Design Thinking

Design thinking is a method of creative action

Design Thinking is not just about design and it is not confined to the creative production of products. It also extends to services and in many cases for most companies we work with, it is service delivery that benefits the most from design thinking. Since the inception of IDEO in 1991 by David Kelley, design thinking has come a long way and is not a new concept. Stanford famously established its d-School and many companies started to adopt the principles either as part of their business model or for specific projects. 

This article will explain how design thinking works, dispel some myths and cite some benefits of its application. By drawing on client experiences, my design thinking studies at Stanford and Berkeley and its application in professional services, I hope you can see how it can optimize outcomes.

The Process

So, it may seem at odds that such a creative process has a framework. But it does. There are five key stages and we will give life to them with examples where practical.

Stage 1 is Empathize.

This is a no-filter stage where we gather data on what the end user really wants. End user can easily be replaced with “client”. And yes, there is always a client, even for internal processes and systems. It comes down to understanding deeply what the recipient or stakeholder really wants. And its okay to get a little emotional. It has been my experience that many companies feel they have identified the problem and understand what the client really wants. They know their market. But, after insisting on speaking to the clients directly, or surveying them, we can see things in different ways that add new perspectives. There is a big difference between a problem, my problem, our problem and THE problem. This stage is all about challenging what THE problem really is.

Stage 2 is Define.

This is where we get to analyze and filter some of the information gleaned from the first stage. We might come up with a series of 2X2 matrices whereby everyone labels axes differently but uses the same data from Stage 1. This shows different value sets and reframes the problem. It makes getting from “here” to “there” much more interesting when the axes represent different fields of thought.

Stage 3 is Ideate.

An energetic stage that is usually done offsite or in a room or space that inspires creative thinking. Think high black exposed ceilings and sliding whiteboards. People moving around with post it notes. The important part here is to bring different stakeholders and process owners together. Stanford’s d School brings together different faculties eg arts and engineering to combine different thinking. In the Ideate stage we think broadly. We are about “going wide” before getting narrow and basically being comfortable with different questions to derive responses. Quite often, the best solutions are in the tail. That refers to the 5% or the 2 standard deviations from the norm, the quiet observation, the different view, the outlier. Everything needs to be considered and built upon. Its great teamwork and easy to do, even remotely.

Stage 4 is Prototype.

Now in a product sense this means actually creating an inexpensive model of the new widget. For services, this means playing out or mapping the customer journey. During my design thinking studies we examined the movements of staff delivering medicines to patients in order to minimize interruptions. In technology implementations, we use this to map out exceptions and scenarios more accurately. For reward and loyalty companies, this stage might look like different ways of earning and redeeming rewards. Indeed the evolution of Prime video from Amazon is a good example of applying different disciplines to a problem to reach new revenue streams and stimulate growth in the underlying model.

Stage 5 is Testing.

This is where the prototypes get tested. Banks and card issuers are famous in this stage where small markets are selected to test new card types and rewards. Products are tested in markets for feedback and tweaking. And in technology, we test to make sure that exceptions are managed and the new state will be stable and manageable. It allows us to reframe, tweak and then finalize.

The Returns

So is it worth it? Yes. In July of 2019 Forrester released an article based on extensive research of 25 key cost and benefit drivers across multiple organizations. Their conclusion was that the ROI by employing design thinking was positive. For individual projects, the ROI was typically 229%. For organizations employing design thinking in a repeatable way across multiple services and products and projects, the ROI was between 71% to 107%.

High ROI is always good, but how does it compare to the competition? McKinsey released a thought leadership piece in October 2018 that examined the rate of revenue growth and return to shareholders over a 5-year period. It had defined design thinking and non-design thinking company groups in its study. The result? The design thinking companies experienced 32% higher revenue growth and 56% greater return to shareholders over the 5-year period.

From my own experience, the process has always been enjoyed by clients and is a great example of embedding new skills into organizations. 99% of clients that had doubts about employing design thinking into an engagement end up thanking us for the different approach. It also brings your organization and leadership together.

Dispelling the myths

So, how much longer will this design thinking  take? And do I need to get everyone into a room?

Design thinking does not have to take longer than an engagement without it. Recently, we designed a series of agile sprints that take people through the 5-step process. These were shorter than the traditional approach. By employing analytics and surveys, we can get results from end-users quickly. 

And by using tools such as Miro or other digital boards, along with some digital content, we can replicate the traditional design thinking room anywhere in the world with a distributed team. 

Agilitas has experts in design thinking ready to look at problems differently and with a client centric approach.