Thinking Out of the Box – Design Thinking

Test your inherent (and for some, learned) ability to apply Design Thinking with this video.

Successful innovation requires we have the ability to see solutions outside of today’s approach. With the advances in technology and global communication, the timeframe for innovating today’s issues becomes tighter and tighter.

The iterative process has also tightened from years to months. Companies that succeeded with innovating every 5-10 years can no longer compete in an ever changing and evolving landscape.

Design Thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding.

At the same time, it provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It is a way of thinking and working as well as a collection of hands-on methods. Design Thinking should not be considered applicable to only designers—all great innovators in literature, art, music, science, engineering, and business have practiced it.

Design Thinking is based around methodologies to better understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding. Design Thinking revolves around a deep interest in developing an understanding of the people for whom products or services are being designed. It helps companies observe and develop deeper empathy with the target user.

Design Thinking also refines the process of questioning. Learning how to question the problem, question the assumptions, and question the implications improves your ability tackle problems that are ill-defined or unknown. When people are taught how to re-frame the problem in human-centric ways, create ideas in more effective brainstorming sessions, and adopt a hands-on iterative approach in prototyping and testing, customer satisfaction improves with the resulting products. The process involves ongoing experimentation: sketching, prototyping, testing, and trying out concepts and ideas in a continuous cycle of excellence.