Design Thinking Blog

Overview: This is a “rant” of sorts from Adaptive Path and the struggle they are experiencing with hiring Design interns.

Thoughts: I like this!  The struggle that they outline highlights where Design Thinking originated in the overall Design process.  The make a fantastic point that students who go to design school to become Design Thinkers are not going to be good designers.

Original Post and comments HERE at Adaptive Path

by Dan

It’s that time of year when Adaptive Path wades through stacks of design school students’ resumes, looking for summer interns and potential hires. As I was doing this, a trend that that I had suspected became clear to me: quite a few design schools no longer teach design. Instead, they teach “design thinking” and expect that that will be enough.

Frankly, it isn’t.

I was taught that design has three components: thinking, making, and doing. (Doing is the synthesis, presentation, and evaluation of a design; the bridge between thinking and making.) If all design schools are teaching is the thinking, well, they are missing the other two thirds of the equation. They have abandoned craft for craze. Thinking without the making and doing is almost useless in the job market, unless you want to work at Accenture or some other big consulting firm. It probably won’t help you get a job as a designer in a studio environment. You’d be better off getting a degree in Humanities; at least you would be well-rounded. Read the rest of this entry »

Design Thinking and Innovation

Overview of Post: This is another overview of Design Thinking with one exception:  it goes into details of the process and gives other resources.

Thoughts on this Post: I like this.  When people ask me for a quick handout on Design Thinking, this may become my “go to” article.  Thanks Kendall!

Original Post HERE at FilterTalent.com by Kendall Hopwood

We’re not talking pixels or picas; we’re talking process.

I suppose tough economic times often divide people into two camps: those who want to play it safe and follow the straight and narrow road, and those who see crisis as a time for ideation and innovation.

A methodology for idea-generating, design thinking characterizes the latter group (whether they’re cognizant of it or not). And whether it’s your job hunt, your business strategy, or global warming you want to change, shifting your process—or your entire organization’s—towards  design thinking is a means of facilitating change and discovering new ideas.

Not a Degree, a Methodology

David Kelley, founder and chairman of IDEO and the man who coined the term “design thinking,” describes design thinkers as people who have “this creative confidence that, when given a difficult problem, we have a methodology that enables us to come up with a solution that nobody has before.”

Accordingly, the implications of design thinking aren’t contained in the arena of aesthetics alone. Design thinking applies to marketing and sales, philanthropy, conservation efforts, education, business, and everything in between.

Some Defining Characteristics of Design Thinking

Some people think creativity is purely a gift, a moment of divine inspiration. The notion of design thinking, however, implies that creativity and innovation can be fostered through a process, and as Linda Tischler says in her article on David Kelley, it’s a process not unlike the scientific method.

So what are some characteristics of design thinking, and how can it be applied to your creative vision, business strategy, or organizational processes? Read the rest of this entry »

Overview of this Interview: This is PART 3 of an interview with Tom Kelley on many aspects of leading at IDEO and the things they are still learning as a company.

Thoughts on this Interview: Vern Burkhardt does a great job of asking insightful questions into the things that Tom has learned as a leader in a company that is rewriting the rules of design and business. I appreciate that Tom brings the importance that Face to Face communications as a primary issues for effectiveness.

Original Interview HERE at ideaconnection.com

Design Thinking for Innovation

Interview with Tom Kelley, General Manager of IDEO, and Author of The Art of Innovation and The Ten Faces of Innovation

Begin Part 3…

VB: Would you talk about the concept of mapping your customers’ or potential customers’ journeys?

Tom Kelley: We discovered while designing products and services that you can follow a customers’ journey every step along the way in their dealings with you. Some of the steps include discovering about your service, exploring your offering, trying it for the first time, becoming more familiar with it, and then using it on a regular basis. In each step you can distinguish yourself, you can provide something special as opposed to being the same as every one else.

One slightly extreme example is the backpack company, JanSport, which made its warranty services different than anybody else’s. If you send your backpack in to be re-sewn or repaired JanSport sends you a little postcard with a message from your backpack while it’s at camp. No one would say this warranty service is ordinary. Read the rest of this entry »

Overview of Post: Robert Fabricant continues his blogging from a workshop with social innovators.  part one HERE

Thoughts on this Post: I appreciate the points that Robert makes on how to approach social design.  He offers very practical ways to move the process forward.

Live From PopTech: Designing for Impact

Original Post and Comments HERE at FastCompany.com

The design process really kicked into high gear on day three–Kevin Starr of the Rainer Arnhold Fellows program and I teamed up for our presentation.

Members of the PopTech fellows program

No one is better than Kevin at getting social entrepreneurs to think clearly about their interventions. He set up some basic components of each fellow’s impact model, including the concise definition of their mission and, more importantly, impact measurement.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but I prefer to work backwards from impact, rather than forwards from mission in the social innovation design process. It really clears a lot of things up fast. If you know the specific impact that you are trying to achieve, the steps to get you there become very clear. And the organization that you need to drive those steps emerges quickly. With a group that has this kind of creativity and capacity it is all about focus. Read the rest of this entry »

Overview of this Video: This is a video on the SYNTHESIS part of Design Thinking produced by a group studying the sustainability of the fishing industry.

Thoughts on this Video:  Good look and review of how this can work in any industry, with the right emphasis placed on what you are doing not how you are doing it.

Overview of this Article: Matthew May gives a quick definition of what Design Thinking is and how it is becoming more mainstream.

Thoughts on this Article: I don’t really agree with Matthew’s conclusions on what is currently driving the attention to Design Thinking.  It is more about the effectiveness of results than a stretching of resources.

Original Post Aug 03, 2009 -

Matthew E. May (How to Change the World)

“Design Thinking” has rapidly moved to the forefront of the current management zeitgeist as a fresh take not just on how to rethink key products and services, but also how to reframe everyday processes and projects. In an effort to create a cross-company culture of innovation and collaboration, businesses all over the world are taking a page from design firms, and realizing the rewards.
Read the rest of this entry »

Overview of this Article: Jim Nieters brings a perspective from the User Experience (UX) arena to the conversation on Design Thinking.  He looks at how that area can and should interact with others in the product design and development process.

Thoughts on this Article: It is a good look into the overall process and how all the parts can benefit if and when they work together.  He makes several very good points especially that different areas have very different ways of thinking…and that is actually a good thing.

Appears at UX Matters

By Jim Nieters

Published: July 19, 2009

I hope so! Every discipline on a product team provides unique value—including User Experience, Product Management, Engineering, Sales, and Business Development. But each of them views the world through a different lens. When all of these disciplines deliver strategic value, their products delight users and their companies successfully differentiate themselves in the marketplace—which translates to greater revenue and profitability. Successful companies deliver a tangible value proposition. Think about it. What are the value propositions for Southwest Airlines, Apple Computer, Toyota, and Starbucks? Are they the same? No. Each is unique, and their value propositions are clear.

Read the rest of this entry »

Overview of this video: This is a must for anyone who is learning the Design Thinking concept and process.  The following text gives a great explaination directly from Nightline.  “How does the process of designing a better product work? To show you, Nightline went to Palo Alto, CA to the designers at IDEO, and gave them the toughest problem we could think of. Take something old and familiar like the shopping cart and completely redesign it in just five days.

IDEO’s unique brand of brainstorming is called ”Deep Dive,” a sort of total immersion into the problem at hand. It’s one company’s secret weapon for innovation.”  View part 3

Thoughts on this segment of the video: Very cool product that backs up the whole process.  This process could solve many problems.