Today, we are living in a BANI world—Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible. The BANI model describes a new world in which the old values and rules no longer apply. This is a shift post COVID-19 from the existing VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) environment. Many frameworks helped guide organizations through the VUCA world. However, the COVID-19 pandemic introduced a scenario that made even VUCA seem less relevant or contextual. In this new reality, a new term emerged—BANI—highlighting the heightened fragility and the overwhelming complexity of information we face today.
In this context of uncertainty and fragility, organizations need to adapt and grow by developing solutions and products which are actually valuable to their customers. One of the best ways to do this is by encouraging collective thinking and collaboration, and investing in human centered problem solving approaches like design thinking. Design thinking helps organizations stay resilient, ahead of the competition and equips them to solve complex, seemingly unfathomable problems.
In this blog we will explore:
- What is Design Thinking?
- What is the Design Thinking Process?
- What is the importance of design thinking?
- Address common misconceptions surrounding it
- Provide insights into how it can be used to tackle the challenges we face today
- Purpose of design thinking
- Common misconceptions of design thinking and how to overcome them?
Importance Of Design Thinking
Design thinking is a powerful framework that focuses on understanding what the end user or customer wants and developing innovative solutions which solve their real world problems or add true value to them. It is a collaborative way of working which promotes empathy and experimentation to create customer centric solutions. It helps teams to come up with all perspectives for common end user/customer pain points and build the best possible solution. However, why is design thinking important? Here are a few reasons:
- Enhances business relevance – Unlike conventional methods, design thinking promotes brainstorming, empathy, prototyping, collaborative thinking to solve problems. Design thinking in Business ensures innovation helping businesses to be competitive and staying relevant to their users/customers
- Focusses on User centric solutions – Design thinking puts people or user needs at the center. One of the core principles of design thinking is to empathise with the user’s pain points, their needs. When designing a product or service, design thinking helps teams to take user perspective into account ensuring teams develop user centric, intuitive products thereby increasing customer satisfaction
- Promotes multiple perspectives and Collaboration – Another significant benefit is collaboration. Unlike traditional siloed thinking, design thinking focuses on collaborative and collective thinking. This principle brings in divergent thinking which generates many ideas which would not have been thought before otherwise, bringing fresh perspectives and new opportunities for product development
- Faster Prototyping and Course Correction – Prototyping is the core phase of design thinking. Prototyping enables teams to build and test things faster by collecting feedback from the user early in the development process. This allows faster course corrections thereby reducing the risk of launching wrong or less beneficial products in the market
- Reduces wastage – With rapid prototyping, design thinking helps teams take the best possible solution to the users to seek feedback which in turn helps teams and companies invest in the right solutions and products resulting in wastage and risk reduction
Characteristics Of Design Thinking
Design thinking is all about empathising with the end user, coming up with multiple out of the box solutions, experimentation, continuous learning from the feedback and using all of these to build the right fit solution for the end user. The whole approach is mainly human centered, iterative and focused on solving real world problems. Below are a few characteristics of design thinking:
- Design thinking concept is a human centered, people centric approach – In other words, solutioning is done with customers or people at the center by empathising with their needs. This makes solutions or products more impactful
- Iterative development – Teams gather data, refine it, convert it into insights, build prototypes and test them. This process is not linear, activities are tweaked, revisited for better insights based on the prototype testing to improve them. This continuous refinement of data, iterative approach to development of solution based on the results of the prototype is very typical to design thinking methodology
- Collaboration – A trait which is central to design thinking. Group thinking and co-creation of solutions drive innovation and effective problem solving
- Innovative problem solving – Design thinking encourages new ways of thinking in problem solving. It incorporates systems thinking, holistic thinking and divergent thinking to solve problems from all possible angles
- Early validation of DVF (Desirability, Viability and Feasibility) – Design thinking and its practices of taking the end user feedback, prototyping and iterative solution building ensures that the product/solution is both business friendly and user friendly
What Is The Purpose Of Design Thinking?
A well-known quote states that “every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution,” meaning that people with the problem often hold the key to the solution. By working closely with individuals who are facing challenges and understanding their needs, pains, gains and behaviors, teams can develop effective and impactful solutions
The main purpose of design thinking is to build solutions that are:
- Human Centered – Design thinking promotes understanding the needs, desires and pain points of the end users which helps teams to build relevant solutions
- Innovative – Design thinking activities like divergent thinking, rapid prototyping etc helps teams to come up with solutions that are new experimental which builds the core for innovation
- Solve Complex Problems – Design thinking helps with a structured approach to tackle challenges by breaking them into manageable components
- Promote agility – Design thinking can introduce agility into project management practices. By focusing on iterative development and continuous feedback, teams can respond to change and embrace it well (See – Design Thinking & Agile)
- Add value to the end user – From the initial phase there is an opportunity to engage with the customers very closely . This allows the customers to experience the product even before the entire product is completed
Where Does The Design Thinking Process Come From?
Design thinking principles were seen as early as the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in engineering practices, where attempts were made to make design more scientific. Here is a peek at how it came became a powerful approach for many companies:
- The term “wicked problems” was coined in the 1960s by Horst Rittel, a design theorist and professor of design methodology at the Ulm School of Design in Germany. Wicked problems refer to complex issues that are difficult to define and solve
- Cognitive scientist and Nobel Prize laureate Herbert A. Simon was the first to mention design as a way of thinking in his 1969 book The Sciences of the Artificial
- It is widely accepted that IDEO, a design and innovation company, played a key role in bringing design thinking into the mainstream.
- In 1992, design theorist and academic Richard Buchanan connected design thinking to wicked problems in his influential paper.
- David Kelley later founded the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, commonly known as the d.school. Since its inception, the d.school has made the development, teaching and implementation of design thinking a central goal.
Design Thinking As A Non Linear-Process
The design thinking approach is often broken down into three main groups – Empathize, Ideate and Implement. These groups serve as the foundation, but within them, the process can be further detailed into five stages: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test popularly called the 5 stages of Design Thinking process.
- Step 1: Empathize: The first step in design thinking is to empathize with the people’s needs. This involves understanding the market, their needs and behaviors. It includes conducting user interviews, doing research, field surveys and analyzing market trends to gain insights into the user experience
- Step 2: Define: In this phase, you define who the stakeholders are and identify the target group for whom you want to solve the problem. Framing the problem statement precisely helps generate focused ideas in the next phase. The problem statement often takes the form of “How might we…?”
- Step 3: Ideate: This phase is about generating ideas to solve the defined problem. You brainstorm and explore creative solutions without judgment or limitations. Generate numerous ideas without being fixated on one. Be creative here. Techniques like mind mapping, brainstorming are effective techniques to be used in this step
- Step 4: Prototype: In this phase, you have to figure out if the selected idea is reasonable to test. Build a quick prototype or a model or a mock up for each selected solution from the previous step. Prototypes can range from simple sketches to more advanced models or spreadsheets, depending on the complexity of the solution
- Step 5:Test: Testing involves gathering feedback on the prototypes and refining them based on user reactions. This phase helps you understand what works and what doesn’t, allowing you to iterate and improve
Non Linearity of Design Thinking
What sets design thinking apart is its iterative nature. Each of these five steps is repeated and refined in cycles, allowing teams to gain deeper insights and move closer to the desired solution. Even though the steps may appear linear in theory, design thinking is fundamentally a non-linear process. Design thinking as an approach allows teams to move between stages based on new insights, rather than following a fixed step by step approach and here are a few pointers on how:
- Iterative and Continuous Refinement – Solutions are not final, they are revisited based on the insights gathered from the user
- Example: A healthcare company tests an appointment booking app and realises the users find it difficult. They return to the ideation phase to simplify the UI before going ahead
- No fixed order of stages – Teams can move or jump to any stage based on the insights
- Example: A food delivery app in prototyping stage realise that they need more insights from the customers so they move to empathise stage
- Pivoting based on failures – If a solution does not work, teams can rethink the problem rather than forcing a flawed idea
- Example: Airbnb wanted to attract more customers but instead of jumping to ads, they went back to empathise stage and found out that poor quality photos was the issue
- Parallel workflows across teams – Different teams work on different stages of design thinking and inputs from one team can make other team go back or forward in the process
- Example : A retail app is designing a new landing page UI while the developers are prototyping, researchers are still collecting feedback
- Multiple prototypes and experiments – Instead of sticking to one solution, teams test out multiple prototypes
- Example: A game company develops three different UIs tests them with different set of users and then combines best elements to a final UI
Common Challenges And Misconceptions: What People Get Wrong About Design Thinking
Like any other approach, design thinking also poses some challenges despite its multiple benefits. This empathetic, people-centric approach to problem-solving comes with several misconceptions. Here are some common challenges and misconceptions:
- When design thinking is used by engineers or designers to create products for people, they often face technological constraints, such as serviceability, stability and reliability
- Budget constraints can also limit the impact of design thinking when designing products that people will use
- Although designers use the process to solve the problem related to people’s needs, other divisions like marketing, might be skeptical about the product’s value in the market. This misalignment can hinder the process
- In organisations with a siloed work culture or teams that prefer to work in isolation, design thinking takes a hit as ideas or designs get changed by others
- Most of the time engineers may be used to finding solutions or performing tasks in a certain way based on their past experiences and may be unwilling to ideate or experiment. As a result, they may go back to old ways of thinking
- In high-pressure environments, the iterative and non-linear process of design thinking can seem time-consuming. Teams may get demoralized during the prototyping phase, especially if they face repeated failures, leading them to question the value of the process
- Some organizations face significant resource constraints, which may prevent them from dedicating enough time or budget for essential activities like user research or observations. Without these crucial inputs, design thinking’s ability to generate user-centric solutions is compromised.
- The benefits of new innovations can take time to realise. Quantifiable benefits, quick wins may be difficult to achieve. This makes it difficult for organisations to justify the investment in design thinking when the focus is on immediate results.
Overcoming Obstacles In The Design Thinking Process
While design thinking is a powerful problem solving approach, teams often encounter challenges that may hinder creativity, collaboration and execution. Here are a few tips to overcome some common challenges:
- Balanced view on DVF – Striking a balance between technical feasibility and business viability is essential for a successful design thinking process. Addressing both these aspects ensures that the solution is user-centric
- Frequent Pivotting – During the prototyping phase, incorporate shorter iterations to allow for earlier course corrections. The more frequently you test and revise, the quicker you can identify issues and make improvements. If things are failing, it’s vital to gain fresh perspectives to adjust your approach
- Consider Multiple channels and tools – One of the challenges in design thinking is empathizing with actual users, especially when access to users is limited. To overcome this, identify various ways to conduct research. You can use tools like empathy mapping to capture and analyze user emotions, needs, and pain points. This approach helps you gain a deeper understanding of their experiences, even without direct interaction
- Leadership buy-in – A very critical for a successful design thinking process. In organisations with siloed departments it is important for leadership to break down the siloes and lay emphasis on collaboration.This will bring in an integrated thinking approach to problem-solving to create best possible solutions
- Consider Design sprints – A great way to overcome obstacles by focusing on shorter iterations. By setting clear, achievable goals within a short time frame, teams can focus on rapid problem-solving, testing and refining solutions, which accelerates the overall process
- Transparency and openness – Few traits one must possess to run the DT process – Set expectations with the team that failure is part of the process.Too much time should not be spent on a single idea . Instead of getting fixated with one idea, encourage the team to explore multiple possibilities.
Conclusion
Understanding design thinking concepts, principles and experimenting with the tools is the best way to get started. Whether it is for complex problem solving or even the simplest problem the design thinking principles of collaborative thinking and double diamond process can be easily applied to any industry, project or even in a business.
To leverage design thinking to innovate and solve wicked problems successfully, it is very important to shift from a rigid, closed mindset to an open, risk taking, trial and error mindset. Seek guidance from a Design thinking consulting company if required, it will shorten the learning curve and bring an outside in perspective. At Benzne, we use many design thinking tools, approaches, concepts and more importantly, cultural shift to lead our customers’ design thinking journey. You can start by curating a customized Design Thinking workshop for your teams as you embark on this journey.
By embracing design thinking, you can unlock creativity, improve collaboration and develop user centric solutions. Whether you’re tackling a big challenge or refining a simple product, the principles of design thinking are universally applicable. With this, our blog on “What is design thinking? – A complete introduction” comes to an end. We sincerely hope this helps our readers. Please write to us at consult@benzne.com for any feedback or if you want to avail our design thinking consulting services.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What comes after design thinking?
The whole purpose of design thinking is to build innovative solutions to meet the needs of the end users/customers by empathising with them. The only possible next step is to convert the idea into a solution. Below is a typical journey post design thinking,
- Develop/implement the solution
- Continuously build small increments with iterations
- Refine the solution based on inputs
- Release it to the users
- Repeat the steps to evolve the solution
2. What design thinking focuses on?
Design thinking focuses on the creation of innovative human centric solutions. Design thinking starts with questioning the problem at hand , expanding the problem, diverging it to cover all corners. The next step is to converge upon a single problem. Rather than trying to solve problems straightway,design thinking focuses on trying to understand what the real issues are. As a result, teams diverge on solutions, generating ideas after ideas.
Another focus area of design thinking is prototyping to deliver faster solutions and earlier course correction by collecting faster feedback early in the process. This is the only way to test the solution before significant investments are made in the actual development of the solution
3. Is Design Thinking only for designers?
The term Design thinking is often understood as something related to designers.Although it emerged and used by designers, the concept of design thinking is used by everybody irrespective of the industry or organisations or role -whether you are an engineers, business person. Since designers are known for their creativity, and ability to come up with solutions to problems, design thinking is thought to be for designers. However ,It is an approach which is focused on figuring out human needs and developing optimal and impactful solutions for them . The principles of design thinking are not only used by designers but also in service design, business design, software engineering. In a nutshell, anyone and everyone can use design thinking to tackle problems, generate ideas.
4. What are some common challenges in implementing Design Thinking?
Whenever there is a need for a mindset shift or implement new practices, there are bound to be challenges. It is not always a smooth activity. Similarly, design thinking implementation also has some challenges. Let’s explore a few of them:
- Time constraint: In organisations that are continuously churning out solutions/products and facing execution complexities, design thinking steps seem to be time consuming. Organisations may hesitate to prioritise innovation or allocate time to divergent thinking to solve a complex problem.
- Fear of failure: Design thinking focuses on out of box thinking,which means individuals or teams are allowed to experiment to get results. Many teams, however, are reluctant to experiment as they fear failure. In organisations where employee appraisals are based on the outcomes of their work, individuals tend to be risk averse, as failure could impact their performance reviews.
- Budget and resource constraints: Often items on the product roadmap are prioritised for development and release. Secondary tasks, such as allocating resources to reduce technical problems are given less attention. This means many times there is negligible amount of budget and resources assigned to activities where time and resources need to be invested in solving wicked problems or brainstorming new solutions
- Mindset shift: Design thinking is a mindset . Moving from narrow thinking, thinking only in a certain way to thinking crazily, going wild with ideas , spending time observing, and interviewing users to solve problems requires a mindset shift. This Mindset shift usually takes time and commitment. To successfully shift the mindset, leadership,management, and individuals need to be invested in the idea first.
5. How can I get started with Design Thinking?
The most crucial element in using design thinking is shifting your mindset to be open and willing to experiment. Leadership buy-in is also essential, as it’s necessary to allocate time for experimentation and prototyping. Now, let’s look at how to get started:
- Understand what is design thinking and what it intends to solve – read, build awareness, talk to experts, attend workshops, listen to podcasts
- Pick a problem to solve, come up with a problem statement
- Understand the user for whom you are solving the problem. Gather data through various modes such as interviews, field visits, observation
- Based on inputs gathered, converge on a few solutions by converting the data into insights
- Once you have a solution, the next step is to prototype. Convert the solution finalised into something usable and testable with certain users. This will allow you to get feedback that will help you better understand the needs of your customers before investing in production
- After users interact with the prototype, gather their feedback. Use this feedback to refine and improve your solution.
