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Why You Need to Know More About Design Thinking

From: Gene

To:  Patrick

Subject: RE: Design and Innovation Education -- BusinessWeek

 

Please review...and when ready...give the 15 minute version of why I should need to know more.

 

This was the response I received when I emailed Gene a link to the BusinessWeek Special Report on Design Thinking: "How best to educate the design thinkers and innovators of the future? BusinessWeek's list features promising programs from design and business schools from around the world."

 

What follows is my attempt at a 15-minute (or less) explanation of why he should need to know more.

 

Tim Brown, CEO IDEO, defines Design Thinking as: “Design thinking is really about using the sensibilities and methodologies that designers have developed to create new choices, new alternatives, new ideas that haven’t existed in the world before. But it’s being applied today much further upstream and to a much broader set of problems than it has been traditionally. It’s the same skills that designers developed literally for decades, but [those skills are now] applied on a much broader canvas than they used to be.”

 

Paula Thornton (@rotkapchen), I think, put it really well: "Design thinking is not about solving design problems, it's about solving problems with design."

Said another way, the skill and talent and methodologies employed to create a “better mousetrap” can and should be used to address bigger, more complex needs and issues. What was originally and narrowly constrained to solving only issues of aesthetics is now a vehicle for developing solutions to problems like patient care, banking, and retail. The mousetrap has been expanded to include things like business models, warehousing, drug delivery, and food distribution.

In his book, Change By Design, Brown writes, “Design thinking taps into capacities we all have but that are overlooked by more conventional problem-solving practices. It is not only human-centered; it is deeply human in and of itself. Design thinking relies on our ability to be intuitive, to recognize patterns, to construct ideas that have emotional meaning as well as functionality, to express ourselves in media other than words or symbols” (p. 4).

In brief, Design Thinking is an iterative process consisting of the following steps: inspiration, ideation, and implementation. What this means is Design Thinking identifies the problem and the people for whom the solution is to be designed, dives deep in exploring new and old ideas, new and old frontiers, fails early and often to see what works and what doesn’t, and then pushes the solution out of the lab and into the marketplace.  The iterative nature of Design Thinking means any one of these “steps” can be revisited and still be considered part of the process.

With that said, here are three reasons why you should know more about Design Thinking:

1. Design Thinking destroys groupthink.

Not surprisingly, researchers from the University of Minnesota discovered that the language most often used within an organization is a cultural signal of how innovative it is (You can listen the BusinessWeek podcast, or download the paper, or see my previous post). What has been observed is dissenting opinions get sidelined for a myopic consensus – i.e. groupthink. Design Thinking helps to change the way we approach the issues so all ideas get voiced and tested.

 2. Design Thinking reimagines a better future.

How do we create new services and meet new needs when our own experience is not sufficient? Because it is interdisciplinary, Design Thinking helps to reimagine and create a future borrowing from a world of experiences and perspectives. This can translate into new products, new markets, or new distribution systems – and eventually, new profits.

3. Design Thinking is being used by your competitors.

Chances are one of your competitors has started using Design Thinking or is planning to implement it as a mainstay of their business. Why? Ultimately, they see Design Thinking as the tool that will help them fulfill Peter Drucker’s axiom: "Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two--and only two--basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business." Design Thinking is centered on observing human behavior in order to deduce latent human needs. People don’t always know how to say what they need, but they often show it. And your competitors are looking to capitalize on their insights into customer behaviors at your expense.

To summarize, Design Thinking is a method for making sure we are working on the right activities at the right times in order to better influence the right results in an increasingly complex world. This is one of the reasons why universities worldwide are beginning to offer hybrid programs that combine traditional MBAs with Design Thinking principles. As Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School, argues in his book The Design of Business: "Neither analysis nor intutition alone is enough... The most successful businesses in the years to come will balance analytical mastery and intuitive originality in a dynamic interplay that I call design thinking." It is simply becoming part of the new “how” of business.

 

Here are a handful of links that you can review if you want to dig a little deeper:

 

1. Design Thinking 101 by Daniel MacKenzie

 

2. Design Thinking, Tim Brown's blog

 

3. Sparc @ The Mayo Clinic

 

4. What is Design Thinking, Really? by Vanessa Miemis

 

5. FutureLab

 

6. Why We All Need A Little More Design Thinking by Saj-nicole Joni at Forbes.com

 

7. Design Thinking Can Give Businesses An Edge by Harold Hambrose

 

I think there is a lot of information online about Design Thinking. Gene asks an important question: "Why should I need to know more?" I have given three reasons above why Design Thinking is important. Why do you think Design Thinking is important? WHY should businesses consider its application?

The Peltzman Effect

It is called the Peltzman Effect and it applies to the current economic meltdown.

Sam Peltzman is an economist. According to economists people respond to incentives. And people respond to incentives out of economic self-interest.

"The Peltzman effect arises when people adjust their behavior to a regulation in ways that counteract the intended effect of the regulation."

Peltzman's study was on the use of seat belts. The goal of seat belt laws was to save lives. According to Harvard Economist Mankiw" Seat belts make accidents less costly because they reduce the likelihood of injury or death. But the result is not fewer accidents or even fewer traffic fatalities, it is a larger number of accidents at higher speeds.

Interestingly, John Adams, risk expert and emeritus professor at University College London, showed that mandating seat belt usage in 18 countries "resulted in either no change or actually a net increase in road accident deaths."

"The point, stresses Adams, is that drivers who feel safe may actually increase the risk that they pose to other drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians and their own passengers (while an average of 80% of drivers buckle up, only 68% of their rear-seat passengers do)."

The New York featured an article titled, "Mathematical Model and the Mortgage Mess." It described using mathematical functions called Gaussian copulas. These copulas were a type of "produce scale that not only weighs a bag of apples but estimates the chances that they'll all be rotten in a week."

In other words, the use of these copulas reduced the perceived risk by homeowners, investors, and politicians, thus, increased the amount people were willing to wager.

People responded to incentives out of their own economic self-interest. The use of seat belts and copulas does not ultimately achieve the desired results -- fewer traffic deaths and zero-risk investing.

To me, it makes sense how and why we got where we are. We reduced our sense of risk to the point where we were willing to drive faster and more recklessly.

Visually Speaking

The ability to convey in words the essence of meaning. To paint a picture with words in order to impart knowledge, feeling, and understanding. Visually speaking, when done well, may enable the hearer or reader to vicariously experience the very thing you're trying to describe.

Metaphor and simile are great tools that aid in the art & science of visually speaking.

Apple & Innovation

I was wondering the other day whether or not Apple's new aluminum "unibody" laptop is indeed innovative or merely an upgrade. I watched the video from apple.com and walked away scratching my head. It is remarkable that we have the technology to shape a piece aluminum.

Does aluminum shell help improve actual computing performance? Or is it just an aesthetic?

Was changing the body style a customer-demanded change?

I'm not really critical of the new aluminum body on the MacBook. It did get me thinking, though: where do you draw the line between innovation and upgrade?

One way that it is an innovation is it simplified the manufacturing process. Anytime you can reduce the number of parts it takes to produce a product, the more efficient you become. Such simplification has dramatic bottom-line results.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet

Personally, I'm still getting the hang of Twitter and blogging. This is a great post by Julie Roads with sage advice.  It's a keeper.

The Original Uber-Innovator

Here's my add to Tim Leberecht's blog from December 7, 2008, on the "end of big ideas."

Micro/Nano/Mini is a solar flare on a much bigger sun. It's amazing how much power they can contain, and yet they wouldn't exist without the big ball of gas as the ultimate source.

Secondly, rather than Hemingway, another micro-novelist that we could quote would be our all-time favorite uber-innovator: Willie Wonka.

"So much time, and so little to do! Stike that, reverse it."

"You should never doubt what no one is sure about."

"Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple."

And probably the most familiar...

"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamer of dreams."

It's this last one that tells me we won't ever see the end of big ideas. Small things spark the imagination and grow into major fires of creative/innovative output. That's the power of even little ideas... they grow.

A Culture of Innovation: 5 Traits

Exciting things going on in the world of design and innovation. 

I listened to a BusinessWeek podcast with Rajesh Chandy, Professor of Marketing at University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, from December 3, 2008: Five Traits of Innovation Companies. The main difference between innovative companies and non-innovative companies? Culture.

"The battle is within. It is a cultural one: between glorifying the past or being paranoid about the future (Grove 1996); between protecting one’s successes or cannibalizing them (Chandy and Tellis 1998); between averting risk or embracing it. The battle is for the soul of the firm. Innovative firms are those that clearly understand this battle and adopt decisive practices to win it."

What this suggests, then, is that innovation is something you are rather than just something you do. Of the five traits of innovative companies, the top two are: 1) Forward-Thinking Orientation; and 2) Willingness to Cannabalize.

A forward-thinking orientation is identified by -- of all things -- the language top management uses to communicate. Specifically, how often they use the words like "will" and "shall." Cannabalization is somewhat self-explanatory -- it's the willingness of the company to overtake its own products -- much like Apple with the iPod and Gillette with its razors.

Among other things, the implication of just these two traits of innovative companies is the impact on ROI. If within 3 to 5 years your new widge is essentially obsolete or vulnerable to competition, then the return on investment has to also be fast. Not only do firms have to be thinking 3 to 5 years out, they also have to understand the nature of planned obsolescence when it comes to their product development.

If you're interested, here's a link to Chandy's paper, recently published in the Journal of Marketing.

Defining Design Thinking

Idea No.: 12.12.08, 14:46:27

Design Thinking is poetry in a narrative world and narrative in a poetry world. It is what it needs to be to redefine the status quo and continually aid businesses in their perpetual pursuit of differentiation and competitive advancement.

Prepare for Innovation (Prototype 1)

"Instead of attempting to learn from observing the actions of leaders, I prefer to swim upstream to the antecedent of doing: thinking. My critical question is not what various leaders did, but how their cognitive processes produced their actions." (Roger Martin, The Opposable Mind)

I'm working out some thoughts on how to implement innovation in an organization. There's likely manuals and processes already out there. I've recently a number of blogs and books on innovation and I need to start compiling some of these thoughts. It's part of the process.

1. Innovation takes personal responsiblity. I think this is more difficult for most people to accept than the simplicity of the statement would suggest. Innovate: to create value, to think, to guess, to dialogue, to prototype, to put your customer first, to design, to empathize, to care, to dive deep into a problem without nothing more than a bic lighter. (The idea of personal responsibility comes from Martin's book and used in relation to all of the leaders he profiles.)

2. Innovation is both a process and a destination. It's actions and results. How you innovate is as important as what you create. We can no longer ignore how the sausage is made. But at the outset you may not know what your result should be. Start with a blank slate and go from there.

3. Out of the box thinking requires out of the box thinkers. Designers need a seat at the table. Engineers need a seat at the table. Designers need to think more like engineers. Engineers need to think more like designers. Everyone needs to think like the customer.

4. Innovation happens in the world of both-and not either-or. Of course, business still has trade-offs. That's life. But to create something truly original, beautiful, and practical, takes more. Both-And solutions don't lend themselves to easy answers and rules-of-thumb (heuristics). Both-And solutions require us to embrace complexity. Innovation is a matter of courageously seeing solutions as both unobvious and obvious at the same time.

5. Challenge the underlying assumptions of everything. Rob McEwen, former CEO of Goldcorp, is quoted in The Opposable Mind with the following: "I was looking for the fundamental, underlying, unquestioned assumption that everybody in the industry grows up with. And if you find that assumption, and then question it, you can start seeing opportunities. If you can define the problem differently than everybody else in the industry, you can generate alternatives that others aren't thinking about." This is a fundamental starting point -- understanding the status quo, the underlying assumptions, the rules of thumb, the tried-and-true analysis -- because innovating in small ways will likely bump up against these pillars of thought.

Innovation is toil. But it can produce works of stunning beauty. There's a sense of completeness and peace and even awe and deep appreciation -- even when the innovation is small.

Apply Steam: A Definition

What is powerful enough to move a locomotive? Steam. What's been used to heat rooms and entire buildings? Steam. What gets the wrinkles out of your shirt? Steam. What's a good way to help open up the airways when you have nasal congestion? Steam.

Steam is a metaphor for ideas and innovations used to make the world a better place. Steam is kinetic and powerful. Ideas are kinetic and powerful. Steam needs direction. Ideas need direction. Undirected steam is just vapor. Undirected ideas are just vapor.

Unapplied steam just escapes into the atmosphere, all that kinetic energy lost. That's why an idea needs to be directed and applied otherwise it's just an idea that dissipates into the atmosphere.

I named my blog "Apply_Steam" to serve as a personal reminder that ideas are most good and most important when they are applied. It can also serve as a question: How can we apply steam to generate engines of good that change the world?