherwise. Likewise, Design Thinking takes you into a series of “steps” via the cycle of Empathize -> Define -> Ideate -> Prototype -> Test -> Implement. Sounds simple right? They are linear to some extent but since its an iterative process it gets imperative to re-look (or re-do) at the predecessor steps in the DT Lifecyle. So what we end up is the non-linear sequence (sometimes even parallel) of “steps” that can be suited to the needs of the challenge that we are trying to solve. We apply these solutions based, human-centered techniques to solve problems in a creative and innovative way in our system or solution designs, in our businesses, their processes, in our countries, in issues challenging the world and of course in our lives.

Collective Expertise: Diverse and divergent vantage points are brought in since the ideation happens with a set of participants who span across multiple functions bringing in multiple expertise with them. This allows the process to accommodate a 360-degree view to the proposed solution and how it would perform and affect the ultimate truth, the end user's acceptance. Happier users mean more revenue and return most of the time.

Fail forward: The focus on outcomes and what humans want and need coupled with Rapid prototyping ensures that the group ideating try, and test multiple prototypes and work out reinventing and relentlessly redesigning them to arrive at a most desirable outcome. This significantly reduces the chances of romanticizing any of the single great idea or prototype available. You will be surprised the number of times this happens upsetting and failing to impress our main subject, our end users. 

Flexible and Agile: The last few (five to be precise) DT sessions that I managed in the last 3 months were all spread over multiple weeks and multiple touch points as compared to the "traditional" approach of DT workshop which gets wrapped up in few hours or couple of days. These multiple sessions allowed diverse set of participants to accommodate the ideation and design process in a much cautious pace at times required to research the challenges around the problem we are trying to fix. This sometimes have been viciously called out by the DT naysayers which was no longer valid in our case. As DT allows enough freedom to suit it to the needs of the team leveraging the methodology, this agility proves helpful and is thus a valuable tool in its own sustainability.

What options do we have: Organizations like SAP, Apple, Tesla, Samsung all have been extremely successful in harnessing the power of DT. Over the course of years, we have had extremely handy subsets of DT alternatives that have been proposed by some of the brightest minds in this domain. Design Sprint, Lean UX, Lean Startup, UX Burner and more, all these bring in immense value but probably not as universal as Design Thinking has proven to be in last few decades. As a self-appointed jury member the verdict is clear. Design Thinking is here to stay for a long long time to come. So, arm yourselves with those fancy multicolored post-its and get set to travel down the path of empathy and problem solving to address some of the most nasty challenges the world is facing today. We need more of us doing that to make this world a better place!

Foot note: My Top 4 Handpicked & highly recommended timeless further reads for Design Thinking enthusiasts:

• What is Design Thinking? – A beautiful video made available by Jonathan Courtney perfectly rounds up what and why of DT, 2020
• Gerd Waloszek, Introduction to Design Thinking, 2012
• The Evolution of Design Thinking By Irving Wladawsky-Berger, 2015
• Design Thinking as a Strategy for Innovation by Linda Nairman, 2019