Design Thinking as Problem-solving and Decision Making Tool - Case Study Example

DESIGN THINKING Introduction Design thinking has become one of the most important in today's world used for problem-solving and decision making in the organization and even coming up with strategies in real life. Design thinking has been applied in many fields such as business, medicine, information technology and Education. It is concerned with creative solving of problems and creation of ideas, with the intention of improving future results. The process starts with a clearly defined goal and a consideration of both future and past conditions and the various constraints of the problem. A thorough understanding of all the parameters of the problem is particularly important to be able to come up with clear solutions. When using design thinking for decision-making, one is encouraged to reduce judgment these reduces fear of failure and encourages the concept of thinking outside the box. Design thinking is an engaging and motivating process that makes problem-solving more practical for and realistic. It has a major application in solution based thinking which is iterative and immediate solutions are potential alternative solutions including the redefinition of the initial problem (Brown, 2008). Design thinking involves a number of steps that consequently lead the decision maker to the most appropriate decision. They can also lead to the most effective strategy for the solving of the problem at hand the following is a discussion of the procedures that are in design thinking. Design thinking stages Empathy It has been put forth as the initial step in a series of five that will lead to making the most appropriate decision. Here the decision maker engages himself in a process of understanding and trying to get information about the particular problem. Comprehension can come from a variety of sources that vary according to the problem at hand. A well-known method is observation; it brings and gives a clear understanding of the working of a process. Through observation, various factors affecting a situation may be noticed. Watching how people interact and behave and how physical spaces are. A different method is through interviewing and talking to people. They share their first-hand experiences of the problem making you understand the problems even better. These two strategies will help the problem-solving party to develop a sense of empathy. It has also helped to brainstorm the most appropriate remedies to a problem (Stickdorn, and Jakob, 2011). Definition It is the development of awareness and development of insights into what people's problems are. At this point, we can redefine the deeper root of the problem based on the information from the empathy process. We are at this point required to identify the needs of the users of the policy or solution to be developed. The factors that will make the project a success are the key pillars that will give success to the solutions. A real decision maker can find patterns from responses to people and observations. The captured results are laid out for the purpose of coming up with ideas that concrete (Stickdorn, and Jakob, 2011). Ideation It is the process where the decision maker comes up with ideas based on the various patterns that were developed in the step two above. Diagram of an ideation process many ideas as possible may be for the purpose of the research, but all must revolve around the identified problems. If the decision-making entity is a group, they should engage in brain storming sessions and no criticisms of ideas should be allowed so that creativity process is not discouraged. Design principles are at this stage and will be in the next stage. Design principles are those elements that play the guiding factors for the designer of the prototype to play by (Stickdorn, and Jakob, 2011). Prototype It is a method of conveying the idea quickly to the people. It is a bridging gap between ideation and particular plans since the group or person has come up with ideas of what is needed. The prototyping stage will involve the making of a tangible of evidence of the solution. The group may build a representation to show and share with others. A prototype is priceless and usually shows how the expected result will be in the implementation stage (Stickdorn, and Jakob, 2011). Testing and feedback It is part of the iterative process where the group can test what they created in the end get feedback from the target group. Iteration means going back to the prototype and making additions to it to improve better it based on feedback. The concept of relentless repetition is for the purpose of the design where you must go back to the table and improve your design (Stickdorn, and Jakob, 2011). An application of design thinking Example 1: Marketing of products A newly established company is having a hard time in marketing its good, and the sales levels are at an all time low. The management is with the situation and is thinking of holding a meeting to find a solution to their predicament. A meeting is held for the employees to deliberate on the issue. They unanimously decide that they are going to use design thinking to be able to solve the problem. Their first step is talking to people and getting feedback from them on the various things that they might want the products to provide. Customers can give their feedback on why they haven't bought the product. Some claim that they have never seen the product while others say that the products packaging is not attractive. Step two second is to analyze the data and find patterns in the data given. Patterns can be in what was said by the customers. The third step involves the designing of principles that will guide the policies to be. The principles are solutions to the patterns that were from talking to customers. The patterns revealed that there is a need to advertize the products so that they can become well known to them. There is also need for the company to change the branding of the product such as packaging that will improve its attractiveness to the customers. The fourth step is making tangible the ideas that were made proposed. Making visible, offers a bridge for the ideas to be made available in real life. The company will advertize its product in the television channels and rebrand the product packaging thus increasing their customer base. Lastly, they must iterate relentlessly in order to improve their strategy and keep up with changing markets (Johansson et al, 2013). Example 2: Achievement of new innovative products Through the use of design thinking, the businesses can achieve new innovative products that are better accepted by customers. A good example is the Microsoft, which uses design thinking to develop user-led product solutions and avoid consistency in the development of new products. In the development of new soft ware’s Microsoft team will get together and through a process of design thinking achieve a new product that will focus on better customer satisfaction (Stickdorn, and Jakob, 2011) Example 3: Achieving customer satisfaction using design thinking Business reputation has continually been placed on the need for satisfaction of customers. It is because customer satisfaction ensures that they keep coming back for more. Managers use design thinking in order to enhance customer experience. Though gathering ideas from customers, the management can create better services that will benefit them and consumers at large. Customer experience is especially important in rebranding a company’s services (Stickdorn, and Jakob, 2011). Example 4: Coming up with strategies that meet customer needs Businesses might feel the need to come up with strategies that will meet all their customer needs. Through embracing of design thinking, they can come up with strategies that will meet the requirement of their customers. it is because design thinking will use customer experience to develop new strategy (Johansson et al, 2013). Case study 1: Study of daylight children foundation The daylight children foundation is a child organization in the US. Recently it was tasked with the mission to reduce child obesity in the US. The group had a tough time trying to figure out how they would help stop childhood obesity. They decided that by embracing design thinking they would come up with a solution. The first step was to talk to as many children as possible and get to know their perspective on why they don’t exercise often. The feedback from the children helped them to get an idea of what they like when exercising and the preferences that they have. The organization then built a prototype of an electronic device that was to e used to record daily activities and then share via the internet with friends and family. The idea is to make kids more active since they love the social media sharing of achievement. The idea is, but the organizations design team has to keep going back to the drawing board to improve their policy (Johansson et al., 2013). Case Study 2: Design thinking at Apple At Apple, design thinking has been used as an innovative approach that melds the design of a product with human behavior. Apple aims to develop a product that will suit the needs of the customer. Steve Jobs once said,” try to understand what people value and this will lay the foundation for intuitive design. The use of design thinking at Apple has been a lifelong process. In the mid-1970s, computers were only available at government facilities and were under so much security only accessed by professionals. Steve Jobs thought about the idea of individuals using the computer at home. Steve and the Apple development team had to come up with a personal computer that was simple to use by individuals at home. Through design thinking, they had to get feedback from the people who were to use the product. The feedback results gave the team evidence of what people want and how people wanted to interact with the device. With this data, available prototypes were made with creativity and innovation applied. Testing of the product took place, and the company learned from the feedback given. By integrating user desirability, technical feasibility, and business viability the company was able to expand their thinking circle come up with a product that is acceptable to consumers. They continue to apply this method in coming up with new products such as I phones and IPods (Thomke et al, 2009). Design thinking and application to businesses Design thinking has been as the next big thing in competitive advantage. Design thinking should be at the core of strategy development, and organizational change in order build a culture that is on the way of solving problems. It can be to services, products and processes that need improvement. Many big companies use design thinking in their daily operation. Such companies include Google and Apple. In order for a business to use design thinking, they should follow the following procedures (Culén and Asbjørn, 2014). Make the customer the beneficiary of the solution Many organizations have tended to generate ideas that only serve the organization needs without consideration of the customer needs. The decisions made are on good intentions for the company but can fail miserably on the part of the customer when done in isolation. Being customer centric is the primary aim of this step. One might be amazed at how much opinions customers might have (Culén and Asbjørn, 2014). Develop options for newly defined problems Ideas are the solving of the problem at hand. It is crucial that many ideas are given, and due care is taken not to overanalyze the ideas and thoughts at first (Culén and Asbjørn, 2014). Fine tuning of selected directions The few real options need to be embraced by the group. There should be no fear based on past experiences new ideas are left to grow, and the decisions are on without the threat of making mistakes. The risk of taking the wrong decision is through fine tuning of the selected directions (Culén and Asbjørn, 2014). Choosing of the best action It involves the group choosing the course of action and allocating resources for the implementation of the strategies and achievement of goals. The best finding is usually the one that meets the requirements of the organization and meets the organization needs (Culén and Asbjørn, 2014). Essential characteristics of design thinking Design thinking has several important features that make it very useful when put in use by organizations and entrepreneurs. Human-centered, it means that it has inbuilt governors but merely influenced by where discoveries direct. The design thinking is client-oriented and must consider how what is being created corresponds to the customer. There is conditioned inventiveness; it means that the design is in inventing and complementing scientific activity. The design thinking method also gives an ability to visualize ideas in a range of media to bring a unifying view of the various concepts (Culén and Asbjørn, 2014). Entrepreneurial design thinking Entrepreneurial design thinking identifies entrepreneurial alertness as being the primary trigger in finding and interpreting opportunities. It has to be the first step in entrepreneurial design thinking. When the entrepreneur can identify the customer’s problem, it becomes the starting point of problem-solving. The process of entrepreneurial thinking is an approach to treating user-centered problems as entrepreneurial opportunities within an iterative process of solution creation and exploitation. It is paramount for managers to implement design decision making in problem-solving especially when moving through a creative process of problem-solving. It can even be when looking for new opportunities and challenges. Entrepreneurial design thinking, when included in the organizational culture, can bring enterprise knowledge and creativity management to the next level and embraces a culture of that accepts questioning. Use of design thinking can reduce the risks including market, technology and customer risk. It enables the management of risk through the creation of ideas that don't have weaknesses. The concept of learning from failure is by the use of design thinking (Kimbell, 2011). Integration of design thinking into innovation and business leadership Business administration has recognized the importance of integrating design thinking innovation and business leadership. Design thinking for vital change presents a scheme for design thinking that is applicable to business management, design and marketing strategies. Design thinking can be made to bring about solutions to complex problems. Business environment consistently offers challenges that cannot be solved by rational policy-making methods and call for the use of innovation (Lindberg et al, 2011). The benefits of design thinking There are numerous benefits that can be from the use of the design thinking. It is a very practical method of coming up with solutions and can be used by companies to come up with solutions. The method is an action sport that is learned by others through experience when doing it. It requires for people in a company to work together. It can break the company hierarchy and make it easier to share ideas with each other and to work cross-functionally. Design thinking can help teams to challenge assumptions and creativity given a process and structure as a necessary part of innovation. There is also better communication and brand; the communication is external which means feedback from users. There are increased problem-solving skills impacted to the members of a company. Empathy as a concept of the model also ensures that the company can understand the customers' needs and their likes (Brown, 2008). Conclusion The essay covers a discussion of the design thinking as a process of the innovative business strategy. It has be design thinking is one of key competitive business concept and provided solutions for business. Designing thinking has numerous benefits in the sense that solutions are usually definite and rarely fail during implementation as consultation has already been made to the target audience and the team. Necessary solutions are identified to make the required charge. Iterating relentlessly also ensures that there is a consistent improvement in the decision that is being made. The benefits of the design thinking are numerous as discussed. A brief overview of the advantages that an organization will get from the implementation of this method has also been put forth. Reference list Brown, Tim. "Design thinking." Harvard business reviews 86, no. 6 (2008): 84. Culén, Alma L., and Asbjørn Følstad. "Innovation in HCI: what can we learn from design thinking?" In Proceedings of the 8th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Fun, Fast, Foundational, pp. 849-852. ACM, 2014. Johansson‐Sköldberg, Ulla, Jill Woodilla, and Mehves Çetinkaya. "Design thinking: past, present and possible futures." Creativity and Innovation Management 22, no. 2 (2013): 121-146. Kimbell, Lucy. "Rethinking design thinking: Part I." Design and Culture 3, no. 3 (2011): 285-306. Lindberg, Tilmann, Christoph Meinel, and Ralf Wagner. "Design thinking: A fruitful concept for it development?" In Design Thinking, pp. 3-18. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2011. Stickdorn, Marc, and Jakob Schneider. This is service design thinking: Basics, tools, cases. Wiley, 2011. Thomke, Stefan, and Barbara Feinberg. "Design thinking and innovation at apple." Harvard Busyness School (2009): 1-12. Read More