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Using Design Thinking

Design Thinking” is now a global buzzword, which leads me to two conclusions. Firstly, that there is a lot rubbish out there on what this buzzword actually means (and more importantly, how it adds value to businesses). Secondly, that there is likely to be a good deal of value somewhere within whatever Design Thinking is, which has led it to becoming a buzzword in the first place.

So I want to briefly cover how I see Design Thinking adding value to businesses.

But firstly, please stop here and watch this presentation by one of the thought leaders in “Design Thinking” globally, Tim Brown of IDEO. He covers what Design Thinking actually is in a much better fashion that I could, so I won’t waste your time on anything less clarifying that his description:

The Design Thinking approach has a lot of potential for creating radical changes in a business, resulting in significant advances on the competition, and in some cases creating entire new industries.

Tim completed his talk with the statement on the application of Design Thinking that “the first step is to start asking the right questions”. Which is a small thing to say, but quite a challenge to work through. Because that little statement implies that a business leader must step back and look at the business in terms of the needs it exists to meet. This gives the scope of what Design Thinking questions are relevant to the specific business in question.

Stepping back is difficult, because it is such a gear change from the typical day-to-day work of optimising the business by increasing efficiencies, customers and financial returns. And the longer one is in this “optimising” mode, the more difficult it becomes to even consider that there might be an entire new solutions to the delivering meeting customer needs.

Businesses that manage to step back, look again at their core purpose, then ask the right questions and engage in the Design Thinking approach that Tim describes, get real value. And for the rest, “Design Thinking” remains a buzzword.

This is a guest post written by Matt Ayres, a Business Catalyst at Polson Higgs. Matt is a great proponent of design thinking and disruptive innovation. Contact him here.