There is a lot of buzz in recent years in the business, public service and academic communities about what is called “design thinking”.

As I am running a consultancy that proposes to use design thinking as a framework for innovation in business and in public services, I feel liable to express my view on it. The concept has been made popular by David Kelley, the founder of the world leading design & innovation consultancy IDEO and by Tim Brown, it’s current CEO.

My brief definition would be

“Design thinking comes as a framework for human centered innovation and as a new management paradigm for sustainable value creation in a world of radically changing value networks”.

There is also a lot of discussions out there about what “Design thinking” really is and what its real value is. In the meantime however there are many case-studies, papers, books, methods, tool-sets and events out there which creates evidence and makes design thinking pertinent (see  for ex. IDEO’s Human Centerd Design method kit).

Design thinking is also about applying design research and design techniques to more abstract entities like services, systems, processes and experiences. And about knowing your customers and users and their real life contexts, making them participate in finding solutions to identified problems (co-design, open innovation) and prototyping & testing a lot of different solutions to the problem.

Some of the critics argue that there is nothing new in design thinking and the underlying process. I agree that things that have been done well in the past and that have been successful normally were the result of a design thinking process, at least unconsciously. The difference however is that today, this process has been formalized and illustrated in many different ways which makes it more tangible and helps to communicate its virtues. On the other hand, the design thinking process is non-linear by nature, and projects shouldn’t be over-planned, over-controlled and over-managed so that real innovation can happen. The way it applies to a particular business or policy problem largely depends on each projects anatomy and on the design team’s ability to do the right things, being a mixture of a state of mind, personal experience & empathy and specific tool-sets & methods.

Design thinking shouldn’t be considered as a strict opposition to more traditional business & management analytics and strategy frameworks like the Balanced Scorecard, Lean or Six Sigma. Together, they form a dynamic interplay of intuition and analysis for solving business problems and/or creating innovation. As an economist, who got into design thinking and service design by practice, interest and passion, and not by education, I absolutely understand the importance of sound & proven business analytics, strategy frameworks and financial indicators. These frameworks – traditional business analytics and design thinking – are rather complementary to each other and serve each other in their respective objectives and implementation processes (see also “Six Sigma and Design Thinking”, “Welcoming the New, Improving the Old” & “Forget Design Thinking and Try Hybrid Thinking”, Discussion in the Design Thinking Linkedin Group )

But what if business analysis pushes you towards dilemmas with no clear first choice option (often every option has its disadvantages) ? What if there is a need for radical innovation due to some external factors ? That’s where design thinking can make the difference by finding creative solutions that combine the advantages of several different options whilst mostly eliminating their disadvantages, by thinking “what might be”, what Roger Martin, another acclaimed thought leader in this area calls “abductive or integrative thinking”, as opposed to deductive and inductive thinking  (see “What is Design Thinking Anyway“  by Roger Martin for some scientific foundations of abductive thinking.)

Well, it would be possible to write another several pages about the virtue of design thinking (and its limits), but I think quoting some statements and definitions from my fellows around the world better illustrates the essence of it by putting together different point of views (with a special mention of Daniel McKenzie’s excellent & exhaustive blog post):

“Design Thinking has rapidly moved to the forefront of the current management zeitgeist as a fresh take not just on how to rethink key products and services, but also how to reframe everyday processes and projects. “

Matthew E. May in “Design thinking 101“

“Design thinking is not about design. It is about helping companies and individuals to think differently about strategic options and system impact. Futurists have been around for a long time, but design thinking combined with strategic foresight can help integrate the future(s) into existing strategies, not many organizations do that systematically and on an institution level.”

Idris Mootee in “Enough Overtheorizing Of Design Thinking. How About Let’s Start With Design Thinking 101?“

Design thinking is a process for practical, creative resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result. It is the essential ability to combine empathy, creativity and rationality to meet user needs and drive business success. Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking is a creative process based around the “building up” of ideas. There are no judgments early on in design thinking. This eliminates the fear of failure and encourages maximum input and participation in the ideation and prototype phases”

Wikipedia definition of design thinking

“Design thinking is an innovation process that uses the designer’s sensibility to find unmet needs and opportunities in order to create new solutions that matter to people…… the object is to “involve consumers, designers, and businesspeople in an integrative process, which can be applied to product, service, or even business design. It is a tool to imagine future states and to bring products, services, and experiences, to market.”

In short, design thinking is a methodology to enable innovation. It does this by:

• Supporting the build-up of ideas and outside-the-box thinking
• Taking risks at early stages
• Eliminating fear of failure
• Deeply understanding the customer and their goals, behaviors and attitudes
• Testing ideas early on to gain immediate feedback
• Challenging a product or service’s usability, feasibility and perceived value

While business typically focuses on metrics and analytics, the focus of design thinking is primarily on human-centered goals and invention. Roger Martin (Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto) in his book, The Design of Business, writes:

“The most successful businesses in the years to come will balance analytical mastery and intuitive originality in a dynamic interplay that I call design thinking. Design thinking is the form of thought that enables forward movement of knowledge, and the firms that master it will gain a nearly inexhaustible, long-term business advantage.”

(And The late Peter Drucker said, “What the Rotman School is doing may be the most important thing happening in management education today.”)

Daniel McKenzie in “Design thinking 101“

“Most companies today rely on analytical thinking, which centers on the exploitation of current knowledge, simply refining current knowledge, and producing small improvements to the status quo. In analytical thinking, you look to the past for proof of concept before moving forward. Maybe it’s a rule, or a set of historical observations based on what’s already happened.

To innovate, companies need to employ more of the characteristics of great design: a deep understanding of the customer or user, creative resolution of opposing goals and tensions, rapid and collaborative prototyping, and continuous modification of ideas and solutions. That’s design-thinking! It’s about seeing possibility, about exploring problems where solutions cannot be found in past experience or proven by data.

Matthew E. May in “The Design of Business, an Interview of Roger Martin

“Understanding human behavior (economics), optimizing interactions (design) and facilitating conversations (markets), are the means to achieve strategic differentiation. This is the focus of our discipline. It is not a ‘nice to have’‚ and is not, like documentation once was, an afterthought. It is the means by which to start a strategic discussion and the means by which to drive a tactical initiative. All design should be evidence-based.”

Paula Thornton in “Design thinking“

“Good design creates products, services, spaces, interactions and experiences that not only satisfy a function or solve a problem, but that are also desirable, aspirational, compelling and delightful. These are the qualities desperately needed by organisations in both the public and private sector which are seeking to transform the way in which they connect to individuals.

It’s a process that can be applied to almost any problem. Employing a design approach brings with it a number of crucial benefits. These include a mechanism for placing the person – the ‘user’ – at the heart of a solution; a means for experts to collaborate equally on complex issues; a rapid, iterative process that can adapt to changing circumstances; and a highly creative approach to problem-solving that leads to practical, everyday solutions.”

Design Council Red Paper 02: “Transformation design“

“Design is an activity that’s problem-solving, creative, systemic, and coordinating. This is identical to the role of Management, with the addition of Oversight, Leadership, and Strategic Analysis & Planning.”

Mario Vellandi in “The Philosophy and Practice of Design“

“Design thinking can be described as a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity.”

Tim Brown in “Definitions of design thinking“

“Firstly it is not only convergent. It is a series of divergent and convergent steps. During divergence we are creating choices and during convergence we are making choices.

…..design thinking relies on an interplay between analysis and synthesis, breaking problems apart and putting ideas together. Synthesis is hard because we are trying to put things together which are often in tension. Less expensive, higher quality for instance. This is where Roger Martin’s idea of integrative thinking is important.

Tim Brown in “What does design thinking feel like?”

and also Tim Browns most cited article on Design thinking published in Harvard Business Review.

The design thinking process

Finding good solutions to problems and implementing strategies always needs some kind of process to get there.

Design thinking comes as a framework for human centered innovation and as a new management paradigm for sustainable value creation adopted in recent years by thought leaders in business, public services & academia around the world. It is in fact a constructive reaction to globalization, increased complexity and competing sets of constraints in every single area of our lives and to the reached limits of solely analytical, data driven strategies to which design thinking is a useful & exciting complement.

Design thinking is the application of traditional user centered design tools & methods to a more abstract set of entities like systems, processes & strategies (and products) .

The design thinking process is commonly illustrated via the following steps & characteristics :

(Click on image for full size)

Understand & Define

• Decide & identify what exactly is the issue to be resolved.
• Agree on what audience and what other stakeholders are concerned and involved.
• Determine what will make the project successful (Success metrics).

Observe & Research

• Review the history of the issue; remember any existing obstacles.
• Collect examples of other attempts to solve the same issue (benchmarking, case studies, expert opinions)
• Identify the project supporters, investors, and critics. (stakeholder analysis)
• Identify the needs and motivations of concerned end-users. Talk to end-users to gather the most fruitful ideas for later solution design (design research & ethnography).

Ideate & cocreate

• Generate as many ideas as possible to serve these identified needs in (generative) brainstorming sessions associating decision makers & executing staff, current and potential end-users and external experts (where needed)
• Do not judge or debate ideas.
• Focus on one conversation at a time.

Prototype & test

• Combine, expand, and refine ideas.
• Create multiple drafts & rapid prototypes
• Get feedback from a diverse group of people, including the end users.
• Reserve judgment and maintain neutrality.

Choose

• Review the objective.
• Set aside emotion and ownership of ideas.
• Avoid consensus thinking.
• Be aware that the most practical solution isn’t always the best.
• Select the powerful ideas (based on a multi-criteria selection matrix)
• Define the underlying business model(s)
• Define the underlying financial model(s)

Implement

• Make task descriptions, plan & assign tasks, determine resources, execute, supervise & quality control the whole process (project management)
• Define a marketing strategy
• Deliver & implement the solution into operational practice

Learn

• Gather feedback from the end users and other stakeholders.
• Collect data, determine if the solution met its goals (based on the initially defined success metrics – success measurement)
• Discuss what could be improved & adapt the solution consequently (ongoing process)
• Document, document, document (knowledge management & sharing)

 

You’ll find various slightly different process descriptions for Design Thinking in the literature that nonetheless represent the same spirit, i.e.:

frame-explore-ideate-strategy-co design-delivery

define-discover-design-deliver

define-analyze-synthesize-implement

question-care-connect-commit

Originally posted at http://www.servicedesign.lu/2010/10/03/on-design-thinking/