DESIGN THINKING.......The antidote to all things VUCAH

Last week, we learnt about the importance of leadership from Anirudh Dhebar at Babson College. This week, I will focus attention on one of the best tools that you can have in your armoury against all things VUCAH.

I believe, in fact I know that any business can benefit from design thinking.

It is however a commitment and you must follow a process, but if you and your team genuinely buy into it, I will guarantee that you will never look back. I would go as far as saying that there is never a wrong time (or situation) to follow the design thinking journey.

If you truly believe in it and transfer the enthusiasm to your team, magic can and will happen.

Why would you design think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stc0beAxavY

• You want to disrupt your business before you get disrupted
• You are losing your relevance in your markets with your current product set
• You want to enter new markets
• You have intelligence that you wish to exploit

My story around design thinking

About four years ago, I bought a book that would go onto inspire my business coaching, advisory and NED life (and in turn, hundreds of businesses since).

Verne Harnish had already released the "Rockefeller Habits", but it was his follow up "Scaling Up" that inspired me to design!, create, execute and iterate a unique and innovate business growth (Scale up) programme for the specific benefit of digital and technology businesses.

This programme focused on the vitally important areas (as described in Verne's book) of people, strategy, execution and cash. But, (for me at least) there was a key component missing and after having a lengthy and fruitful discussion with a great business friend Nick Devitt (Innovation Scout Ltd) I discovered that this was design thinking.

This creative element became so intrinsic to the Scale programme that in my opinion it was intrinsic to its success. All of a sudden the programme moved from a potentially boring chalk and talk into one that constantly engaged, challenged and inspired each business. I can honestly say that without this magic ingredient, the programme would have lasted as long as a chocolate fire guard.

So, what is Design Thinking?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_lwKwn4J8A

"Design thinking is a human-centred 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."

—TIM BROWN, EXECUTIVE CHAIR OF IDEO

The above quote doesn't exactly provide us with an "ah, I get it now", but it does highlight one thing very clearly, it is about humans and always ensuring that they are at the centre of your business thinking and decision making.

In its raw form, it is an iterative process in which we seek to totally understand and empathise with your customers, challenge old assumptions and redefine problems.

It ultimately helps you to identify alternative strategies/solutions that might not be obviuosly apparent (by nature you will very likely be too close to your business and its operation).

The DigitalCity SCALE programme allowed facilitators and peers to see each others businesses "naked" with the lens of a first time client. We focused on nurturing this opportunity and while there is no one piece of magic with that programme, this element was/is a huge part of its success.

Design Thinking in practice and the Babson experience

Every time I try to pick my favourite Babson facilitator, I enter a perpetual cycle and realise that it is impossible to choose between them all.

Our design thinking lead was the amazing Katherine Londergan. Her background is almost a decade at IDEO (whilst not the inventors of design thinking, they are the ones who shone a light on it and accelerated its global uptake) and business start-ups either side. Katherine is quite a rare breed, successful as a self-employed and employed.

Katherine's style is one which is authoritative, but without ever being overtly authoritative, helpful and yet challenging, soft and yet demanding.

Her first why (or her reason for being) was amazing, "I want to help the disruptors and the disrupted". The other one that stuck out was, "I want to expand your thinking". Straight away we were in a comfort zone with her, but paradoxically out of our comfort zone in terms of learning.

Katherine shared some amazing stories about her clients whilst at IDEO and its fair to say that one of her clients (PillPak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yogL3fpiq6s) was successful beyond most of our comprehension and they were sold for an eye watering amount to one of the worlds largest companies. Katherine has no arrogance or ego (she has every right to have them given her huge career successes). She no longer works for IDEO, but, has made a made a move client side to a quantum computer enterprise called Zapata. The niche sector will become hugely valuable over the next decade.....possibly the most valuable.

Zapata https://www.zapatacomputing.com/ is at the real bleeding edge of tech and there is no greater need for design thinking than in a tech start up (as there is real danger that you create a research entity and not a commercial business that is focused upon a client base who can pay you and not only wants/needs your product).

Katherine explained the background of the company, the why and the how with such clarity, energy, warmth and enthusiasm that you couldn't fail to be allured.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tvzlyLTeMQ

You could listen and learn to Katherine for weeks on end and still only scratch the surface.

In order for the design thinking process to work, you must be open minded and have clarity on what your purpose is or what you are looking to achieve. You have to trust yourself, your team and initially at least, do not judge any ideas. It is 100% about being open minded and being fully focused on ideas that occur though the lens of your customer.

That said, you have to be smarter than just thinking the above, you MUST find the balance between viability, desirability and feasibility (otherwise all you will have is a pipedream)

Katherine reiterated that it is all about the CONSTANT pursuit of product market fit. First comes the insight, then comes the prototype and on and on and on and on. A bit like painting the Forth Bridge, it is a process that is never complete.

Whilst on this continual pursuit, Katherine highlighted that we all must:

• Maximise impact whilst minimising cost and time
• Always challenge assumptions
• Avoid emotional attachment
• Make ideas tangible so that others can build on them
• Always seek credible feedback

This brought us on to discussing the the need for a continuous loop of learning, starting with the question (what are you trying to answer or assumption are you trying to prove), then creating the prototype and ending with the evidence required to prove or disprove.

As you go through this process of ideation and iteration, you start off with very low budget drawings or role plays and run through to a higher cost market testing phase and potentially getting to a final prototype destination of actually selling your product or service in a controlled manner via a website. The cost only goes up as your feel more comfortable about product-market fit.

At the stage of final testing, it is imperative that the product/service sells in the right place at the right time with the right message. This can be as important as the product/service itself. Nike created the easykicks brand in order to test in a safe zone that never threatened the Nike brand.....you can also follow this model in your testing phase.

Katherine had much advice and guidance, but one thing that sticks in my mind was a particular exercise where we had to build a business that would put our own business out of business. As simple as this sounds, I can guarantee that nobody reading this (aside from the InspirationUSA collective!) will have conducted this exercise. If you conduct it with honesty, you can rip your own business to pieces in a safe zone and then ensure you address these weaknesses as soon as you possibly can. But......... you can only do this once you have followed the five phase process below:

• Empathise – with your users
• Define – your users’ needs, their problem, and your insights
• Ideate – by challenging assumptions and creating ideas for innovative solutions
• Prototype – to start creating solutions
• Test – solutions

It is important to note that the five phases, stages, or phases are not always sequential and can often occur in parallel and repeat iteratively. The phases should not be viewed as a hierarchical or step-by-step process, rather you should look at it as an overview of phases that contribute to an innovative project.

There are numerous ways in which to go through the design process. Anything and anyway is possible. If you would love to learn more about the how, please reach out to me or have google or look on YouTube. Please forgive me if you get lost in wonder for hours on end.........it will be worth it though.

Be Lucky

David