Design thinking is essentially a creative problem-solving strategy that prioritises customers’ requirements. While it originated as a technique for mapping out the stages of product design, it has evolved to be used as a process to help drive innovative solutions to business problems. As we know, if a business is to not only survive, but thrive, especially in a competitive marketplace within a challenging economy, the ability to innovate is essential.
The popularity of design thinking is due in no small part to Tim Brown, CEO of global design company IDEO. On the company website, Brown defines design thinking as: ‘… a human-centered (sic) approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology and requirements for business success.’
The creative problem-solving process
The problem to be solved might be to do with products, services, processes or strategy, either existing or new. Remember, this is about prioritising customers’ requirements so you might have to get out of your usual headspace to see things from their perspective.
For example, if there is a point on your website where instead of going on to sign up for something, people leave the site, the best way to find out what the issue might be is to run through that process yourself.
The creative problem-solving process has four stages: clarify, ideate, develop, and implement. Let’s take a closer look.
1. Clarify
This stage is about identifying the challenge that you face. It involves asking ‘why?’ and getting to the heart of the matter, rather than making assumptions that might later prove to be incorrect.
Once the issue has been clarified, you move on to gather information to get a fuller understanding of it.
Once you understand it, you formulate questions that will help you arrive at a solution.
2. Ideate
This stage is all about generating and exploring ideas that could give a satisfactory answer to the questions you formulated in the previous stage.
Techniques like brainstorming and mind-mapping can be useful, here.
3. Develop
This involves evaluating the ideas that emerged in the previous stage and deciding whether any, either alone or in combination, have the potential to be developed into a plan or a prototype. It’s about ensuring that whatever is chosen meets the needs of the business and its customers, is sufficiently robust and is the best ‘fit’.
4. Implement
You have identified and chosen the best solution; now it’s time to take action! You’ll need to specify the required resources and set out the necessary actions to get the results you desire. Include milestones, checks and balances to make sure you stay on track.
Next, the plan should be communicated to, or the prototype shared with, all stakeholders. It’s important everyone understands it and that you have buy-in at all levels.
If your checks and balances indicate things have veered from the path, stop and take corrective action. If you don’t get the results you expected or milestones prove hard to meet, stop, re-evaluate, adjust the plan.
It’s a structured approach
Design thinking can be used for all sorts of issues – how to retain key team members, how to create new products and services, how to improve processes and more. However, rather than using trial and error as the method, you work through a defined process that facilitates innovative solutions. And those solutions might be what confers competitive advantage.
The GreenStones team would love to hear about your own creative processes.