Design thinking has been spreading like wildfire in the corporate world in the last years. Companies are trying to acquire this knowledge sometimes even without knowing why exactly they need it. This post is an attempt to go beyond the hype, and look at what makes design thinking such an important target for organizations.
Before jumping to design thinking, let’s first elaborate on why companies need Design so badly in the first place. It’s often forgotten, but the only reason an organization exists is to provide some products & services to their customers. All the departments, processes, resources & people within a company only exist to provide these products and services.
And the way to reach to good and better set of products & services happens through design.
Moreover, during the rapid change stemming from digitalization and rapid advances in technology, companies need to continuously redesign their products & services based on the changing expectations & needs of their customers. This makes Design more central & key to innovation.
This, in a nutshell, explains why Design has become so central for businesses, but it doesn’t explain the story of design thinking. One could be asking: “Ok, I get that Design is very important for companies and they need more and more of it; but why should any employee in any department learn about design or design thinking? Especially why should it be necessary for people who have nothing to do with end-products and services?”
Well, the quick answer to that is, design tools & methods have some really strong side-benefits. And the way those benefits were recognized by organizations has been through the term “design thinking”. From my point of view, here is a list of the main benefits design brings to an organization.
1) Design provides tools & methods to find solutions to any type of challenge
Design processes & methodologies are so versatile that you can use them to come up with new solutions to any problem at hand.
In the business setting, these can be seemingly the most boring challenge a department or the whole organization is having, such as “How can we do our yearly planning better?” or “How can we get to a more efficient internal reporting?” or name any other challenge you can think of.
The same goes for personal challenges, I personally used design processes to design my wedding, and it worked out pretty well. Design provides a great problem-solving methodology to come up with noble solutions.
2) People need a good & efficient way to simplify things
In our increasingly complex world, systems and processes are getting more & more sophisticated. This makes it mandatory for human beings to use some sort of simplification when they go about solving problems.
Design methodology provides methodic ways to simplify problems by focusing on what’s important, having distinct views on different levels of detail of a problem and also the possibility to not lose details in specific bits. This makes it possible to move between different levels, and prioritize efforts without losing track of the overall objectives.
Additionally, a core universal principle of design is simplicity. Despite the complexity of the problem you solve, a solution well designed would be simple for its end-users, which increases the chance of it being successful. That’s why designers constantly seek simplicity in what they create.
3) Design Provides tools to effectively work together
The traditional way of working for organizations have been through command & control mechanisms which don’t seem to be working anymore after the arrival of newer generations in the workplace.
Design thinking provides ways to effectively work together as a team, increasing the quality of team collaboration, communication: Getting the most out of the team’s resources, leveraging everyone’s individual contribution. This not only increases team efficiency but also creates more satisfied employees at work.
4) Increases Employee Engagement
Following the previous point, having better team collaboration, personally contributing to the end results, having a view of the overall goal and having fun while working are things design can provide to employees. This makes design a way to address employee disengagement for organizations.
5) Helps to Re-Focus on The Most Important Component Businesses: Users
Design’s human-centric approach, and placing the user at the center of everything, makes companies remember who is important things for their businesses, and who they should be really serving at the end of the day. This sounds simple, but for many organizations, it’s often a forgotten fact.
6) Is a catalyst for cultural change
Design thinking is not only a set of methods. Actually what’s more important about the design methodologies is perhaps the mindset changes it suggests. Design promotes things such as empathy, being more comfortable with failure, collaboration with everyone regardless of their job titles, having fun while working… All these new traits companies gain by acquiring design methodologies prepare them for the future.
7) Provides a lean way to experiment & create value
The shared approach of Design Thinking & Lean Principles on creating minimum viable products before making large investments is important for companies to capture value before making a full commitment to ideas.
So, given these benefits, does that mean everyone will need to become a designer? Obviously not. Design needs a lot of expertise, and design thinking is a way to democratize and share the principles & tools of design that everyone can benefit from.
In the discussions around design thinking, I reside more on the optimistic side, as I think design thinking which makes “Design” a mainstream topic will make it clearer for people to understand the value of good design & good designers. More educated audiences will push us -as designers- to be better in our work. And I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. What do you think?