In recent years, we have borne witness to massive technological advancements on many fronts and the business sector has not been spared from its web. With disruptive technologies rapidly supplanting traditional business models, companies are left with no option but to integrate them into their practices to survive in the competitive market. However, the transition is not an easy one as the digital world is constantly evolving and unpredictable (Himsworth, 2018). This coupled with various factors such as the pandemic, changing customer behavior, and shifting political and economical situations to name a few, demand that organizations be agile and innovative. That is, they have to deviate from the traditional analytical thinking and linear problem-solving approach in use since the Industrial Revolution (Przybilla, 2022 ). Such an approach would be ideal for tackling challenges that are complex, predictable, linear, and arising over a period of time. But the digital world that we are in currently is rife with problems that are of quite the opposite nature demanding a creative framework that can drive the innovation and strategic decision-making process within the business (Kurakayev, 2020). This is where design thinking (DT) comes in.
With its multi-disciplinary approaches and wide-reaching implementations (Liedtka, 2018), DT would enable companies to come up with their own individualized creative frameworks to thrive in the digital world. As the methodology is primarily user-centric, the businesses would be able to identify the real needs of their customers by engaging with them and accordingly make their decisions thereby reducing the risks of innovations and uncertainty (Kurakayev, 2020). Considering its relevance, the post will discuss further what exactly DT is, how it works and why it is important in today’s times.
The “what” and “how” of design thinking
The concept of DT evolved around the 90s as a problem-solving approach encouraging designers to understand and internalize people’s needs, focussing on the “why” rather than the “how”. In layman’s terms, it is a human-centered creative problem-solving methodology with the goal to create innovative solutions while also maintaining technical feasibility and economic viability (Nakata, 2020). If we are to define it more specifically, it is an iterative, non-linear process comprising five phases- 1.Empathise, 2.Define, 3.Ideate, 4.Prototype, and, 5.Test (Hartono, 2021). In the process, it identifies not only the concrete aspects of the problem at hand but also the peripheral factors that contribute towards it (Przybilla et al., 2022). It places the customer’s needs above everything else. The designers/innovators focus on how the customers are engaging with a particular product or service rather than on how they think the customers would engage with it based on which they continue to refine it to improve the consumer’s experience (Hartono, 2021). The core idea of the process is to enable you to work in a dynamic manner to come up with innovative solutions to the problems faced by the customers which in turn would benefit the businesses.
In the last few decades, this concept has become increasingly popular with its successful adoption by many high-profile global companies such as SAP, DELL, and IBM. Both SAP and DELL incorporated DT to aid in their digital transformation process. IBM gives credit to DT for the success of its cloud-first and AI strategy (Kurakayev, 2020).
Design thinking, the tool for innovation
Businesses are fiercely competing with one another to introduce new products and services into the markets as innovation is the driver of their growth and profitability. But of late, many of these innovations are not well received by consumers (Markham & Lee, 2013). This can be attributed to the businesses’ practice of solely relying on data as the key input, without giving due consideration to the customers. However, customer experience is the linchpin of today’s marketing strategies (Seven ways design thinking enhances customer experience, 2020); by offering customers a unique and positive experience, businesses can ensure that their innovations become successful. In order to improve customer experience businesses need to understand their customers’ mindset and DT with its human-centric approach would be the right solution for it.
DT is founded on the principle of empathy with users (Dziadkiewicz, 2017). An empathetic DT ensures that businesses preempt customer needs i.e. it understands the problems from the perspectives of the user rather than its own and accordingly comes up with the best possible solution to cater to their needs. Interacting, engaging, and empathizing with the customers would help in understanding their motivation for using the product or availing the services, and identify problems or shortcomings associated with it some of which might even be unknown to the users themselves (Dziadkiewicz, 2017; LeBlanc, 2020). This immersive process helps in ensuring that the assessment is performed by casting aside any preconceived assumptions or team perspectives. Data generated in this manner can be further transformed into insights that would guide the teams in setting up their “how might we” questions (LeBlanc, 2020). In contrast to the traditional innovation system which focuses only on finding a solution to the already identified problem, DT engages in a problem-discovery process. It works on the assumption that the problem needs to be found while also not setting aside the possibility that the problem identified initially could be proven wrong in the later stages, demanding them to search for it anew (Liedtka, 2015; Zheng, 2018). So it adopts a divergent to convergent thinking approach i.e. the teams are required to come up with divergent solutions that would not only include the most obvious solutions but have to dig deeper and find out the underlying causes for the problem and come up with new and effective solutions (Nakata, 2020). Next, these have to be prototyped and tested on which feedback can be gathered and the steps can be iterated to come up with the best innovation aligned with the customers’ interests that would provide them with a remarkable experience (Hartono, 2021).
DT, therefore by using these connected elements can bring about the most effective and fast outcomes. Involving the customers and other stakeholders in identifying the problems and in developing solutions all while bringing a structure to the whole process of innovation ensures a broad commitment to change (Liedtka, 2018). The inclusion of diverse voices of the innovators themselves from the company also helps in overcoming workplace politics and shaping their experience along the way. Now that’s nothing less than social technology at work (Liedtka, 2020).
Design thinking-the solution With the accelerated rate of change both in business and society brought about by the digital revolution comes more complexities warranting the need for a DT approach. The accelerated disruption of business models requires a shift in approach from problem-solving to problem-finding. In the absence of a creative framework, businesses would only be involved in incremental innovation albeit disruptive innovation being the need of the hour to survive in a competitive market where customers play the central role.
References
Dziadkiewicz, A. (2017). Customer value development in the light of design thinking approach. Journal of Positive Management, 8(3), 58-68.
Hartono, M. (2021, September). Kansei Engineering and design thinking methodology for product/service design. http://ieomsociety.org/proceedings/2021indonesia/391.pdf
Himsworth, J. (2018, February 28). Five steps to accelerate digital transformation with design thinking. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/02/28/five-steps-to-accelerate-digital-transformation-with-design-thinking/?sh=4664700078aa
Kurakayev, A. (2020). Design thinking for digital transformation. https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/335468/Adlan%20Kurakayev.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
LeBlanc, B. (2020). Design thinking: A human-centered approach to solving customer problems in the energy world.
Liedtka, J. (2020). Putting technology in its place: Design thinking’s social technology at work. California Management Review, 62(2), 53-83.
Liedtka, J. (2018). Why design thinking works. https://hbr.org/2018/09/why-design-thinking-works?utm_medium=email&utm_source=tgr_regengagement&utm_campaign=articleabandoned_actsub&utm_content=articleabandoned_actsub&tpcc=email.tgr_regengagement.articleabandoned_actsub
Markham, S., & Lee, H. (2013). Product Development and Management Association’s 2012 comparative performance assessment study. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 30(3), 408-429.
Nakata, C. (2020). Design thinking for innovation: Considering distinctions, fit and use in firms. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0007681320301002
Przybilla, L., Klinker, K., Lang, M., Schreieck, M., Wiesche, M., & Krcmar, H. (2022, August). Design thinking in digital innovation products-Exploring the effects of intangibility. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348141679_Design_Thinking_in_Digital_Innovation_Projects-Exploring_the_Effects_of_Intangibility
Seven ways design thinking enhances customer experience. (2020, august 7). https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/08/07/seven-ways-design-thinking-enhances-customer-experience/?sh=712b48296922 Zheng, D.L. (2018). Design thinking is ambidextrous. Management Decision, 56(4), 736-756.