Demystifying the Idea of Design Thinking - Essay Example

Design Thinking Design Thinking Introduction Design thinking is quite a new, but popular idea in the world of business.Currently, most organizations, some as big as entrepreneurial start-ups, social service organizations, big and well established corporations as well as most government are making their experimentations wit Design Thinking if it can provide them with an alternative approach to the traditional way of problem-solving (Brown, 2008). The spectacular rise of Apple and IDEO has really accelerated the rise of Design Thinking idea. As a result, Design Thinking is now seen as an idea that is required to provide approaches that are better ad well packaged to deal with the upcoming pressures for growth and innovation that many organization are facing in the today’s business world. In as much as the idea of Design Thinking is taking course and growing at a very faster rate, it can still remain mysterious for those people who would like to jut introduce it in their decision-making process. This report will, therefore, try to demystify the idea of Design Thinking. Figure 1: 21st Century Mule: Source: http://www.ideo.com/ It is well know that designing, when considered as a craft, requires a lot of dedication through education and talent mastery, on the contrary, Design Thinking does not require all that. It is basically a problem solving tool. As we go through demystifying the concept, four questions will be applied together with several tool. These four questions, in a sequential mode, enable us to explore the current reality by asking the question “what is?”, the envisioning of the new future by asking the question, “what if?”, developing some new concepts for the business opportunities by asking the question “what wows?” and testing the new product developed in the marketplace by asking the question “what works?” (Jeanne, 2010). The Design Thinking process begins with the gathering of data. Even before the design thinking process begin, designers usually take a great deal of time to gather the necessary data to jump-start the process. The data is usually on the users on whom the value is to be created. The data collection process is usually done through ethnographic methods which include experience mapping rather than the traditional like surveys or focus groups. With the collected data, the designers move along to transform their ideas into more concrete forms like, maybe in prototype form that they then use to collect more data from the intended consumers of the idea in the development stage, as they are driven by hypothesis. This is t mean, the new ideas are treated as hypotheses that still require testing. The underlying assumptions of the hypotheses are then surfaced and subjected to tests. This is usually done to help the designers come up with the best supporting behavioral metrics that will be used improve value provision into the marketplace. Together with the four questions, there is a set of tools that the designers usually apply in order to achieve a given streamlined approach to innovation and growth they plan to introduce in the business world (Miziolek, 2012). Figure 2: Design Thinking Tool: Source https://www.coursera.org/course/designbiz My Own Definition of Design Thinking Design thinking, to me, is quite causing confusion with the word we are well conversant with, known as innovation. Just like innovation involves coming up with new ideas that are useful in solving the problems faced by the consumers, Design Thinking, to me, creates value to people through empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping and testing he value created in the marketplace. Design Thinking is the process where designers go through data collection about a value or product that requires improvement, then apply their design knowledge through research and development of prototype that are finally tested in the marketplace for their improved value. In a nutshell, Design Thinking is just a mindset. It is all about having belief that we can make a difference in everything we do and making the first progress step to making sure that our intentions get new relevant solutions that can create positive impact in the society. For those with creative abilities, design thinking offers them faith to transform difficult situations into exploitable opportunities for design. Design Thinking is human-centered as it starts with one having deep empathy that makes them understand the needs and motivations of humans. Various cases call for different concerns and understanding of different people’s need. Design Thinking an also be termed as collaborative as several great mind come together to solve challenges and they do it better than if it were only one mind doing it. The concept of Design Thinking has ore potential to benefit more from multiple views from various perspectives and creativity from various people, other than just from one individual source. Design thinking is also considered to be optimistic. This is because, Design thinking is considered to the major belief that all of us can create and ring change. It doesn’t matter how big a problem may appear or how small a budget could be. The most important thing is that, Design Thinking gives us the optimism that we can always achieve big things. The most important perspective of Design Thinking is that it is experimental thus provide an opportunity for the designers to fail, and then learn from their mistakes. Following the steps of Design Thinking, it gives an opportunity to come up with an idea, collect information and feedback about it, before you iterate. When a range of feedback has been collected about the need, the work doesn’t stop there, it is still in progress to select the need that can create more value. In as much as there is this idea that entrepreneurs should not make mistakes, lest they cause a great loss in business, it is usually advisable that they should also try new ideas and make mistakes as well as take risks, though calculated through this, it will be possible for the entrepreneurs to learn from the mistakes and correct them. There should be an opportunity to create radical change in the business where risks are taken. This allows the entrepreneurs to learn by doing as Design Thinking is all about learning through experimenting and doing (IDEO, 2012). Examples of Design Thinking Application in the Business World Example 1: Improving Fan Performance A company that deals in low-cost manufacturing of appliances and white goods got much concerned about the sluggish rate with which the company’s household fan was performing. The fan had been, for a long time, been amongst the top players in the market especially in the company’s home country. However, it began losing its market share to two of its fiercely competitive products. A stagnant product portfolio was partly to blame for this. The operation’s manager had been blamed for not revising the fan design for very many years, so the initial design was being used every year. Various companies had begun encroaching the market with new designs that already began acting as a wake-up call for this company (Drake, 2015). To reinvent the company’s market focus, it had to focus on the customers’ needs. To do this, the company embarked on ethnographic and focus group research that was aimed at looking for the unmet needs among the middle-level income earners in the emerging markets. With the collected information, there was at least some solution where the consumers were found to require certain type of products that required new design. The company was therefore forced to try out various new designs to the market where consume were required to choose their preferred products and the prices at which they would want to purchase them. They then used conjoint analysis to know how much the customers were willing to offer when various options of products were offered in the market. Most of the customers sited the way they disliked the dusty blades of the ceiling fans especially after a prolonged use. The conjoint analysis showed that some customers were ready to pay more for fans with blades that did not easily get dirty. They also wanted fans designed with batteries inside to serve them even during power outages. Portability was also an issue, especially for the families that wanted the fan for various functions. These gave the company various options of new designs to pursue according to what the customers really want. To achieve this, the company invited a group of marketers, designers, purchasers and product engineers they got involved in brainstorming to inspire the team that would come up with different designs to fill in the customer demands. This exercise assisted the company to achieve its goals of providing newly designed products to the customers to meet their needs at the prices that were affordable (Narayanan, et al., 2012). Figure 3: Selected Design Changes: Source: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/innovation/designing_products_for_value Example 2: Medical Capital-equipment Maker A large company dealing in the manufacturing of medical devices as well as medical capital equipment realized that it was losing its market share to its Asian competitor that was a new entrant in the market. This new market entrant was offering low prices for its key products. This company’s R & D team was amazed by this kind of offer. This made them consider comparing product-by-product based on various issues including quality. They came to realize that the competitor company was offering an inferior products on various dimensions including quality. They also realized that many of the competitor company’s personnel were veterans in the company who were the core in designing and commercialization of products in this company. From the customer’s perspectives, it was realized that the manufacturing company had lagged its competitor on several other issues that are critical and important to the customers, apart from the product quality (Venessa, 2009). To help solve the situation, the company brought together a group of researchers, marketer, research and development product engineers, finance specialist as well as procurement people. They dismantled the competitor’s products so that they can compare its features with the features of its products. The man surprise here was that the competitor uses different technology in manufacturing its products. This kind of technology was cheap, hence leading to lower costs of production. The conclusion was that, the manufacturing company’s product was better on various dimensions, but the cost of manufacturing was high due to its technology choice. The company embarked on acquiring new technology that was cheap so as to help reduce the cost of it products. Figure 4: Medical Equipment: Source: http://www.hyperec.com/expertise/medical-devices Example 3: Medical-device Manufacturer Following an acquisition of a medical device making company, there was great expectation for an aggressive cost reduction. For the company to hit this target, it was required to redefine its product portfolio by carrying out modifications on its product design and how the products are sourced. The executives realized that they needed to redesign their products with a high degree of overlap. As the merger brought two business units, the two research and Development teams were brought together to work on this effort. The two teams began by familiarizing themselves with the interview results they obtained from various customers and dealers on the kinds of designs they would prefer as well as the prices at which they would like them offered. With this kind of information, the teams brought it down to develop three different types of product designs that were tested in the market to offer be offered at lower costs. They used the first production phase to monitor customer feedback on the three various designs. It was known, finally that most customer preferred one version of the designs to the others. So it was used for redesigning and launched to the market with almost no change in its components. The interview results from the dealers also revealed that there was an opportunity to improve customer satisfaction through by making simple designed products that were ergonomically inspired to deliver the desired satisfaction to the customers. In various instances, the customer responses and feedbacks suggested versions of products that did not actually mean using a lot of cost in the production process since the simple products were cheaper and could effectively solve their problems. Sighting examples, some consumers, especially the older ones suggested that they did not like the older designs of the company products especially the heavier ones. They therefore suggested that they would prefer lighter ones that, in real sense were easy and less costly to make (MaryAnne, 2014). Figure 5: Medical Devices: Source: http://www.thomasnet.com/articles/automation-electronics/federal-guidelines-medical-device Case Studies Case Study 1: IDEO The real standard bearer for design thinking in the 21st century is IDEO, the Palo Alto, California, design firm of which Brown is the CEO. IDEO is responsible for a long list of stunning innovations, from the Apple mouse to a self-sealing water bottle intended for dirt bikers, and the firm has not been shy about sharing the principles driving its astonishing creativity. In addition to Browns volume, general manager Tom Kelley has published several books of his own describing the precepts of the firms creativity, the most recent, 2013s Creative Confidence, focusing on personal creativity. Kelleys first book, The Art of Innovation, offered a high-level view of the IDEO approach to nurturing creativity and tying it to real outcomes. Although Kelley acknowledges that the journey may be more difficult for big companies, he insists that IDEOs "blend of methodologies, work practices, culture, and infrastructure" can be replicated anywhere. He also shares IDEOs deceptively simple five-step development process-which begins with understanding the client, the market, the technology, and the perceived constraints and moves through observation of real people in real situations, visualization of possible solutions and users, and proto- typing, to end with implementation of the concept (MaryAnne, 2014). Case Study 2: A New Device for Sinus Surgery Prototyping doesn’t have to be complex and expensive. In another health care project, IDEO helped a group of surgeons develop a new device for sinus surgery. As the surgeons described the ideal physical characteristics of the instrument, one of the designers grabbed a whiteboard marker, a film canister, and a clothespin and taped them together. “Do you mean like this?” he asked. With his rudimentary prototype in hand, the surgeons were able to be much more precise about what the ultimate design should accomplish (Brown, 2008). Bibliography Brown, T., 2008. Design Thinking. Harvard Business Review, Issue June 2008 Issue, pp. 2-13. Drake, B., 2015. The Innovative Method Behind Swiffer Maadness. Leadership, 12(6), pp. 12-19. IDEO, 2012. Design Thinking for Educators. 2nd ed. New York: Rierdale Publishers. Jeanne, L., 2010. Design Thinking for Business Innovation. Coursera, 10(2), pp. 1-12. MaryAnne, G., 2014. Design Thinking. Research Technolgy Management, 57(3), pp. 59-61. Miziolek, J., 2012. Design Thinking Starts at the Top. Fast Company, 12(4), pp. 1-8. Narayanan, A., Padhi, A. & Williams, J., 2012. Designing Products for Value. McKinsey Quarterly , 2(1), pp. 1-4. Venessa, W., 2009. How Business is Adoting Design Thinking. Bloomberg Business, 7(3), pp. 1-6. List of Figures Figure 1: 21st Century Mule: Source: http://www.ideo.com/ 2 Figure 2: Design Thinking Tool: Source https://www.coursera.org/course/designbiz 4 Figure 3: Selected Design Changes: Source: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/innovation/designing_products_for_value 8 Figure 4: Medical Equipment: Source: http://www.hyperec.com/expertise/medical-devices 9 Figure 5: Medical Devices: Source: http://www.thomasnet.com/articles/automation-electronics/federal-guidelines-medical-device 10 Read More