Design Thinking as a Term - Essay Example

A Report on Design Thinking Contents Introduction 5 Discussion 7 Definition of design thinking, its importance and framework. 7 Critics andinfluences of design thinking. 11 Different management has adapted design thinking as a business strategy as a methodology to run their organizations. This has resulted to different influences arising from the same and includes the following; different people want to own the designs in the organizations claiming the originality. Most staff employees cannot differentiate between design and design thinking hence difficulty in adopting the concept. It is difficult to convince managers to adapt the innovation by just telling them to often think like designers without applicable experiences. These are some of the influences that have been raised in most organizations that wish to adopt an innovation. Researchers have criticised the idea of design thinking in very many cases. They base their argument on the concept that information about design thinking is often limited. Very few individuals know about it and how to apply it in real life business scenario. Accounting packages used by most business have the concepts offered by design thinking and can be accessed easily. In essence, most people do not comprehend the idea of design thinking or if they do, they do not appreciate it at all. However, despite the many critics raised, design thinking is a good concept but it alone is not sufficient. It should thus be used along with other business strategies. 11 The future of design thinking. 11 It is believed that, in the future, more disciplines will have appreciated the benefits that accompany the use of design thinking. The system encourages more advancement leading to new products and services will grace the markets that will have greater value to the consumer and the marketplace. The concept of design thinking would have grown to conduct many experiments at the early stages of a product in order to share ideas with as many stakeholders as possible. Develop a mindset that has room for ambiguity as this can lead to new discoveries. Develop a good knowledge background on the concept as it has productive results when used in different disciplines. 12 Conclusion. 13 Bibliography 15 Appendix 16 Design Thinking Abstract The above dissertation is about a report on applying design thinking like a business strategy by organizations. The main point of the study was to examine the importance of the concept of design thinking as a business tool. How an organization using the concept can gain competitive advantage in the market over others. The study introduces the definition of design thinking, relates it to business and how it is applied in the real life business scenarios. It introduces design thinking as a human centred process through which organizations use to solve complex problems. Five key steps are introduced in design thinking and they include the following steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype and finally test. If used systematically, they are believed to help an organization in making a great impact in the business world. An example of a business case study on journalism is given in the study. The case study takes place in San Diego, where a senior reporter introduces the concept f design-thinking o his organization. Through the process of empathy, the reporters get to know the concerns of their audience and with the collected data, the plan on which themes to concentrate on that will meet their audience needs. This way, they gained more popularity and essentially became an important asset to the community. Their popularity was obtained through design thinking. The report also gives the influences and critics raised about the application of the concept as a business strategy. However, it is concluded that despite the many critics raised, design thinking is a good concept, but it should not be used alone. It should thus be used along with other business strategies. The report also explains the importance of innovation to any organization in gaining a competitive advantage in the market. Design thinking is thus seen as one way through which new innovative ideas are brought out in the market. The future of design thinking is also explained at length giving scenarios where the concept is expected to have reached. The study appreciates the concept of design thinking as a business tool. With it, the challenges can thus be converted to opportunities hence benefit the parties involved instead of causing harm. Introduction The term design thinking can be as a concept in which the designer’s sensibility and methods to meet the people’s needs in a way that is technologically feasible and a business approach that can accommodate the customer’s value and utilise the available market opportunity. In a straightforward manner, it could be characterized as methodology to help solve complex problems to simple solutions for business clients. It entails critical thinking of the problematic situations to reach a possible solution. A strategy can be as a way through which an organization or an individual achieves a set objective(s). In the same way, designers introduce a new idea into the business world to help solve a persistence problem. Picture 1: Frame work for creativity and innovation. retrieved from Design thinking helps in solving business challenges and instead turning them into business opportunities. The idea is to rethink the challenges that face a particular business entity and use creative innovation as a strategy to solve the problems. The thought should be human centred. Discussion Definition of design thinking, its importance and framework. Design thinking has its origin in product design. The business world has always wished to offer better services or product than previous moments. A simple framework is used to apply design thinking into the business world. There are five steps in total. Empathize is the first step and refers to the process of going out and engage with your customer directly. Thus, one will be in a position to comprehend the buyer needs. Your organization will thus make it a point to produce products or services that will adequately satisfy the consumer utility. This way, the organization’s product or service will gain the consumers’ confidence. Secondly is to define the problem statement. The problem statement should be identified from the findings obtained from the study. The real cause of a particular problem statement should be analysed in detail and objectively troubleshoot the problem. Cause and effects should be understood well in the above case. This is normally achieved by collecting data from customers directly through engaging them in interviews or through questionnaires. The collected data is then analysed. Thirdly, Ideate – with the statement problem identified, one should try to find solutions available through processes like brainstorming, engaging people in an interview, gathering new ideas and inquiring from the experienced. The designer should think about the challenge at hand, do research about it and creatively think about any possible solution that may help solve the problem. The fourth step is prototype and it involves finding ways of testing the new concepts. Determine whether the concepts are applicable and if they can help in solving the problem statement. The final step is to test. The innovator of a new idea should go out and test the prototypes. This way he will get feedback that will help in making appropriate recommendations or improvement on the chosen concepts. Good feedback is a motivation to the designer and bad ones is a challenge to improve on his/her work. Design thinking acts as a room for innovation in any organization. Through the processes of design thinking, the organization attains a competitive advantage over the other organizations in the market. The importance of innovation is as follows to any organization: Innovation is one strategy that every business needs to utilise in order to succeed. It gives an advantage over the competitors. Innovation makes managers aware of the prevailing opportunities or the opportunities to come. This will see to it that customers demand is attained or changing demand is also known. It helps organizations to be efficient and effective in the daily routines and services offered. The organizations spend less but get more in return. This can be attained through application of design thinking. Innovation can give an organization a competitive advantage in that it helps he organization to produce a unique product or service hence gaining competitive advantage over the other prevailing organizations in the market. There are basic tools used in design thinking and they involve things like; drawing sketches, mind maps and even brainstorming with colleagues to find better ideas. Ideas generated by others can be built on as one may be having better ways on how best the idea can be profitable, but not in a position to implement it. Design thinking works in a humane way. It is human centred. Innovation has to accommodate communication of ideas and knowledge, culture and the ever-changing technology that remains a challenge or opportunity depending on how one utilises the concept. Design can just be appreciated as the basic service it provides or a product but rather the intrinsic value attached to it. The process is time dependent to be achieved, requires confidence as decisions come from within the innovator who needs to use the design tactics to face the challenges. The above research report concentrates on an example of a case study where design thinking has been applied. Journalists have appreciated design thinking and in return are using it as a way to creatively engage their audience. Five major steps are identified as key steps in design thinking and they include; empathize, define, ideate, prototype and finally test A case study on “Voice of San Diego digs into residents’ concerns” is about a journalist who sought to find out what people needed instead of airing things that do not concern them at all. Andrew Donohue was a senior editor at the voice of San Diego. Donohue designed a strategy that instead of feeding the community with irrelevant information that don’t concern them, they ought to go to the community and collect data on what the community wanted to hear. The results were different from their expectations as they found out that the information they used to feed the community did not concern the community and instead what the community wanted was different. Through empathy, the Voice of San Diego has to understand the importance of the community. In design, thinking one should raise questions first and then seek answers that would answer those questions. Engage the community through interviews to get a solution for your answers. The reporters having understood the needs of the community, they focused on them. He published articles on community needs and received a positive impact. This helped in appreciating the importance of prototyping. His research helped in getting feedback on what issues he should improve on. Donohue research and analysis of his finding brought limelight to journalism in general. His research helped in prototype and tests something that led to the development of a new model called “Scratch” that was used by journalists in investigating reporting. This made the firm gain popularity and gets more audience as it engaged its audience in discussions that are more creative. This is a good example of a business that used design research to succeed in its role of broadcasting. Critics and influences of design thinking. Different management has adapted design thinking as a business strategy as a methodology to run their organizations. This has resulted to different influences arising from the same and includes the following; different people want to own the designs in the organizations claiming the originality. Most staff employees cannot differentiate between design and design thinking hence difficulty in adopting the concept. It is difficult to convince managers to adapt the innovation by just telling them to often think like designers without applicable experiences. These are some of the influences that have been raised in most organizations that wish to adopt an innovation. Researchers have criticised the idea of design thinking in very many cases. They base their argument on the concept that information about design thinking is often limited. Very few individuals know about it and how to apply it in real life business scenario. Accounting packages used by most business have the concepts offered by design thinking and can be accessed easily. In essence, most people do not comprehend the idea of design thinking or if they do, they do not appreciate it at all. However, despite the many critics raised, design thinking is a good concept but it alone is not sufficient. It should thus be used along with other business strategies. The future of design thinking. It is believed that, in the future, more disciplines will have appreciated the benefits that accompany the use of design thinking. The system encourages more advancement leading to new products and services will grace the markets that will have greater value to the consumer and the marketplace. The concept of design thinking would have grown to conduct many experiments at the early stages of a product in order to share ideas with as many stakeholders as possible. Develop a mindset that has room for ambiguity as this can lead to new discoveries. Develop a good knowledge background on the concept as it has productive results when used in different disciplines. Conclusion. Competitive strategy helps producers to differentiate their products in the market according to the consumer demand, changing technology and the culture of the people. This way they will remain relevant in the market. Design thinking is critically a human cantered in its processes that helps the organization to think in a human way in solving complex problems. The method considers the culture of the consumer, the available technology and surpasses the traditional method of doing business to bring up innovative ways of running business. The five steps involved in design thinking are essential; empathize, define, ideate prototype and finally test. They should be applied systematically in order o achieve the set objectives of the organization. One-step leads to another and thus no single step should be skipped. It can be concluded that design thinking is important as from the example of the case study given on “The Voice of San Diego” that applied design thinking in their journalism. Donohue was a senior editor and he was the one who introduced the concept to the organization. The idea was taken positively as they tried it in applying and got a positive impact to their business. This way, it shows that applying design thinking in the day-to-day business scenario will influence positively to the business world. Design thinking can be thus appreciated as a business strategy. From the research carried out, we also learn of the influences of design thinking in the business world. Most organizations have not adopted a strategy and for those who have adopted there is no proper designation of roles on who should introduce the idea. Critics have also raised concerns that the idea of design thinking is not crucial, as it is not clearly understood by most people. There were concerns that the concept can be obtained through the use of accounting packages via the application of spreadsheets that a simple way running business. Finally, it was concluded that design thinking is essential to business as a strategy to help achieve set objectives but should not be applied singly. It is a good strategy if reinforced with other complex strategies that will make the organization gain the competitive advantage that will give it uplift over the other institutions in the market. Bibliography Brown, T. (2009). Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation. New York: HarperBusiness. D., K. (2011). The Core of "Design Thinking" and its Application . Design Studies , 521-632. Jeanne L., Tim O. . (2011). Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers. New York: Columbia Business School Publishing . Johnson, S. (2010). Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. Riverhead Hardcover. Kees D., N. C. (2011). Creativity in the design process: co-evolution of problem–solution. Design Studies , 425-437. Kelly, T. (2001). The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, Americas Leading Design Firm. Crown Business . Martin, R. L. (2009). The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is tthe Next Competitive Advantage. New York : Harvard Business Review Press. Stickdorn, M. (2011). This is Service Design Thinking: Basics - Tools - Cases. BIS Publishers . Appendix Case studies Journalism case studies that apply design thinking. (2013, August 8). Retrieved may 05, 2014, from Poynter: Http:/http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/newsgathering-storytelling/219649/journalism-case-studies-that-apply-design-thinking/   Read More