Exploring Design Thinking: From Business Innovation to Psychological Growth

Introduction

Design thinking is a creative process employed by innovators such as Tim Brown at IDEO (2009) and Mauro Porcini at 百事 (2022) to develop transformative business ideas, products, and services that improve people's experiences. This methodology, as discussed in design and management literature (e.g., Claudio Dell'Era et al., 2020), is typically structured into two main stages: the "problem space" and the "solution space."

In the problem space, practitioners first diverge to gain a comprehensive understanding of the broader context, then converge to clearly define the challenge's boundaries and key objectives. In the solution space, they diverge once more to explore a wide range of innovative ideas, finally converging to select the most promising product or service to deliver.

Design thinking, traditionally used in business and innovation, has been also applied as a creative method for enhancing personal branding, both for companies and individuals. Notable professionals such as Luigi Centenaro and Silvia Zanella (2019), as well as Clark et al. (2012), have drawn inspiration from the "lean" approach utilized by leading startups, adapting this process for individual professional development.

From a psychological standpoint, visual methods have been employed in therapeutic settings by renowned psychoanalysts, such as Winnicott (1971), to facilitate non-verbal communication in children. These individuals often benefit from "creative and playful" interventions that help build trust with therapists, reduce anxiety, externalize internal conflicts, and actively engage in the therapeutic process. Interestingly, the needs addressed by these techniques are similarly relevant for adults pursuing personal and professional growth, especially in a modern society that often neglects the more vulnerable and human aspects of individuals.

In contemporary Western culture, a creative and practical approach like design thinking can support the "playful" and "visual" practice of life "innovation" and evolution. This process, when conducted in collaboration with a professional, creates a "potential space" (Winnicott, 1965) where individuals can develop deep trust and freely explore more authentic parts of themselves.

My Professional Journey as a Case Study

The insights shared in this article are grounded in both personal experience and professional development. I have had the privilege of leading a design team and subsequently overseeing the design of new digital channels for "Very Mobile," the second brand of Italy's leading telecommunications operator, Wind Tre . Alongside these responsibilities, I participated in two management training programs organized by Wind Tre's HR department.

The first program at SDA Bocconi focused on business administration and general management skills. The second, particularly relevant to this discussion, was coordinated by Baglietto & Partners with coaching support from Luca Ribaldi . This training aimed to enhance personal and professional leadership skills, emphasizing authenticity and "emotional intelligence" (Goleman, 2005). The readings recommended by Luca, along with our discussions, have been instrumental in my growth journey.

In my professional journey, I have had the privilege of working with authentic and kind leaders such as Ben Mulder and Caspar Luijten , who have exemplified leadership models deeply oriented towards respecting and nurturing organizational dynamics and interpersonal relationships. While I have not yet explored in depth if and how Dutch culture fosters this focus on the human side of work, I have observed that values like transparency, sincerity, and trust are essential for building pragmatic, efficient, and high-performing teams.

Reflecting on my experiences, I have explored how integrating a psychological perspective into design thinking—enriched by real-life insights—can broaden the application of this creative framework for both personal and professional development.

Drawing inspiration from books like "Designing Your Life: Build the Perfect Career, Step by Step" by Bill Burnett (2018) and "One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way" by Robert Maurer (2014), I aim to connect design thinking with a psychological approach to personal and professional growth. I encourage us all to be authentic leaders of our own lives, crafting our existences as the most precious artifacts we can create, advancing steadily and resolutely in small steps.

The "Problem Space" - Understanding Ourselves

Discover Stage Empathize with yourself. Listen to your inner self and accept your needs and desires without judgment. Learn to accept even what you don't like about yourself: past disappointments and fails, fears, judgments, resistances, excuses, dilemmas and alibis. Everything has a meaning, in your whole. Thank what you don't like and move on. The important thing is nothing completely blocks you from connecting with your inner world. Just as in a stakeholders interview, stay in tune with also signals from your body, interpreting them as you would nonverbal language. Ask your body what it wants to communicate and use this to connect with the deepest side of yourself: the too vulnerable one to immediately show to the world. This will guide your discovery towards your true essence.

Define Stage Set your goals and shift from general, idealistic expectations to more pragmatic and realistic objectives. Ask yourself what you would like to do immediately, without placing limits or barriers. Think about activities to do, behaviors you can undertake, and people you wish to meet. Focus on what you genuinely enjoy doing and where you would like to be at that precise moment. Here, you should guide and narrow your emotional flow and energy in specific contexts and situations in order to choose your next goal. So, it would help you to close your eyes, mentally imagine the choice you made, imagine yourself in a certain place, listen to your body in that place and thus realize if that choice really fits with you on a deep level. By the end of this stage, you should have identified your primary need. If this need is not addressed or fulfilled, it can leave you feeling stuck without you even realizing it. Depending on how significant and “old” it is, this unmet need can manifest itself through physical symptoms, anxiety, and other psychosomatic problems. Gaining awareness of this need can help us overcome certain developmental obstacles.

The "Solution Space" - Transforming Problems into Opportunities for Growth

Develop Stage Now that you better understand yourself and have set goals, you can open yourself to the world. You have the opportunity to “scan” your environment to look for new ideas that align with your mature desires. You need to help your subconscious, your “slow thinking” (in Kahneman’s view) so that it can “develop” the best solutions for you. Follow this broad view and, with necessary slowness, listen to the solutions your inner self proposes. Feel free to be excited and enthusiast without stereotypical thinking neither judgjments about yourself. As Munari advised designers (1981), try to look at the world with the eyes of a child and allow yourself to maintain the same curiosity, wonder, and capacity to be amazed in order to see things from new and innovative perspectives. In this stage, when you encounter a new opportunity, pay attention to your visceral reactions. As Norman (2005) argued, indeed, the initial contact with a new “product”?—?or in this case, a new opportunity?—?elicits an immediate emotional response. By carefully listening to this emotional reaction, driven by sensory appeal, you can more easily uncover the genuine connection between yourself and the outside world. Gradually and patiently, this allows you to understand your personal “attribution of meaning” (see also, Frankl, 1946) to what is before you, revealing its true value for you alone.

Deliver Stage Once you identify a new opportunity, act on it! Switch from thinking to action. Turn your desires into the most comfortable action you can perform quickly, bringing you closer to your desired outcome. In an Agile perspective, this is your minimum viable product (MVP)–the smallest step from reflection to action. Transform your energy into actions without overthinking your fears. Consider fear as "arousal", a necessary brain function, but don't try to rationalize it. Act soon, as iterative design teaches us that we find answers and receive feedback by doing. This way, you can quickly start the so-called "feedback cycle" in your personal life just as many of us do with a lean approach to our own business (e.g. Rise, 2011). Similarly, the Kaizen method suggests implementing gradual and constant improvement to achieve great results in the long term business. Also for personal growth it recommends proceeding one small step at a time to avoid blocks and avoidances due to the onset of high levels of fear and the consequent activation of the instinctive "fight-or-flight" response (see Maurer, 2014 and Cannon, 1915). Finally, just like launching a new product, implement your new personal strategy gradually, one small step at a time. This way, you can avoid overwhelming anxiety, stay attuned to your feelings in the new situation, and gather and learn from the feedbacks the world around you provides.

Conclusions

Many researchers and innovators (e.g., Claudio Dell'Era , 2020, and Mauro Porcini , 2022) promote design thinking for business and innovation as the best approach to evolve brands and organizations. From a psychologist's perspective, I see parallels between leading organizations and living as designers to mature our lives. As design thinkers, we can view our lives as our most significant artifact to design. Similarly, as psychologists or empathic design thinkers, we can truly empathize with others only if we "empathize with our deeper selves".

In terms of well-being (but also efficiency and effectiveness) in the organizations, just as we would like to experience kindness, trust, and mutual respect in our personal lives, we can cultivate and promote a "kind leadership" that prioritizes personal relationships (see for example, Bianca Straniero Sergio and Guido Stratta , 2021). Indeed, in an increasingly volatile society and market, the true strength of modern companies lies in the human richness of their people. While technical and operational skills can be acquired relatively easily, the path to becoming genuinely and authentically kind to colleagues and clients is long and challenging.

To start, we can firstly accept our human fallible nature without fear of making mistakes. This acceptance leads directly to recognizing the true strength in the cooperation rather than the concentration of power and control. Just as we learn as children to walk by falling and getting up, needing appropriate feedback and reassurance from our parents, in a constantly changing environment, many companies are increasingly adopting experimental and "lean" methods to stay agile and responsive. The more we collaborate, the more swiftly we can react across various fronts.

In this new landscape, it is clear that there will be less room for individualism that seeks to attract attention and "glory" for personal, short-sighted interests. The future (and indeed the present) demands a "collective resilience," a capacity for cohesive and consistent action oriented toward a shared vision.

As individuals and professionals, our focus, passion, dedication, and commitment should be on how we act continuously and iteratively—learning from mistakes, optimizing, and responding.

After all, Durant (1926) summed up Aristotle’s thought and he wrote “…we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit.” In conclusion, to be true leaders, we should first learn to be authentic individuals.

References

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Acknowledge: The author thanks ChatGPT (GPT-4) for the support in quickly revising the English version of this work.