Design Thinking within Businesses - Essay Example

Design thinking - influences and critiques Bibliography I would like to thank the teachers and for their immense support in the writing of this paper. Some contributed directly and others indirectly. I would like to let this group of very important people know that the end product that is this paper wouldn’t have been successfully completed without their input. I would also like to thank the sources of information from where I did my research, chiefly: The design of business: why design thinking is the next competitive advantage by Roger L. Martin; Design thinking research studying co-creation in practice by Hasso Plattner and Flip video camera a publication of Cisco Systems. To my family, I dedicate this to you. Introduction Design thinking involves inputting design and creativity into a business organization. It is interpreted in two ways in the world of business. The first one involves designers introducing their input into business, either by training people in business or by partaking in the business themselves. The second one involves designers coming up with greatly innovative products. A good example is the iPod, a revolutionizing product in design thinking. In recent times, design thinking has been explored; with companies such as Sense Worldwide and IDEO headlining such advances. Background Design thinking is a concept that began in the 1940s with the need to solve problems using creative techniques. Harold van Doren went on to publish “Industrial Design – A Practical Guide to Product and Development” in 1940. This publication discussed methods and practices of design. The invention of computer programs capable of problem solving came up later in the 1960s. These programs headlined what was known as the soft-systems approach. This was just the beginning of design thinking and appreciation of this method in business has grown over the years. With the turn of the century, the term “design thinking” became very popular in business circles with a myriad of books such as Florida (2002), Martin (2007), Lockwood (2010) among others advocating for design-focused places of work. Universities and other learning institutions also identified this concept and began offering relevant programs as part of their curricula. IDEO was one of the pioneers led by Tim Brown, the company’s CEO to date. Today At IDEO, for example, the branch of the organization that deals with Corporate Social Responsibility; ideo.org, has worked with different non-governmental organizations to build drones; to improve health in remote corners of the earth. If a natural disaster may have occurred at a place that has been determined to be impassable, the drones can be used to deliver medicine or immunizations to people living in such areas. The drones can also collect data on the conditions at such places. Below are two images of model drones. This is just one of the things the company is doing as far as design thinking is concerned. Companies that apply design thinking always have the objective of nurturing creativity and human-centeredness in the individual company outlook. Design thinking has the following benefits in the market: It ensures more effective communication both within and out of the company. More memorable experiences from company products There is a lot of innovation and creativity in the company Allow communication between the right and left brain thinking people Is less expensive since it focuses more on observation, listening customer research and prototyping Improves problem solving Design thinking also has its fair share of disadvantages as well. Problems associated with this form of thinking include: The process has been identified as a business framework that is repeatable and reusable to any organization model. This water down the aspect of design thinking which should be focused on innovation. Despite design thinking having been discussed and written about over the past half a century, there are business executives that still do not understand the concept. Another issue is translating design thinking into results – a quality product into the consumer market. There should be continuity from conceptualizing ideas into the actual product – something many business executives in charge of design thinking-oriented organizations are finding hard to grapple with. In December 2013, Cisco decided to kill the Flip camcorder, arguing that the advent of smart phones made the camcorder irrelevant in the market. Smart Design is the company responsible for the design of the Flip camera, a product that enjoyed considerable success while it existed. The image below shows how the Flip camcorder looks like. This is a classic example of a lack of innovation on the part of the company as far as design thinking is concerned. The company should instead have become more innovative by, say, adding more features to the device. MY OWN DEFINITION OF DESIGN THINKING AND ITS APPLICATION IN A BUSINESS ORGANIZATION My understanding of design thinking is thinking that introduces innovativeness and creativity into a business framework. Two approaches are used in this view. The first is by introducing designers into the business organization while the second approach is by introducing designer-oriented products into the consumer market. Designer thinking is a concept that, in my view, needs to be inculcated into each business framework. It has its fair share of challenges, though, such as lack of understanding of the whole concept; arguably the biggest problem. If these challenges are not addressed, what happened to Cisco’s Flip Camcorder, as described above, will be repeated in other organizations. There are also issues to do with designers not having the grips with the business world. It is important that designers incorporate business minds into the business organization in order for it to run as smoothly as possible. It is a good idea to use designers in business but the business aspect needs to be handled by a qualified business-minded executive. It is such mistakes that caused the exit of the Flip camcorder out of the market; a decision that has been touted in many spheres as unwise. A global electronics giant, Samsung, went on to introduce smart cameras into the market and it has since been doing considerably well. The major companies in the camera market; namely Nikkon and Canon are still commanding a huge market share; even with the advent of smart phones. Smart phones in this era come with as assortment of features, a camera being one of them. However, arguing that companies that make cameras should exit the market as a result of this advent is, in my view, myopic and unfounded. With the command the product had in the technology and innovation sector, its exit was a bad idea altogether. This is a typical example where either design thinking was not understood well or it was simply the product of incompetent business leadership. However, if applied correctly, a business organization experiences immense success. An example is what IDEO is doing to reach people in remote places by using drones. Although drones have recently been banned by the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States of America, other companies such as the online retailing giant, Amazon, have been doing tests on drones. The plan was to use these drones to deliver goods to customers that have used the site to purchase them. This would in turn save on shipping costs, leading to greater profits. Future of design thinking To date, the concept of design thinking has been elaborated and defined quite a lot over the past years. The last decade has experienced almost a boom; with many pieces of literature having been published. Many institutions of higher learning have inculcated design thinking into their curricula. The concept has received greater acceptance especially with the success of Apple, a company whose products have been headliners with the breathtaking designs. Firms such as IDEO have also come up to take advantage of this boom. The trend is largely not expected to change in the future as design thinking is increasingly being embraced. It is important to appreciate the input of other fields such as finance, operation, engineering etc. in order to have a symbiotic relationship between these two aspects. It is in this way that business organizations can operate smoothly. Additionally, the importance of the business and service design of an organization should be recognized. These factors are there to complement design thinking and should therefore work hand-in-hand to ensure the success of a business organization of the future. It is also important for design thinking to continually be included into the education system, as has been the rising trend. However, it is necessary that in the future to lay the foundation of design thinking in basic education; as from primary school then building up to higher levels of education. This prevents stereotypes associated with design thinking from being formed. In college courses, it can then be offered as an individual course of study. In typical business organization, the following factors are important to consider ensuring smooth running of the organization vis-à-vis design thinking in the future. Firstly, it is important to structure a business organization to be user-centric oriented. This helps to focus on the consumer; hence organizations are more likely to come up with products and services that mean more to the consumer. Secondly, it is also necessary to maintain a wide perspective as often as possible, when working on a project and in finding solutions. This helps greatly when considering the kind of environment the business model shall sit in. Thirdly, it is of great benefit to the organizations if experimentation is done during the early stages of a project so as continually transform ideas into final real products. During these “experimentation stage,” as many stakeholders as possible should be included in the discussions. Fourthly, there is neither right nor wrong answers. This fact should be accepted in business organizations. There may be ambiguity in the whole process and accepting this fact may even lead to the discovery of greater concepts. Fifthly, when it comes to design thinking, it is important to focus on the future then work backwards rather than focusing on what has been done in the past and projecting that into the future. The sixth and final point is that innovation involves constantly questioning the norm and challenging what has been done in the past. This is in actual sense the whole point behind design thinking – innovation. Conclusion Design thinking involves focusing the organizational structure on design oriented operation. This model has its fair share of challenges. These challenges are described above and if well looked into, can lead to great success of a company. However, it is no doubt that design thinking is the future. References MARTIN, R. L. (2009). The design of business: why design thinking is the next competitive advantage. Boston, Mass, Harvard Business Press. PLATTNER, H., MEINEL, C., & LEIFER, L. (2012). Design thinking research studying co- creation in practice. Berlin, Springer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21643-5. HOKANSON, B., & GIBBONS, A. S. (2013). Design in educational technology: design thinking, design process, and the design studio. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319- 00927-8 ROWE, P. G. (1987). Design thinking. Cambridge, Mass, MIT Press. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC. (2010). Flip video camera. San Jose, Calif, Cisco Systems, Inc Read More