Design Thinking Blog

5 Ways Design Thinking Can Raise the Collective IQ of Your Business

Original Article HERE at Fast Company

BY Michael Cannell

Business executives love stability and the cold imperatives of logic. Ambiguity gives them fits. Designers, by contrast, can’t abide the status quo. “That tension never goes away between inventing the new and preserving the old,” Sam Lucente, vice president of design for Hewlett-Packard, said yesterday at a panel discussion conducted by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum during its National Design Week. “It’s like navigating no man’s land,” he said.

The panel, entitled “The Business of Design,” addressed ways to integrate designers, and design thinking, into organizations that usually resist change. Here are some of their observations:

The most effective designers know instinctually how to navigate bureaucracies. They handle matters “often in subversive ways,” Lucente said. “They quietly figure out how to end run the system and get things done. They know how to work it.”

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Original Post and Comments HERE at Archis.org

Thinking through Design Thinking

IDEO /Tim Brown, Bruce Nussbaum and Stanford d.school call it Design Thinking.

Michael Speaks, Michael Shamiyeh, Bruce Mau talk about Design Intelligence,

Nigel Cross writes about Designerly ways of knowing (one of the best books i’ve read so far on design thinking).

All these ideas deal with design as process rather than object. They all articulate and confirm the idea that there is a ’specific way of thinking that is unique to design’ and ‘that this way of thinking is applicable on any problem’ It is a way of seeing, understanding and making the world, and the ‘design way’ is a universal way, there is no problem that can not be solved, … or so it seems (this is one of the claims of Bruce Mau’s Massive change exhibit and book anyway).

Although one has to acknowledge a certain naivety behind this idea, it is non the less very appealing, especially for a designer, or well … an architect like myself.

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Overview of Post: Brian Matt jumps in from a designers perspective on the issues that arise with explaining what design, much less Design Thinking actually is…

Thoughts on this Post: I like this style of looking at the problem.  Right now, there is a huge amount of ambiguity as Design Thinking gets more press, and the lines between design and Design Thinking are not understood.

Original Post HERE at dmi.org

What the Hell Have We Done to Design?

(Really Thinking about Design Thinking)

By Brian Matt, Founder & CEO, Altitude, Inc.

Hey, design-types, picture this…

I stroll into the neighborhood party with a swell bottle of wine in one hand and my lovely wife’s arm in the other. Three steps into the house, she peels off to greet her friends and I head for the kitchen to drop off the vino. I am immediately cut off by a doughy-faced but pleasant sort of fellow wearing black pants and a black mock turtleneck in June.

John Public: “Hi. I’ve been waiting for you to arrive. Jill said that you’re a designer.”
Me: “Yes, that’s right. I am a designer.”
John Public: “Were you ever on Project Runway? My wife loves that show.” Read the rest of this entry »

Overview of Post: This is a blog entry from Dan Saffer a designer in the San Francisco CA area on what he believes are the distinctives of Design Thinking.

Thoughts on this Post:  This makes a lot of sense from the designers point of view, but the things that Dan says are “givens” are not “givens” to non-designers.  As this field continues to define itself, it is important to remember that a large percentage of the people who are getting interested in Design Thinking are not familiar with any of the terms and methods that designers use. [ Again that is one of the primary purposes of the dTblog!]

Thinking About Design Thinking

Probably the phrase in design circles I’m hearing the most these days is “design thinking.” As in, “We need to bring some design thinking to this project.” Or “What sets designers apart is their design thinking.” It’s even on the main image of Stanford’s new d school website. Interestingly, I haven’t seen much about what “design thinking” really is though.

I’ve heard it used in any number of ways, some of which are vague enough and/or general enough so that they are insulting to other professions. Are we saying other disciplines aren’t creative or aren’t problem-solvers? I didn’t really become a designer until I was 30 years old: does this mean I was thinking differently before then? Read the rest of this entry »

In reading business magazines and new book titles, it seems that the world is getting curious as to what Design Thinking is all about – or maybe wondering if there is money to “found” in this new concept.

For those of us who teach and practice Design Thinking, there is still a huge debate over the “true” definition and whether the process that is used should even be called “Design Thinking”. Our internal debate can be challenging at times.

What we do agree upon is that the single most significant contribution of Design Thinking is that it offers  a holistic  approach to solving problems/creating products.  “Holistic” in that it is not self limiting – it does not focus one “type of knowledge” or “school of thought” to find possible solutions. Read the rest of this entry »

Overview of Interview: (from WNYC) Warren Berger, shares the principles of design that can improve the way we think, work, and live. His book Glimmer: How You Can Transform Your Life, and Maybe Even the World shows how we can all apply the skills designers use to solve problems and spur innovation.

Thoughts on this Interview: Great interview! Berger does a really great job explaining how Design and Design Thinking are related but different and puts it in terms that non-designers can understand.

Overview of Video: Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, talks with BusinessWeek about the design approach to solving problems and how to apply it to recent events, including the financial crisis.
Thoughts on this Video: Martins’ definition of Design Thinking hit me as odd initially, by made more sense as the interview progressed.  I don’t always think Design Thinking has to create a “model”.  However, his definition may be more suited to the business world than some others.

One thing that I keep hearing is the complaint that there is not a “standard” easy to understand definition of Design Thinking.  When you go to Wikipedia, you will find a definition that seems to be a compilation of everyone’s ideas on the topic.  Read it and see if you can find your favorite!

…”Design thinking is a process for practical, creative resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result.^[1] It is the essential ability to combine empathy, creativity and rationality to meet user needs and drive business success. Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking is a creative process based around the “building up” of ideas. There are no judgments early on in design thinking. This eliminates the fear of failure and encourages maximum input and participation in the ideation and prototype phases. Outside the box thinking is encouraged in these earlier processes since this can often lead to creative solutions. In organization and management theory, design thinking forms part of the A/D/A (Architecture/Design/Anthropology) paradigm, which characterizes innovative, human-centered enterprises. This management paradigm focuses on a collaborative and iterative style of work and an abductive mode of thinking, compared to the more traditional practices associated with the traditional M/E/P (Mathematics/Economics/Psychology) management paradigm.”

Or should we look to Tim Brown or Roger Martin as the final word.  Not necessarily.  Why would their definition be better than Arne van Oosterom or Nicolae or  even mine? Read the rest of this entry »

Overview of Post: Kip Voytek offers his take on the connection between Design and Design Thinking,

Thoughts on this Post: Kip gives a very good argument on the down side of adopting the concept of Design Thinking without understanding the disciplines that are foundational to Design.

Original Post Here: Thinking about design thinking? Try thinking about design instead

Published by kipbot on September 24, 2009 12:44 am under design

I’m in the middle of several threads with friends, co-workers, former co-workers, and the voices in my head about what to do with the on-again off-again me-che (meme + cliche, pron me-SHAY) of design thinking. Having just read Designful Company with others, I felt that the book and the me-che of design thinking makes it far too easy to say we’re all deisgners, or that a couple articles will help us do design thinking. I can’t resist quoting Dr Malcolm in Jurassic Park:

I’ll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you’re using here: it didn’t require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don’t take any responsibility… for it.

So, I’m thinking, instead of thinking about design thinking, why not learn something about design? I’m not suggesting a career change, or even a massive effort to learn some new tools or software. Rather, read some books that help people understand the DNA, rhythm, and thought patterns of a design discipline. Dig deeper into a craft and see what makes it tick. Read the rest of this entry »

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.
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