While doing further research on Design Thinking, I came across a really good article by Lisa Carlgren, Maria Elmquist and Ingo Rauth: The Challenges of Using Design Thinking in Industry - Experiences from Five Large Firms, in: Creativity and Innovation Management.
It lists 7 challenges “ …mainly related to the interfaces between the use of DT [Design Thinking] and mainstream operations, as well as the output of DT work.”, reproduced here:
- Misfit with Existing Processes and Structures
- Resulting Ideas and Concepts are Difficult to Implement
- Value of DT is Difficult to Prove.
- DT Principles/Mindsets Clash with Organisational Culture
- Existing Power Dynamics are Threatened
- Skills are hard to Acquire
- Communication Style is Different
Here is a link to the above article:
Carlgren, Lisa, Maria Elmquist, and Ingo Rauth. The Challenges of Using Design Thinking in Industry - Experiences from Five Large Firms, Creativity and Innovation Management 25, no. 3 (September 2016): 344–62. https://doi.org/10.1111/caim.12176.
My first reaction was: How then can we overcome these? But the answer to this question depends so much on individual situations that an answer would be too long. So I decided to look further into the causes, as to provide some insights into how everyone can address their own issues with their own solutions, a form of applied (self-)reflection is then needed. Reflective Practice is one of the Capabilities needed for Design Thinking anyway! (see: Design Thinking Guide)
Below are my insights from studying the issues of implementing Design Thinking in existing organisations (I would like to encourage you to add to, or comment on these):
- Design Thinking is used in situations which one (mostly) has not encountered, or solved, before. Design Thinking skills are ‘dynamic’, their application is tailored to the situation and the task at hand. These two characteristics make the Design Thinking hard to learn and execute well.
- Outcomes of Design Thinking do not only depend on learned skills. The quality and effect of Design Thinking (the outcomes) are also dependent on (the freedom and support from) the immediate environment (e.g. corporate culture) in which the skills are applied, and a large dose of serendipity (luck, stamina).
- A supportive environment (regarding: processes, structures, culture and communication) for Design Thinking differs significantly from those needed for efficient execution of business-as-usual.
- Any change to these may interfere with existing power dynamics, and thus strong resistance to the required changes may be encountered.
- The explorative nature of Design Thinking creates undetermined, multiple, uncertain, and rather conceptual outcomes of various quality:
- Undetermined: outcomes are only determined by the process, the process is not determined by predetermined outcomes (compare this with a ‘project’ and Project Management). This makes the initiative difficult to justify in advance from a traditional business point of view of a required ROI.
- Uncertain: any (possible) later success is still dependent on many factors that are still unknown and may remain outside one's own control.
- Multiple: not one ‘solution’ is pursued, but multiple (possibly competing) in parallel. A sign of intelligence is: the ability to hold in mind several competing ideas at the same time.
- Conceptual: outcomes are not ready to be implemented yet, difficult to explain, justify and ‘sell’ internally, at an early stage.
- When resources (time, money, and attention) are limited, conflicts are likely to occur between activities which (seem to) serve different purposes, timelines and interests. This is likely to be the case between Design Thinking and current business activities.
All these factors combined make it quite difficult to start adopting and implementing Design Thinking practices in existing organisations.
I hope these insights help you.
