Design thinking has become a popular concept in recent years and is a sought-after skill in the job market. This approach is useful for companies seeking to identify innovative, creative, customer-centric solutions to business challenges, and it is especially relevant for projects related to digital transformation.
Design thinking is a decision-making process that begins with developing a deep understanding of customer needs and how they interact with the world. It involves connecting with customers on an emotional level in addition to a rational one, and in the process developing empathy for the challenges and frustrations they are facing. Design thinking is also an iterative process in which problems are reframed, assumptions are challenged, and potential solutions are identified, prototyped, and tested before being introduced into the market.
This is not the way that decision-making typically works in many companies. The best way to illustrate this is to briefly describe the design thinking process and then contrast it with the ‘traditional’ way in which decisions are made.
There are different variations on the design thinking approach, and the one described below largely follows the approach taught at Stanford University’s Design School (https://dschool.stanford.edu). The process they outline consists of six steps: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test and Assess. These steps aren’t necessarily followed in the indicated order, but instead may loop back on one another in an iterative process as concepts are refined.
- Empathize. The design thinking process does not start from the belief that you already know what the customer wants. Instead, you start from the perspective that true customer needs are often unknown and may even surprise you, and therefore must be discovered. It involves working directly with the customer to develop empathy for their situation and understand their challenges and pain points. Tools used here include observation, surveys, and direct engagement.
- Define. The define phase distills the information gathered from the initial research to develop a statement of what problem or problems need to be addressed to improve the customer experience. This may require reframing initial perspectives on the problem by looking at it from different angles and challenging what might be considered ‘common knowledge’. It’s important to not define the problem in the context of any specific solution, but rather to keep it general enough to leave the door open to a variety of potential solutions.
- Ideate. The goal in this phase is initially to develop as many ideas as possible to address the problem without any censoring with regard to feasibility or practicality. Wacky ideas are not discouraged, since they may contain usable elements down the road. Quantity of ideas is more important than quality, and this process is typically conducted in a brainstorming session involving people of diverse backgrounds and experience levels.
After the initial brainstorming session, the resulting ideas can then be grouped and classified, and the process begins to winnow the list and identify the most promising solutions. This process is often iterative, looping back to broader concepts and exploring different refinements of them.
- Prototype. Prototyping involves creating physical representations of ideas. These may be visual displays, wireframes of user interfaces, simple, non-functional software representations, etc. The goal is to get something that people can experience to in order to gain additional insights into the viability of potential solutions.
- Test. Testing involves putting some low-resolution prototypes in the hands of actual users and gathering their feedback. This is another iterative process, where refinements are made to the prototypes based on information gleaned from the users’ experience with the solution. This phase involves Agile development principles, with a focus on the development of a ‘minimum viable product’ that addresses the basic customer needs and can serve as the foundation for future enhancements.
- Assess. In this phase, the results of the project to date are summarized and the solutions are viewed with respect to the company’s business objectives. This is where a decision on whether to move forward or not is made, and implementation resources are identified and allocated.
In quick summary, the design thinking process is focused on first developing a deep understanding of the customer needs, brainstorming different possible solutions, and then exploring and testing the most promising solutions to address the customers’ needs.
By way of contrast, the traditional approach to decision-making and project execution frequently starts with the belief that the customer needs are already known, as is the range of potential solutions. It then becomes an exercise to review a limited number of potential solutions, choose the one that seems to best fit the preconceived need and/or has the highest projected ROI, and get the internal approvals necessary to move into the implementation phase. Projects are often more centered around the company’s needs than those of their customers. Research is limited, alternatives receive scant attention, prototypes are rarely constructed, and testing occurs in the real world as the solution is deployed.
To help understand the ways in which this approach is different, the table below attempts to compare a design thinking approach to solving a problem to a more traditional one that is often taken by companies seeking to introduce new productions, technologies, or processes:
| Phase | Design Thinking | Traditional Approach |
| Emphasize | Projects begin by reaching out to customers to identify needs and create empathy for their challenges. | Projects often begin with the belief that needs are already known and additional research is rarely necessary. |
| Define | Distills customer research into a statement of the problem to be solved. | The problem to be solved is typically defined at the inception of the project and is not subsequently questioned. |
| Ideate | Brainstorms different potential solutions, and begins to identify the most promising ideas. | This phase is often focused on either reviewing existing solutions to address defined needs or creating a project plan for internal development. |
| Prototype | Gathers feedback on potential solutions by creating simple prototypes that users can interact with. | Prototypes may just be a review of designs of existing vendor solutions or may involve internal designs that implement the pre-defined solution. |
| Test | Puts low-resolution prototypes in the hands of customers to obtain feedback. | Internally-developed and purchased solutions may be subject to some internal testing by staff but rare rarely shown to actual customers. |
| Assess | Review results of the project relative to business objects and resource requirements to decide whether or not to move forward. | The go/no-go decision is usually made at the start of the project for the chosen solution, based on pro forma analyses. |
A design thinking approach to identifying solutions is likely to take longer and consume more internal resources during the development period. The big positive to the approach is that once you do get a product or service or process to the implementation phase, it will have been carefully vetted and tested, and the odds of it being successful in meeting a real customer need are much higher. Rather than making large bets on a single solution as with the traditional approach, you will instead have made a series of small bets on alternative solutions and prototypes, gathering invaluable feedback before committing to a final project. This greatly reduces the risk of the project failing.
I don’t want to over-sell this approach though – not every business problem is a candidate for the design thinking process. But many projects would benefit from at least incorporating elements of the approach. And any initiative that seeks to create innovative new products and services, attract new customers, or improve the experience of existing ones would surely benefit from the use of design thinking concepts.
