Design Thinking is a problem-solving approach that puts people at the center of the design process. It’s a methodology that combines empathy, creativity, and rationality to solve complex problems in a human-centered way. This approach is used by designers, engineers, and other professionals to create innovative solutions to a variety of challenges.
Design Thinking has its roots in the design industry and was developed in the 1960s and 1970s by design firms like IDEO and Stanford University’s d.school. Today, Design Thinking is used by a wide range of industries, from healthcare and education to technology and finance.
Design Thinking Methodology
Although the approach differs between practitioners and client, the basic model has the same elements.
- Scoping & Challenge: Clearly defining the need is the first and most critical step of any project and is most true with Design Thinking. If scoped incorrectly you may do great research, come up with amazing ideas, prototype something fantastic, then build something that no one wants. Starting with a specific SMART scope or challenge will get you to a result that will be successful.
- Research & Empathize: In this stage, designers seek to understand the needs and experiences of the people they are designing for. This involves conducting research, such as interviews, observations, and surveys, to gain insights into their needs, behaviors, and pain points.
- Synthesis & Define: In this stage, designers define the problem they are trying to solve based on the insights they have gained from the empathize stage. This involves synthesizing the research data to create a problem statement or “point of view” that will guide the rest of the design process.
- Ideate: In this stage, designers generate a wide range of ideas for possible solutions to the problem. This involves brainstorming, sketching, and other ideation techniques to come up with a large number of potential solutions.
- Prototype: In this stage, designers create quick and simple prototypes of the most promising ideas. These prototypes can take many forms, from physical models to digital mockups, and are used to test and refine the design ideas.
- Validate & Test: In this final stage, designers test the prototypes with users to get feedback on how well they meet the needs of the people they are designing for. This feedback is used to refine the design ideas and create a final solution.
How Design Thinking is Used Today
Design Thinking is used in a wide range of industries and contexts today. For example:
Healthcare: To improve patient experiences and outcomes, create new medical devices, improve hospital environments, and develop new care models that are more patient-centered.
Education: To create new teaching methods, curricula, and learning environments that are more engaging and effective for students. It’s used to create new technologies and tools that support learning, and to design new spaces that are optimized for collaboration and creativity.
Technology: To create new products and services that are more user-friendly and accessible, new interfaces that are intuitive and easy to use, and to design products and services that meet the needs of diverse users.
Social Impact: To create new solutions to complex social problems, programs and services that address inequalities, and to design new policies and systems.
In summary, Design Thinking is a problem-solving approach that puts people at the center of the design process. It has its roots in the design industry and is now used in a wide range of industries and contexts to create innovative solutions to complex challenges.
The Design Thinking methodology typically involves five stages: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
Our Design Thinking Skills
- Expertise in Design Thinking: We have a deep understanding of the Design Thinking process and its principles and are very familiar with the various tools and techniques used in the process and be able to guide the team through each stage effectively.
- Strong Communication Skills: Design Thinking is a collaborative process that involves a diverse range of stakeholders. We have strong communication skills to facilitate communication and collaboration between team members effectively and listen actively, ask the right questions, and provide constructive feedback.
- Ability to Facilitate Workshops: Design Thinking often involves workshops where team members come together to ideate and prototype ideas. We facilitate these workshops effectively, ensuring that everyone has a chance to contribute and that the team stays on track.
- Problem-Solving Skills: Design Thinking is a problem-solving approach, and requires strong problem-solving skills. We analyze complex problems, identify the root causes, and develop creative solutions through collaboration with your staff that meet the needs of the users.
- Flexibility and Adaptability: Design Thinking is an iterative process. We are able to adapt to changing environments, requirements and circumstances, and are flexible enough to pivot the team’s direction if needed and make adjustments to the process as necessary.
- Strong Interpersonal Skills: Design Thinking is a human-centered approach. We have strong interpersonal skills to build rapport and establish trust with team members and stakeholders to work effectively with people from different backgrounds and perspectives.
- Business Acumen: Finally, we gain a good understanding of the company’s business goals and challenges before proceeding with the project to align the Design Thinking process with the company’s strategic objectives and ensure that the solutions developed are viable and scalable.
What we Offer
Design Thinking Workshops
When you are looking to upgrade products or services, create new ones, improve marketing, reduce costs/increase revenues enter a new market; this Workshop is the way to engage your staff in developing new solutions. There are many tools available for each of the steps during the workshop that are dependent on the problem to be solved.
Workshops generally start with identifying and clarifying the problem. This may take several hours to days to arrive at a concise definition. It is imperative that everyone agree on the definition, otherwise you will end up with a solution to the wrong problem!
The actual workshop can be a single day to several months and is dependent on the amount of research to be done. Once completed development of the solution, or multiple solutions, take one-to-five days. This is followed by Prototyping, Testing, and Product Management engagement.
We have conducted over 150 Design Thinking workshops using various tools, in different functional areas, in multiple industries, and in different countries. Each one is specific to client requirements.
Why Design Thinking
Several companies want to bring Design Thinking into their companies as a way to increase employee engagement. It encourages building internal champions for and integrate Design Thinking as a standard part of the DNA of the company. We provide Train-the-Trainor workshops who then go back into their organizations to perform their own workshops. To be fair, not everyone can facilitate a session, which is why we work with you to identify and coach individuals through the entire process.
We have trained over 1,000 staff to take this methodology back into their companies and over 20,000 via an on-line MOOC.
Train-the-Trainer
Shark Tank Competition
Everyone loves competition and getting their new ideas funded. We provide an exceptional offering of internal competitions for new processes, products or services by teaching Design Thinking to your staff, then have them develop unique offerings in a group setting, culminating in a Shark Tank-like competition for investment.
This process is very hands-on and requires teaching the methodology, leveraging collaboration tools and working with internal and external resources throughout the competition.
This is a very selective offering as we need to know that company executives are serious about engaging staff as it often produces a large amount of verifiable new offerings that may need funding or identifiable cost savings that may impact the organization.
It will also require guided follow-through with developing the business model and execution. It is a very exciting way to have staff engaged in formulating new ideas for the company.
Work Examples
- GOAL Reduce response time to disease outbreaks in West Africa.
- RESULT Developed a mobile and SaaS-based solution that reduced infection notification time from 3 months in near real-time. Allowed constant monitoring of potential infections, and case management for confirmed cases. Rolled out to several countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the USA. Capable of tracking 20+ diseases with more under development.
- GOAL Reduce overall demand of energy across an interconnected network of generation plants.
- RESULT A gamified mobile app that compared energy usage across a community with rewards for lowest consumption amongst neighbors. Results showed a significant engagement with consumers and decrease in energy usage.
- GOAL Reduce stress and overtime required of service managers.
- RESULT Using a method called “Day in the Life of” to identify actual work performed by service managers. Optimized several processes, rewrote responsibilities, and designed new analytics. The effect was a decreased workload by 40% and increased customer satisfaction by 25%.
National Services Organization
- GOAL Add new offerings broaden and deepen the existing set of offerings and gain new business within one year.
- RESULT Conducted several Design Thinking workshops with over 1400 staff that generated 300+ new ideas. After consolidation, selection, and prioritization, the company had 40 new offerings and started with 3 that had the highest ROI which were implemented in less than 6 months. A plan was put in place to implement the remaining ideas over the next 18 months.
Ready to explore how Design Thinking can help you? Select the link below to start the discussion.