Is this now ?design thinking?

Since launching the course, some of the best conversations I’ve had have been about the real-world challenges of applying the design thinking mindset - and questioning if its even relevant anymore.

They often start the same way—over DM, a call, or dinner—with someone saying "design thinking" in air quotes, maybe with an eye roll.

And honestly, I get it.

If this mindset - and its ability to find great solutions to complex problems through a combination of empathy, creativity and experimentation – is to avoid the jargon trap those eye rolls suggest – we need to consider the pitfalls and systemic challenges that enable or undermine its success.

In the course, I shared the three most common pitfalls I’ve encountered:

• Innovation theater - where design thinking has become a workshop event
• Process, not mindset - when design thinking has become a process to be followed rather than how the team engages in problem solving
• The solo champion syndrome - when design thinking is an assigned role for a team or person, rather than a skill important for all team members

Let's talk about it…

What do you see as the clearest indicators that the design thinking mindset is - or is not - thriving in your organization? And how can they be addressed?

For example, in the video, I mention the common pitfall of design thinking becoming a workshop methodology with high energy, high production events that create lots of ideas and good emotions – but which fail to result in outputs and actions that get to market. These are rightly criticized as more innovation theater than truly representing teams able to apply a human-centered design mindset to identify and realize solutions.

When I work with an organization questioning the value of these endeavors I often see patterns like:

• A team focused on facilitating the process agnostic of the problem to be solved – rather than design thinking being core to how teams solve problems
• A cookbook-style manual of design thinking activities for teams to assemble to get an outcome – rather than teams creatively considering how to break the problem down into areas they can explore
• Hiring a vendor to teach methods – rather than hiring team members who already have core elements of the mindset in how they work

How do we fix this?

While I don’t advocate throwing out the method book, locking the workshop space, or firing all vendors – I do advocate for my clients to build a human-centered design mindset into their teams through hiring practices, through skills development, and through organizational and management practices that reward experimentation, that focus on collaboration across silos, and that value the connection between the idea generated and what gets into market.

One of the most effective implementations I've seen was at a global tech company that maintained a lightweight toolkit of methods but emphasizing principles over process. Their teams had access to templates and facilitation guides, but these were treated as starting points rather than rigid formulas. More importantly, their senior leaders regularly participated in user research and prototype reviews, modeling the behaviors they wanted to see throughout the organization.

Share your thoughts

What's your experience with these evolving challenges? How is your organization moving beyond the basics to create an innovation-friendly culture? What have you found most effective in shaping your team’s mindset?

Is this all just ?design thinking?? or is it still a relevant approach?