How to explain design thinking to your boss...(Trick #1)

In my new job role, I'm constantly met with a tsunami of questions and challenges of the what/why/how of my task as Design Thinking Specialist: whether it be "selling" my job internally or externally, I realized I need to explain it in terms that showed it's value to anyone (even babies??). Below, I share the majestic summary of that effort that I often send in response to that overwhelming wave of requests. Feel free to copy and paste #sharingiscaring.

THE CLASSIC EXPLANATION

What is it:

Design Thinking is a human-centered process for organizing the chaos that is creativity by defining clear a set of steps and focusing on an end user. So, breaking down what that means: By focusing in on a person, or the end user, and understanding their problems, we can better define the direction of our solution.

Stanford (the founders of the term) layout these 5 simple steps.

While it was originally used by companies like Apple, AirBnB, InTuit, it has slowly worked it’s way into major banks, consultancy firms , airline companies, and anyone on the hunt for innovation and alignment in their workplace.

How it works:

Design Thinking is based on a few key pillars.

1.      Multi-disciplinary Teams

By bringing together a group of different backgrounds and experiences, we are able to create more holistic ideas. This means, by mixing knowledge and expertise, we can better understand the issues at hand and build upon the ideas of others to provide the best possible solution.

2.      User-Centered Design

A simple concept, it is a focus on the person using our product or suffering from an issue. Only when we understand the core issues and/or needs of a user, can we know in what direction we must build our solution.

3.      Collaboration

The true advantage of Design Thinking is its collaborative nature. While most processes call for an individual to sit at a desk alone to dream up the next big solution, Design Thinking brings together groups. By doing so, we are able to get the best out of the team, far better than the best of a single individual.

When to use Design Thinking:

Here are a few common opportunities when design thinking could lend a hand in your workday.

1.  When you need alignment of teams in company transitions, or role definition.
2.  Before starting a project, it provides understanding and alignment towards a concrete and tested goal.
3. When you get stuck on a problem: it can provide alternatives and a process for uncovering new ideas through collaboration.
4. When you can’t identify the problem: it can help breakdown an issue to its root causes, and from there generate opportunities and solutions.
5. When you get caught in a cycle of debate, feedback, meetings, no solution, design thinking can give you the process to define the next steps as a group.
6. When you have too many ideas but can’t decide what is the best direction to head.

To make it more concrete here are some direct applications:

Problem Identification, Problem Definition, Group Communication, Brainstorming, Product Definition, Feature Prioritization, Marketing Strategy, Persona Building, Benchmarking, Brand Definition, Roadmapping, Client Relationships, Sales, Web/App Design.

Why use it:

Design Thinking is a visual, collaborative process that gives businesses a few key benefits:

Alignment- help teams co-create and define a process together.

Speed-It provides a concrete process to getting to the next step faster. In fact, Forrester found it helped IBM get to market 75% faster, with a 300% increase on ROI... https://www.ibm.com/design/thinking/static/media/Enterprise-Design-Thinking-Report.8ab1e9e1.pdf

Failure- Yep, that’s right. A fundamental of design thinking is to fail BUT fail early. By creating a large quantity of ideas and testing the best early on, we are able to avoid dedicating months of work and dollars to an idea that doesn’t function. While failing can sting, getting stuck in a rabbit hole, throwing money at the project(problem) hurts much worse. Learn through failure on the front end, to mitigate the risk on the back end. 

Summarizing...

It may be a bit lengthy to send as an email, or to some not. However, I use the same structured explanation when I speak. Build on the thoughts of your listener with the triggers which are most likely to pull them towards you, and above all take every chance to be interactive as possible: Hopes/Fears Exercise is a classic hack to understand what is preventing their commitment in order to direct you "inner salesman".

Bonus

To go in to more depth, here a few cool videos (maybe some of you have seen).

4mins: https://vimeo.com/90355541

9mins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFffb2H-gK0