What is Design Thinking?
Design thinking is a set of tools, methods and techniques that help us learn more, see more, understand more, share more, realize more and make educated, informed actions.
“Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success,” says Tim Brown, the current CEO of IDEO, the firm that popularized the term in the 1990’s and 2000’s.
This is true, thinking like a designer can transform the way organizations develop products, services, processes, and strategy.
As individuals and organizations seek to innovate and evolve, to understand and incorporate new technologies, to adjust to new user needs and changing markets, design thinking tools and techniques can help all parts of business and throughout organizations.
Gone are the days in which these tools and techniques were limited to the “creative” or “innovative” parts of the organization — you know, the ones with the brightly colored decor, plants growing on the walls, whiteboards and sticky notes everywhere. Nor are they limited to user experience groups and practitioners, innovation teams, experience designers or product designers. Design thinking tools and techniques are for everyone.
Design Thinking and You
No matter your role, your job, your organization or your interests, you are a designer. Whether it’s a product, a process or an experience — and whether it’s for your job, your hobby or your family, we’re all designers:
You design experiences — What’s the best way to organize all your things so you don’t forget key items on your way out the door in the morning?
You design processes — What’s the most successful way to wake your kids up in the morning and get them up, dressed, fed and out the door? (or is it fed then dressed then out the door, at your house?) You’re designing a process that will (hopefully) lead to success.
You design products — What’s the most effective slide deck to pitch the new initiative or what’s the best homework for my students?
Everyone’s a designer. Which means, you can use design thinking.
Design Thinking for All
As we mentioned at the start, design thinking is about utilizing design tools and techniques to think about things differently. It brings a new perspective, more empathy, more human-centered perspectives, to identify problems and opportunities and try to improve them.
It’s about bringing in challenge, insight, and outside perspectives. Adjusting your perspective to view the idea, opportunity or challenge in a new way.
It’s about creating visibility and clarity. Creating an understanding so that you and your teams can impact and execute better. For example, it’s hard to positively impact how a team works if you don’t understand why or how they’re doing what they do now. Using the tools and techniques of design thinking you can look at what you can’t see. You can create a shared understanding of what’s happening now and where the problem areas, opportunities and pain points might be.
Design Thinking for All is a movement to make the tools and techniques, sometimes called the “practice” of design thinking accessible and approachable for all. To make it usable, because whether you’re an individual looking to learn and grow, or an independent contributor looking to excel at your work, you’re a leader looking to improve your point of view, your work or your team’s work, or you’re an entrepreneur looking to find success, Design thinking can help.
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