Design Thinking is innovating routinely
Design Thinking is “a methodology for innovating routinely.”[1]
It implements an innovative problem-solving process:
- fully understand the problem
- explore a wide range of possible solutions
- iterate extensively through prototyping and testing
- implement the design and deploy the solution
Coming up with an idea is easy. Coming up with the right one takes work. With design thinking, throwing out what you think you know and starting from scratch opens up all kinds of possibilities.[2]
Design thinking is an innovative problem-solving process rooted in a set of skills that can be applied to any problem that needs a creative solution.
At a high level, the steps involved in the design thinking process are simple:
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First, fully understand the problem;
- Sometimes, the problem you need to address is not the one you originally set out to tackle... the actual problem is always broader, more nuanced, or different than people originally assume.
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Second, explore a wide range of possible solutions;
- "We center the design process on human beings by understanding their needs at the beginning, and then include them throughout the development and testing process" —Steve Eppinger (MIT Sloan)
- Hold nothing back during brainstorming sessions — except criticism. Infeasible ideas can generate useful solutions, but you’d never get there if you shoot down every impractical idea from the start.
- “One of the key principles of brainstorming is to suspend judgment,” Eppinger said. “When we're exploring the solution space, we first broaden the search and generate lots of possibilities, including the wild and crazy ideas."
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Third, iterate extensively through prototyping and testing;
- Central to the design thinking process is prototyping and testing... which allows designers to try, to fail, and to learn what works.
- “We don’t develop a good solution just by thinking about a list of ideas, bullet points and rough sketches,” Eppinger said. “We explore potential solutions through modeling and prototyping. We design, we build, we test, and repeat — this design iteration process is absolutely critical to effective design thinking.”
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Finally, implement through the customary deployment mechanisms.
- The goal of all the steps that come before this is to have the best possible solution before you move into implementing the design. Your team will spend most of its time, its money, and its energy on this stage.
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