Why Agile with Design Thinking?

2009, was a joyful roller coaster ride for me. Especially near its end, I got introduced to design thinking and earned my SCRUM Master certification. Both the tools were fascinating for me but I was unaware of their impact on my future. In fact, I would not be wrong if I say, their impact on the future world.

In 2011, I started to work as a full-time entrepreneur and experienced the other side of the world. But this time it was a painful roller coaster ride, and I lost a lot during the start of the ride. But as I got used to of it, I learned new things, challenged assumptions and tried new options with consistency and passion.

In my observation, whatever role you are in, you need to challenge the personal status quo and see the things from outside in versus inside out. Lots of time, our core strength and inner belief held us to move fast and far. Rather than seeing the perspective of our users and beliefs, we focus more on internal strengths.

Every industry, every professional, are looking for sustainability, and/or growth. But the question is how we can transform our products, solutions, or services. Especially when market dynamics are changing and new technologies are disrupting the way we work.

The answer to that question is to envision your products, solutions or services, with empathizing your user. Then develop it through rapid prototyping. This is where you need the tools of design thinking and agile project management.

In a nutshell, Design thinking helps to reduce the risk of failure, be it a product, service, or strategy. If you or your organization is trying to transform, and looking for the right solution, then there is no better tool then design thinking.

Personally, for me, design thinking helps to challenge the status quo and build the services from outside in. That is the art that I learn to sustain and grow. It is still an ongoing battle. Yet, I must admit that design thinking helped me to re-frame my problems, and always guided me to challenge the assumptions. This simple but effective tool helps me to think outside the box and create options. Yes, Options not solutions. This is the mantra of my success.

But options, without rapid prototypes or market tests, are just like daydreams. Courage to fail often and fail fast is what needed. This is where you need an agile tool. Agile is not just another project management approach. It is an attitude to work in an uncertain environment, where results can go in any direction. The art here is to convert chaos into focused chaos for desired success.

The biggest problem with agile adoption is, we are unable to define what project success is. Are we chasing output or outcome? For the development team, we are focusing on outputs. But, organizations who demand project, is waiting for the outcome. This is where we have a paradox of expectations.

Agile approach for management would be to embrace change by moving quickly, and decisively. On the other hand, the agile approach for teams would be to execute expectations in short cycles. What I observed is, organizations are still using the agile approach, with a traditional mindset.

The way I have achieved sustainability, and the way I am working towards growth is to focus on value. Value for my organization and at the same time for my users. But, I always start by searching the value for my users and then try to launch products or services. This approach helps my organization and my users to grow together.

So if you want to achieve value for your organization, and at the same time value for your users. You need to adopt design thinking to find the right value for them and create them using agile. This is the right mindset and the tool for success.

In the end, I must say organizations and individuals are at the crossroad, their future depends on the decisions they made today. It doesn’t matter your past was glorious or struggling. Now it all depends on what you want in the future. To conquer the future, you need the tools. Design thinking and agile project management are among those tools, which are must-have for your future.

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