Design Thinking: Influences and Critiques - Essay Example

Design Thinking: Influences and Critiques Introduction Because of the globalization and liberalization, competition is getting stiffer in international market. It is impossible for the modern companies to stay competitive in the global market with the help of traditional products, services and business management techniques. The ability to innovate new products, services and business techniques is determining the completive power of a company in the current business world. In order to improve competitive power, organizations are currently implementing new techniques such as Total Quality Management and Six Sigma. Design thinking is another strategy implemented by modern organizations as a measure to foster innovation as well as problem solving and thereby improve the competitive power of the organization. This paper analyses the definition, advantages and disadvantages of design thinking as well as the potential of design thinking as a strategic tool in the organizational world. Design Thinking: Definition According to Tim Brown, president and CEO of the company IDEO, “Design thinking is a human-cantered approach to innovation that draws from the designers toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success” (IDEO, 2014). Designers are usually make designs based on the needs of the people. For example, an architect or engineer usually designs a building or home after knowing the necessities and demands of the customer. It is not necessary that two customers think in the same manner when they construct buildings, even if the buildings happen to be in the same location or place. The purpose of the building construction could be different for different customers. Some customers construct buildings for the purpose of hotel business whereas some others construct it for the purpose of lodging or hotel business. The architect, who makes the designs, would ask the customer about the purpose of the building as well as his demands ad budgets first before designing the building. In short, the preferences of the customers are extremely important while an architect designs a building. The very same principle is applicable in business also. Here the demands of the customers should be taken into the consideration while a leader or manager implements new strategies in business. In other words, business strategies successful in one type of business may not be successful in another type of business. Design thinking helps the leaders and managers to develop suitable strategies for the business just like how a designer makes different designs for different buildings. According to Fast company staff (2014), the seven key elements of design thinking are; define, research, ideate, prototype, choose, implement, and learn. Definition of the problem is important while developing solution for it. A company may face several problems of different types. It is necessary to get proper awareness about the problems first before developing solutions for it. The issues, stakeholders and urgency of the problem should be taken into the account before proposing any solution for it. Research is the second element of design thinking. It is necessary to get proper insights about the problem. The details about the history of the problem, previous attempts to solve the problem, stakeholders related to the problem, opinions of the leaders and the stakeholders about the problem etc are very much important in design thinking. Ideation is the third element of design thinking. Identification of the needs of the end users and possible solutions are important in design thinking. Making of a prototype is the fourth element of design thinking. The prototype need not be a perfect one. After the construction of the prototype, one would get more insights about the final product. It helps the person to invite feedbacks from the clients and stakeholders and to make changes in the final product. After the evaluation of the prototype, the clients have the freedom to choose from different options. It is not necessary that the clients may have proper ideas about the final product at the beginning. After evaluating the prototype, the clients get more insights about their needs and can decide about the final product. Once the final design is approved, implementation of the design or the making of the final product is the sixth step in design thinking. Design thinking will not stop at the implementation stage. It searches for improvement further. For that reason, it invites feedbacks from the end users again. In other words, learning is the last stage of design thinking. It helps to fine tune the final product again based on the feedbacks from the customers or end users. Design Thinking: Influences and Critiques Creativity is one of the highly demanded commodities in the modern organizational world. Design thinking helps organizations to improve creativity in its premises as much as possible. Human element has been given the utmost importance in design thinking. In other words, employees in an organization have limitless freedom as part of design thinking. It helps them to develop new ideas and concepts to improve the competitive power of the organization. The inconvenient truth is that the science of management fails because it treats people as either mere inputs into the production process or as faceless “consumers” who have no real stake in outcomes. Design thinking allows for these truths to remain unaddressed, thereby avoiding any discussion of power itself. Workers are cast as something to be organized or “incented.” Consumers are to have their “needs met.” And neither group is granted a meaningful stake in the creative process (Ladner, 2009) Design thinking is not a scientific method of problem solving. In scientific method of problem solving, a person analyses all the parameters of the problem before formulating the solutions. In other words, a leader or manager will get better insights about the business problem before proposing solutions for it, while using scientific method of problem solving. On the other hand, while using design thinking, the business leader is using probabilities, forecasts and anticipations. As a result of that, it is not necessary that design thinking always bring success to an organization. For example, during the initial stages after the introduction of globalization, Parker Pen Company tried to implement same strategies all over the world to market its pen products. The company thought that same products need same marketing strategies everywhere in the world. In other words, Parker Pen Company tried to implement design thinking in its marketing activities. However, this strategy failed to bring the desired goals to the company. The company failed to anticipate the fact that even for the same product, different marketing strategies are necessary at different parts of the world, since the markets are different. It should be noted that Parker Pen would have succeeded, had they incorporate scientific methods while marketing pen products in different countries. In short, one of the major limitations of design thinking is its inability to analyze the problems and solutions prior to the proposal of solutions. Design thinking as a strategic tool in business leadership In organization and management theory, design thinking forms part of the Architecture/Design/Anthropology (A/D/A) paradigm, which characterizes innovative, human-centered enterprises. This paradigm also focuses on a collaborative and iterative style of work and an abductive mode of thinking, compared to practices associated with the more traditional Mathematics/Economics/Psychology (M/E/P) management paradigm (Jones, 2008, p.20). Analytical thinking and scientific methods are the basis of Mathematics/Economics/Psychology (M/E/P) management paradigm whereas design thinking is the basis for the Architecture/Design/Anthropology (A/D/A) paradigm. The presence of human element or the creative element is more in design thinking than in scientific thinking or analytical thinking. Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking helps a business leader to think without any limits. In analytical thinking, a leader would analyze only the relevant information whereas in design thinking, a leader analyses all relevant and irrelevant information before proposing a solution. In other words, it is possible to develop more creative ideas while following design thinking. For example, Nokia was the leader in the mobile phone market until a decade before. However, they are struggling to stay in the market at present. The introduction of touchscreen phones by Apple at the beginning of 2000 has created many problems to Nokia. Nokia and all other mobile phone manufacturing companies used analytical thinking as a mean to improve the features of the existing products. They never thought about the possibilities of touchscreen in mobile phone market. Design thinking helped Apple Inc. to think beyond the boundaries and to develop touchscreen phones. In other words, Apple Inc. was responsible for the transition of phone market from mobile phone market to the smartphone market. Design thinking can be better utilized in the business world for problem solving. It helps the business leaders or managers to develop practical and creative solutions for the problems they faced in business. For example, Apple Inc. was struggling in the 80’s and 90’s because of the huge competition from the Microsoft. In fact Microsoft had monopolized the computer OS market in the 80’s and 90’s. Apple Inc. (Former Apple Computers) did try to compete with Microsoft with the help of its own operating system and failed miserably. Many people at that time thought that the company will be closed down in the near future. However, under the leadership of Steve Jobs, Apple Inc. has developed and introduced some new products in the market at the beginning of 2000. The rest is the history now. Apple Inc. is the second largest company in the world now, in terms of market capitalization. Moreover, they are the most valuable technology company in the world at present. Microsoft is far behind Apple Inc. in terms of market capitalization now. Design thinking helped Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. to settle the business problem (Competition from Microsoft) in an effective manner. In short, design thinking is a solution-based or solution-focused thinking which helps business leaders to identify solutions for complex business problems. Conclusions It is difficult for modern organizations to survive in the heavily competitive business world without creativity and innovation. Design thinking is one of the major tools implemented in modern organizations in order to improve creativity and innovation. Since human elements are given more importance, design thinking helps the employees to work in a stress free environment and to develop new ideas and concepts. Analytical thinking or scientific methods have fewer roles in design thinking. Design thinking works on probabilities. As a result of that, the end result may not be successful always. In other words, the chances of failure is more in design thinking compared to that in analytical thinking or scientific thinking. In short, design thinking has many merits as well as demerits. It is necessary for organizations to use or implement design thinking judiciously rather than blindly. References Fast company staff. 2014. Design thinking... what is that? [Online] available at: http://www.fastcompany.com/919258/design-thinking-what[Accessed 09 May 2014. IDEO, 2014. About IDEO. [Online] available at: http://www.ideo.com/about/ [Accessed 09 May 2014. Jones, A. 2008. The Innovation Acid Test. Axminster: Triarchy Press Ladner, 2009. Design thinking’s big problem. [Online] available at: http://copernicusconsulting.net/design-thinkings-big-problem/[Accessed 09 May 2014. Read More