Design Thinking

Description of Design Thinking. Explanation.

Definition Design Thinking. Description.

Design Thinking is a design-centered approach to business management opposite to analytical and left-brained thinking. When the methodology of Design Thinking is applied to business management, it is also known as Management by Design.

The concept of design thinking originates from cognitive psychology and has been used in the 60’s by scientist, economist and psychology Herbert Simon. Simon has been an active promoter of interdisciplinary research in the field of artificial intelligence, decision making econometrics, mathematics and statistics applied to business and management. In his 1969 book “The Sciences of the Artificial”, he wrote:

“Engineering, medicine, business, architecture and painting are concerned not with the necessary but with the contingent - not with how things are but with how they might be - in short, with design”.

In the original conception of Simon, Design Thinking was assimilated in the concept of Synthetic Thinking: a non-analytical thinking approach that would “randomly” combine single ideas into a more complex whole. The combination of ideas is a process of convergence rather than divergence and that is why this way of thinking is basically adopted by creative and design people who don’t like to rely exclusively on analysis or scientific approaches.

Different from Inductive and Deductive reasoning, Design Thinking can be considered an Abductive Reasoning methodology, and also resembles some features of De Bono’s Lateral Thinking and Gestalt Theory. In its original acceptation, the aim of Design Thinking was to integrate analytical scientific reasoning with a more intuitive and solution-oriented methodology to avoid occurring of Paralysis by Analysis and other typical pitfalls of rational decision making (Bounded Rationality). The methodology of Design Thinking was therefore not conceived as stand alone tool for problem solving but just a side methodology that would have integrated design and analytics, just like an integration of right and left brain thinking preferences in Herrmann's Whole Brain Model.

Profile of Design Thinkers

A design thinker’s personality profile should contain the following 5 characteristics:

Empathy. Considering other people and relationships with them a major aspect of life allows to share their needs and visions and observe the world from multiple perspectives.
Integrative Thinking.
Optimism. Approach problem solving with the assumption that there is always a better solution than the already existing alternatives.
Experimentalism. The capacity of creative questioning and exploring completely new directions.
Collaborative Attitude. An ever increasing complexity of needs, products and services requires interdisciplinary collaboration among team members of a project. Assuming that one person alone is not anymore sufficient to solve some issues, multidisciplinary skills and experience are at least excellent features business leaders should have.

Steps in Design Thinking. Process

In its new acceptation design thinking literally means thinking like a designer would. The process of doing so requires a creative but thorough exploration of human activities and long cycles of prototyping, testing, sometimes rethinking, and refinement of ideas. It is fundamental that at any stage no member has the fear that is idea will not be valid or wrong, because any judgment is not tolerated. The process of Design Thinking involves 7 main steps:

Define. Decide what issues have to be solved and their targets. Establish project prioritization. Determine project CSFs. Create a glossary of terms to avoid misunderstanding from the beginning (since often Cross Functional Teams, with members holding different backgrounds, work on the same project).
Research. Explore the initial issue and its history. Collect analogue cases and consider how they have been solved. See: Analogical Strategic Reasoning. Get in touch with end-users to establish learning moments for later development. Take into consideration business thinkers’ and Opinion Leaders' opinions.
Ideate. Track end-users specific needs and generate ideas that can help to satisfy identified needs. Brainstorm freely with project team members avoiding any early judgment of ideas.
Prototype. Start working on ideas presented: discuss, develop, merge and refine ideas in order to create multiple drafts. Make a selection of ideas, judgment free, and present few drafted plans to the client.
Choose. Being attained to the final project goal, select the most relevant ideas. Remember to disregard emotions and conflicts that could influence the decision, avoid easy and practical win, as they are often not the best solution, prevent occurring of Groupthink. Be neutral.
Implement or Delivery. Define plans, resources, actions and tasks in a timeline. Assign tasks and monitor their correct execution during project delivery.
Learn. Collect feedbacks internally and from end-users and relevant project data. Measure success obtained. Analyze eventual project gaps from the defined objectives and suggest improvement actions.

Design Thinking Forum (3)

Book Refiew: Design of Business. Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage?
"Book: Design of Thinking. Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage?
Author: Roger Martin
Publisher: Harvard Business Press - 2009
Book reviewer: Maryam Saadat
Master in Imagineering

In this book, Roger Martin will explain everything with details and examples which are based on theories that can help you to rely on them as a strong scientific lessons in your business life.
During reading this book, you will evaluate your knowledge and sometimes you will stop and try to see things with a different glasses.
Somehow, you will be prepared to be more critical about your current job or any kind of transformation and change that you will face with it. Also, at the same time, you will understand that how and why you should make change in your business plan or the whole company.
First , there are clear definitions of design thinking and analytical thinking, also you will know their differences.
Another part of the book is about a path which he calls it “knowledge funnel” which is about solving mysteries. It is a model for how businesses of all sorts can advance knowledge and capture value and mainly it will solve mysteries.

For Roger, doing a research means facing with a mystery and the example of DNA research is one of the interesting examples in this book.
Scientists were working on DNA for years and worked on everything that they thought is related to solution, but after years, they could understand that the answer was in DNA itself that was always throw away.

In my opinion, we can be reflective in this part of the book and make relation to Imagineering perspective.
Do not put the situations in a frame, don't be judgemental, see everything from a different aspects and going to depth also do not throw away any simple possibilities are recommended by Roger Martin which is all about our job as an Imagineer.
In other part of the book, there is a clear definition of two terms “reliability” and “validity”and their goals. According to the book, the goal of reliability is to produce consistent, predictable outcome but the goal of validity is to produce outcomes that meet a desired objective.

With knowing about these two terms, we can prepare ourselves to challenge with situations especially when we want to know how to balance the irresolvable tension between operating within the current knowledge stage and moving through the knowledge funnel.
He mentioned that the tension can't be fully resolved but only balanced and managed because both reliability and validity are inherently incompatible.(1)

Giving a lot of examples to show the use of scientific theories is very interesting for a reader and incredibly you won't be bored by these theories at all.
Roger is helping you to see some well-known companies with a different glasses.
You will understand why some companies like IDEO are famous for their uniqueness or how Steve Job is involved in Apple and why he is always a key person.

According Roger's, there are a lot of tools and methods in a daily tasks which can be used in traditional companies to implement design thinking. There is no need to be a CEO or a top manager of a company to use these tools and methods.
I can relate this part of the book to appreciative inquiry. Because in my opinion, with appreciative inquiry, you are able to be positive and strong to make some small changes in your daily tasks and inspire your other colleagues to do the same. And in a broad view, if these small tasks bring new achievements, there is a great possibility to show the top management or CEO a new potential in their companies and it can be a first step to make changes broader.

For conclusion, I should mention that this book can be used for people who believe in traditional way of management and at the same time, for people who believe in changes and 21st century way of business.
You won't be tired of reading this book because of having clear and up-dated examples.
It is an easy reading book which has a huge amount of information, definitions, tools and methodologies but it won't make you tired at all.

I hope that I could inspire you to read this book.
References: (1). The design of business, P.37. Roger Martin, 2009"

Overview of Systems Thinking Schools and Approaches
"- Planning school - systems thinking is a holistic approach to planning complex systems. Pioneers of this approach include C. W. Churchman and russ ackoff.
- System Dynamics school - Systems thinking looks at the cause-effect and feedback loops that drive complex systems. Pioneers of this approach include Jay Forrester, Donella Meadows.
Organizational cybernetics school
- Stafford Beer's Viable Systems Model (VSM) which applies systems thinking to organizational design, focusing on the management of variety to achieve long-term viability. Builds on the work of Norbert Wiener and Ross Ashby .
- Organization Learning school - Popularized by Peter Senge, largely based on earlier work by Chris Argyris and Donald Schon, but also drawing on the work of Forrester.
- Soft System/Sensemaking school - Sees systems as mental constructs rather than physical constructs and systems thinking as an ongoing process of enquiry to improve shared understanding. The Pioneers include Peter Checkland and Brian Wilson. Sir Geoffrey Vickers and Karl Weick are also associated with this type of approach.
- Complexity and Chaos school - System thinking explores the emergent properties of complex systems. Approaches could include Robert Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality (MOQ) and Snowden's participatory method based on the Cynefin model.
- Quality and Service Design school - Largely based on earlier work by Walter Shewart and Edwards Deming. Linked to the Statistical Process Control techniques (sometimes known as Six Sigma).
- Other approaches: System Dynamics, SAST, Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), Complexity theory, Fifth Discipline, Critical Systems Thinking (Heuristics), Organisational cybernetics, Critical systems practice, Total systems intervention, Post modern systems thinking, Team synergy, Interactive planning, Hard systems thinking (systems engineering and structured IT methods, Six and Lean Sigma), SODA process, Strategic Choice, Robustness Analysis, Drama Theory, Dialogue Mapping, Interpretative Structural Modelling/Interactive Planning, Socio Technical Approach."

What's your Interpretation of Design Thinking?
"I'm doing a study about the interpretation of design thinking in the design and business world in order to know if we have the same idea about this term.
What's your interpretation of "design thinking"? Or in other words what is design thinking for you?"

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