Why too much of Design Thinking is dangerous

Over the past year or two, Design Thinking is being considered something of a Holy Grail for Companies who are looking to become Innovative. Colourful Workshops with chartsheets, drawing boards and most importantly Post It notes have become a regular feature. These are being looked at as a necessary feature of the transition of the workforce towards imbibing a “Design Mindset” which is somehow being linked to Innovation. Trainers are having a field day with the demand for their services going through the roof. Articles upon articles have come up citing examples and case studies highlighting the benefits of this methodology. Pioneered by IDEO – a strategic Design firm, Design Thinking is probably becoming one of the most powerful movements seen in industry after TQM or Six Sigma.

In such an infectious atmosphere, it is rare to find a scholarly work, critically analyzing this framework. The ones which I could find after some tough research on the web, focused mostly on the implementation of Design Thinking or on the vagueness of understanding and application. It seemed almost blasphemous to even consider the possibility that at least some of the basic tenets of this “Design Mindset” may be flawed.

We need a Devil’s Advocate and in this piece I would humbly don the role of one.

Design Thinking is Human Centered.

The key tenet of Design Thinking is to have the user at the centre of its universe and build solutions around him or her. However, contrary to popular perception, this is neither new nor unique. Design Thinking, along with other similar methodologies come under the broad umbrella of Human Centered Design or User Centered Design (UCD). Design Thinking however takes UCD to the levels of obsession. The very first step of Design Thinking is Empathy which urges the designer to step into the User's shoes and understand not just what he or she is saying but also what her feelings, thoughts and motivations are. This intensity of user focus was not there earlier.

And therein lies its weakness.

Henry Ford is said to have remarked, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses". Love it or hate it, this statement has a certain ring to it. While customers can comment on what is good or bad in an existing service or product, they rarely have the imagination (or more aptly the time and the interest) to envision the future. Steve Jobs also echoed the same sentiment when he said that customers do not know what they want unless you show it to them.

This may sound heretical but a cursory look at the really breakthrough products around you will prove the point. I doubt whether Wright Brothers would have conducted a customer survey to come up with an idea of a flying object. People were more or less happy with the existing means of transport and would have reacted with extreme skepticism for the idea. Everyone was happy with carrying the stereo to the beach until Sony invented the Walkman. Blackberry was a hugely successful product before Apple removed the buttons and put a touchpad to it. In 1980s India, if you would have conducted a survey amongst people on whether they will buy bottled mineral water for 10 rupees, you would have been laughed at. Clocks, Radio, Gramophone, Television, PC – you name it, all the fundamental inventions of mankind have been conceptualized by maverick inventors with no access to organized customer interviews or building “personas”.

The Mirage called the Customer

The biggest problem with User Centered Design is that people keep shifting their goalposts. When a revolutionary product comes up they suddenly realize that what they were comfortable or even happy with, was in reality a problem looking to be solved. During your Design Thinking Interviews, you would be focussed on the feelings, motivations, joys and unhappiness of people which are transient and subject to their recent circumstances. You will set out to re-design your product/service based on these inputs, forgetting to look at the bigger picture.

This is the reason why Design Thinking is best utilized for User Experience (UX) Design and not for New Product Development. Companies should be careful in using this approach in their R&D departments and always remember the transient nature of its outputs. It must not happen that while you are busy in improving the User Experience of your product, some madcap inventor will come up with something so outrageous that the same users will flock towards it leaving you searching for answers.

Idea Comes First. Design comes later.

This is why we should understand Design Thinking for what it is. An approach for better “design” of existing products and services which would give you incremental improvements which would make your users happy for the time being. And it is a fairly systematic (though vague) approach in that. But depending on it for path breaking and disruptive products and business models is naïve and dangerous.

Radical new products come from a thought process which is independent of what people think. Once you get such a product into the market, Design Thinking can always step in and focus on making the user experience better by suggesting changes in the design. Hence at a conceptual level, Design Thinking is not designed (sorry for the pun) for disruptive product ideas.

Unfortunately, however, this is the best we have got as of yet. I am yet to find a methodology or approach using which revolutionary ideas like the PC or the iPhone can be visualized. In fact, this would be a parallel school of thought to the user centric one which has to focus on the thought process behind great products. One which comes up with an approach unearths revolutionary ideas hidden in everyday observations and experience.

We need something better than Design Thinking!