- Design thinking is how designers work.
We make to solve problems.
And businesses, from big ones like GE and McKinsey,
to small, fast movers,
are seeking to take on this way of work.
Because it's particularly good at enabling teams
to grasp and address really complex problems.
Most of the challenges businesses
and organizations face today are complex.
We live in a global marketplace where business
is conducted across platforms and across continents
where the customer relationship
is no longer tied to a single channel,
and where developing a product or service
means changing an organizational culture
as much as changing the user interface.
Because we need to deliver meaningful
experiences at every touchpoint,
our teams now include many skillsets,
from business to technology, to engineering,
to what's classically called design.
What stood out over the past decade
is that the way designers approach problems
is uniquely good at getting all the voices
in the room to collaborate on solutions.
It stood out so well that the
Design Management Institute found that
design driven companies outperform
the S&P 500 by 219%,
and notes that the skills designers bring to the team
are a critical factor in cracking new markets.
The key here is neither the hard skills of design,
Photoshop, CAD, or database engineering,
nor the intangibles, like a sense of taste,
or a grasp of space, or beautiful code.
Nor is it even a specific deliverable,
like a user interface or the consumer messaging.
It is the integrative thinking
and empathy-based skills of designers which
companies are seeking to strengthen internally
in order to drive their success in differentiation.
When they describe why they want this change
many companies will focus on the bottom line.
Outperforming the S&P 500,
or examples of great products
that respond elegantly to human needs.
Like Disney's MagicBand,
that's bringing magic back into the parks.
But the best leaders understand
that design thinking is a mindset.
It's how the best designers tend to arrive
at the best of their solutions.
The first question I'm often asked
about design thinking is,
what's the process we should follow?
It makes sense.
In our business culture we're trained to seek
a repeatable process to control risk
and ensure we're moving in the right direction.
The answer isn't that simple.
Design thinking is not a process with rigid steps,
it's truly an approach,
a mindset towards problem solving.
And you'll need to define for yourself and your team,
what are the elements that keep you
and your team in that mindset?
When you look at how others have visualized this approach,
for example, you could do a Google image search
for design thinking process.
You'll see there's lots of ways people
are thinking about how you do it.
There's not one process,
but you will notice common themes.
Development of human empathy,
from the earliest discovery to final delivery.
A continual reframing and questioning
the problem you're trying to solve.
And prototyping and making throughout the process.
And, as you read between the lines and arrows,
you'll see a great tolerance for risk and ambiguity.
As you look through those
visualizations of design thinking,
I recommend you try your hand
at making your own visualization
of how you think design thinking
could be laid out for your team.
Design thinking is recognized as delivering
value to teams and businesses around the world.
Yet it's a mindset around problem solving
with human empathy at its core,
and a bias towards making,
rather than a single, repeatable process.
Unlike a process,
which can introduced wholesale and topdown,
a mindset is part of an organizational culture,
and changing culture takes time.
Growing a design thinking culture in particular
can stress an organization
to become more flexible,
more tolerant of ambiguity and risk,
and more responsive to human needs.
Your ability to bring design thinking to life
in your team and your organization
will be supported by how you define design thinking,
and the benefits it can deliver
within the context of your particular type of work.
If you want to bring design thinking into
your team or your way of work,
I'd like to recommend you find an article
about design thinking relevant to your line of work,
then head to the course community to share the link,
and your thoughts with the community.