Application of Design Thinking in Business - Research Paper Example

Number Design Thinking Introduction Design thinking can be defined as the cognitive activities, which are specific to a given design and which designers apply in the course of designing. It combines aspect like empathy, creativity, and rationality. These aspects are applied for various contexts such as empathy for the problem to be solved by the design, creativity for generating insights and possible solutions, as well as rationality to analyze and fit various solutions to the specific problem (Kelley and Kelley, 2013). This paper is based on design thinking with respect to the process of thinking when designing a product and the application of thinking theory to the designing of the product. Typically, design thinking happens to be a great method for practical and creative resolutions to problems as well as for creating solutions. This mostly happens in an effort to improve the future with regard to the particular product or service (Rowe, 1987). It is an aspect of a kind of thinking focusing specifically on a solution to a particular problem. In this regard, a design thinker is found to be considering the prevailing and future conditions as well as the parameters of the particular problem. In such a case, alternative solutions are usually explored simultaneously (Rowe, 1987). This form of thinking mostly occurs within the built or the artificial environment, usually as artifact (Cross, 1982). Design thinking is based on various thinking theories such as dualism, relativism, subjective knowledge, procedural, knowledge, observation and reflection, and concrete experience among other. The dual process theory for instance gives an account of the possibility of an action occurring in two distinct ways. The critical thinker can make use of this theory to perceive the course of an action as leading to two possible and different outcomes. These outcomes may include an adverse result and good results concurrently or two good outcomes could result. An instance is a case the designing and production of a product would contribute to the desired solution, but at the same time lead to adverse issues like environmental pollution. A combination of more than one thinking theories, usually occurs during design thinking (Paivio, 2001). A standard design thinking process (Fig.1)is often incorporated to ensure success Fig.1: Standard Design Thinking Process (Source: http://createdu.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Process1.jpg) The steps illustrated in figure 1 may however differ significantly as explained further in the paper. The illustration only shows the basic steps that should be incorporated in the course of design thinking process. Application of Design Thinking in Business The application of Design Thinking to business is diverse. Deign thinking is used in solving business process problems and in the course of deigning or inventing a product of service (Faste, 1994). In business, design thinking involve building up ideas, solving existing problems, handling with other people’s problems without generating adverse effects, and challenging existing business strategies with better ones among other applications. In any cases requiring brainstorming, deign thinking encourages the development of new ideas with few or even no limits, which in turn helps management personnel have less fear towards failure. The courage generated is always good for any business and in the course of promoting new inventions and innovations (Dreyfus, 1996 ). When Thomas Edison was designing the light bulb, perhaps no one thought that the entire world would one day rely on his deign thinking effort. His actions can be considered a typical example of the application of design thinking in business today. He designed the light bulb, created it, and then wrapped the whole industry around his creation (Brown, 2008). In deigning the light bulb, Edison could not make it in attracting the attention potential customers, if he never thought of how to generate a system of electricity as well. Without electricity power, the bulb was completely useless. To capture a large market, he had to envision the way people wanted to make use of his product. This implies that designing and developing the light bulb was one of the many aspects of his design thinking process. Making profit out of his creation was the ultimate results of his efforts as a design thinker (Brown, 2008). This same goal is the main objective in any business that applies design thinking. Deign thinking in business usually has the deign thinkers believing in something good from their efforts and creativities. The goal of acquiring a large market and making good profits however comes out with the consideration of users’ needs and customer preferences. A deign thinker is not always self-minded because in doing so, the aspect of empathy is hardly realized in design thinking within the context of business. This implies that deign thinking in business has to incorporate the needs and preferences of end users, customers, and other stakeholders first (Brown, 2014). Essentially, design thinking not only helps in developing a business product or service but also helps in developing the market for such product. The product is usually created with a market already in place. The product/service designer usually sets out to configure the product or service in such a way that it meets the needs of end users and customers. The design thinkers in this regard have to understand the needs of the end users or customers. Such needs generate the problem that the design thinking process would be initiated to solve (ESADE Business School and Aalto University Executive Education, 2014). Sometimes a market research is conducted in order to obtain a problem to be solved. Without the problem, designing the product or service may end up becoming of no significant use (Brown, 2008). This implies that design thinking has to incorporate various aspects including environmental consideration because adverse problems should not be triggered by the end product or service. On another hand, design thinking and its use in business innovation is applied by corporate leaders and senior executive in order to achieve various objectives. In most cases, managers apply design thinking into their business processes as well as corporate structures. The aim of design thinking in this regard is however not always successful (Ursrey, 2014). While design thinking requires some good level of collaboration, the lack of it in business strategic planning leads to failure. Participants in a given strategic planning process may sometimes lack faith in the results of a given design thinking process (ESADE Business School and Aalto University Executive Education, 2014). In fact, some members may leave a formal business meeting meant to generate ideas for use in solving a problem to the business. Such people who end up becoming non-collaborative should have developed doubts that the meeting would yield out to anything constructive and relevant with regard to design thinking. This problem often occurs in business organizations, which is essentially frustrating (Ursrey, 2014). Nevertheless, incorporating all elements of deign thinking usually work for business. Ursrey (2014) says that design thinking has been proven as a reputable protocol for problem solving that can be applied by any business or professionals to achieve huge success. In this regard, deign thinking has to combine both creative and critical thinking processes. This combination would then allow the organization of information and ideas thereby facilitating effective decision making, the improvement of various situations, or the gaining of some desired knowledge (Ursrey, 2014). Design thinking in this case can be considered a mindset focusing on solution and not the problem. The problem is however important because it dedicates the direction of design thinking. A primary design thinking element is typically thinking and then ideating on solutions to address specific problems or to better meet the need of customers. This element of design thinking requires one to establish adequate amount of time to truly think though the process and work being initiated and measure its merit as a variable solution for solving the prevailing challenge. Missing out these requirements in deign thinking could be dangerous in deign thinking for business. The process of deign thinking should therefore be clearly defined (Ursrey, 2014). The Process of Design Thinking in Business The process of design thinking may vary greatly depending on various aspects/factors including the nature of the problem, the business, and the focused solution among other factors. The first step is however identification and definition of the problem around which the deign-thinker would form a solution (Moggridge, 2007). This requirement is based on the notion that design thinking is mostly focused on a solution to an identified problem, but not on the identified problem. In this regard, the right problem requiring a solution has to be defined (ESADE Business School and Aalto University Executive Education, 2014). The assemble team need to question the problem and then empathize with the experience of the person they would want to improve through deign thinking. The problem or scenario requiring a solution has to be represented in visual ways. People are naturally visual and it would be a great idea to create a picture of the product or service in order to generate viable as well as valuable solutions (Ursrey, 2014). The next step is the creation of as many options as possible, for any newly defined problem. Design thinking would definitely help a business go about things in different ways and not only having a single way of solving problems every time. Ideation of many solutions is usually very critical irrespective of the prevailing problem. One should however be careful to avoid overanalyzing each idea. Collaboration is highly required in this step since extracting ideas from every available mind could lead to the generation of many ideas. It is however important to note that, not all contributions are viable. The contributions should be considered with ultimate care (Ursrey, 2014). The selected directions should then be fine tuned. After generating good options, the team needs to embrace the options. Past experiences should not be allowed to deter the process of perusing a good idea. The design thinking process applied should be generate an environment that would let new idea grow. Such environment would let the team initiate experiments with no threat of leading to mistakes that could contribute to adverse effects. Some options may required being combined or to be refined. Several rounds would generally be required to ensure that right answers are generated as a part of the problem solution (Brown, 2008). The final step involves selecting the course of action. The course of action would then trigger the identification of an effective way of allocating resources. At this stage, the purpose should be communicated and the mindfulness could be increased to the work. Every team member should thus be dialed into the solution being formed. This should be done irrespective of the functional groups from where they are obtained (Lockwood, 2010). Implementation of the developed solution is done as well. This include the initiation of various tasks like making task descriptions, planning tasks, determining resources, assigning tasks, executing, and then delivering to the client, end user, or customer. The result of design thinking are realized when the end user, client, or customer uses the product or service to solve an existing problem (Ursrey, 2014). It is therefore important to carry out further activities after the product or service has been distributed to end users, customers, or clients. Making a follow-up could contribute to better ideas for future development (Kelley andKelley, 2013). The feedback obtained from the customers or end users would then be used in determining whether the solution was successful in meeting the set goals and objectives of the design thinking. Collaboration should also be incorporated here by discussing what has to be improved (Brown, 2014). Empathizing with the customer’s experience would be used as the basis of the improvement. Conclusion The main goal of design thinking is to match the needs of people with whatever is feasible in terms of technology. In the course of learning the ideology of design thinking, the knowledge of the way to approach and solve problems that are both difficult and multi-dimensional becomes very critical. The process of deign thinking further requires the application of effective methods in ideating, as well as meaningful selection and execution solutions, which could enhance the ability of individuals and businesses to improve their processes and skills useful in solving problems. It has been depicted as being useful in improving innovation speed as well as success. Deign think can essentially help decrease the risk as well as the cost associate with product or service development. It makes the design thinker frame the prevailing challenges in a correct way in order to maximize innovation. Nevertheless, success is achievable after gathering deep insight regarding value creation, testing assumption, and then prototyping the concepts. Reference List Brown, T., (2008). Design Thinking. [Online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2008/06/design-thinking [Accessed 05 December 2014]. Brown, T., (2014). Design Thinking - Thoughts by Tim Brown: The Career Choice Nobody Tells You About. [Online] Available at: http://designthinking.ideo.com/ [Accessed 05 December 2014]. Cross, N., (1982). Designerly Ways of Knowing. Design Studies, 3(4), pp. 221-27. Dreyfus, G. B., (1996). Recognizing Reality. s.l.:SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0791430989. ESADE Business School and Aalto University Executive Education, (2014). Design Thinking for Business Innovation: Introduction to the Program. [Online] Available at: http://designthinking.eu.com/ [Accessed 05 December 2014]. Faste, R., (1994). Ambidextrous Thinking: Innovations in Mechanical Engineering Curricula for the 1990s. American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Kelley, T. andKelley, D., 2013. Creative Confidence. Crown Business, , ISBN 978-0--385- 34936, pp. 919-20. Lockwood, T., (2010). Design Thinking: Integrating Innovation, Customer Experience and Brand Value. New York, NY: Allworth. Moggridge, B., (2007). Designing Interactions. Chapter six. Cambridge: The MIT Press; 1 edition. Paivio, A., (2001). Mind and its evolution: A dual coding theoretical approach. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Rowe, G. P., (1987). Design Thinking. Cambridge: The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-68067-7. Tishman, S. andAndrade, A., (2014). Thinking Dispositions: A review of current theories, practices, and issues. [Online] Available at: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CEwQ FjAG&url=https%3A%2F%2Flearnweb.harvard.edu%2Falps%2Fthinking%2Fdocs%2F Dispositions.pdf&ei=x0qBVKeaFsLiO- zWgZAH&usg=AFQjCNGJs7jzPufo9ca2kyadT60HYAnoHw&sig2=XfCNA7sISAPVz wWmkdsNpw [Accessed 05 December 2014]. Ursrey, L., (2014). Why Design Thinking Should Be At The Core Of Your Business Strategy Development. [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/lawtonursrey/2014/06/04/14-design-thinking- esque-tips-some-approaches-to-problem-solving-work-better-than-others/ [Accessed 05 December 2014]. Read More