Basic Understanding of Design Thinking
Logic will get you from A to B. Design thinking will give you the correct approach.
Biggest myth I had in my mind ( before understanding what design thinking is) is that DT is useful only for product-based companies to create products and not for service-based companies. As I understand it, Design thinking(DT) is about taking the practice of thinking and applying it everywhere. Everybody has a different framework . As I think more on this , thoughts like , “As a student where is my lesson”, pop up in my mind. It is my turn to fill in the holes and I want to translate it to you .
I am not here today to magically provide solution to a problem, but I am here today to write down my understanding of what DT is and how it can be useful.
Design thinking solutions are user focused ; through the phases of ideation, it becomes easier to assess the many options to re-imagining experience . If improving CSAT score of the Client, you serve is the goal then design thinking will help get you there . By using various design thinking techniques, we have a unique insight and potential to think of creative ways to improve the customer/client experience . DT enables interactions between multi-disciplinary teams and projects from different perspective that make employees feel valued and can help improve quality of work . If we look closely at how some veteran architects(any domain) work and how they think , we can find many similarities of design thinking process ( part of observe and learn ! )
When we are young, we have every medium we can think about to represent the world around but with age it gets smaller and smaller . So just draw a picture on the blank surface, arrange your ideas to see how they fit together. One thing we are good at as human beings is that we are good at seeing patterns, anomalies, consistencies !
Essentially design thinking is a process of addressing complex problems . We start with empathy, going out into community/reaching out to wider audience, users and asking specific users what they need. This sets it apart from standard problem solving. Often in process of developing empathy you realize that initial challenge you thought you are solving is not the underlying challenge that is most important. So, you also sometimes redefine the challenge. Imagination is very essential to problem solving so imagine solutions that are simple but effective in solving complex issues.
The innovation and design thinking happens when it is a team sport , like we see in the case of IDEO .When you invite people in who don’t necessarily agree with you but give their opinion frankly it will give us innovative perspective and we should learn from that . As Steve Jobs once said, “ Get the most ordinary person in this room and we are going to make something that pleases him” . When you make thinking a practice and you make it a team sport , that is when you innovate.
Recommended by LinkedIn
Thinking is not magic, but it is practice . Ask questions that no one else has thought of asking instead of obvious questions .It takes intelligence to answer a question, but it does take creativity to ask, “the question”.
Imagine a wedding dress made of discarded plastic bags, imagine a tie made of can pull-tags , can you imagine that in mind? People have implemented those ideas and they are out there serving a different market all together using innovative design thinking in their specific case
When we think of providing a solution to a problem we think of viability, desirability, and feasibility. But the actual magic happens right where they converge!
Smack Dab in the middle!!
When I think of the industry I am working in, I can relate to the concepts of DT in a different way !
Very insightful
A good read, well explained in simple terms.
Straight and Simple!
It’s a fascinating read Pranay! I can totally related to the examples which you have included in here, definitely "Thinking is not magic, but it is practice...".