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Design thinking:
Everywhere and Nowhere, Reflections on The Big Re-think
What separates the high performing DT organization from the rest is the ability to move forward with insight and evidence and learn what works by rapidly implementing and testing ideas. Talented and insightful teams that are inspired by their customers are leaning into the future and reducing uncertainty, by experimenting with risky ideas. The organizations that support these teams fundamentally believe that there is a risk in not taking a risk......
Answer $$$
When a business person starts talking the basis is always $$$ it has nothing to do with fixing problems, the problem is how to make $$$ in an ever increasingly competive environment. LIke a business major knows anything about design other than, it can make them $$$.
Another point, in speaking to the challenge of new opportunities for design raised by Helen Walters in another venue: I think we have to stop looking at design problems as the entire domain of one designer. The kinds of big design problems that Vijay Vaitheeswaran alluded to call for many people and many different capabilities across a continuum of design activities. Design could be so powerful for so many of these types of problems, but so far, the design community lacks the ability to marshall resources and organise on that scale. It's not that we can't do it; it's simply that we haven't yet learned how.
I for one, hold out a lot of hope that the meaning of design will expand along with the skills and proficiencies associated with it, and that the capacity for design to solve some of society's bigger problems will too. Graphic design and industrial design have more than a century's worth of practice and expertise behind them. The design of the 21st Century is still emergent. I think it's too early to call the game.
You can replace the word "innovator" with "designer" in this presentation and you'll see what I mean: http://bit.ly/3inno
The really-hopeless-at-math designers that you talked about certainly aren't the T-shaped designers that Tim was looking for. These designers can still be vital to the creative team--the "domain designers / innovators" mentioned in the presentation.
For the multi-disciplinary designers / innovators, the T-shaped description doesn't quite cut it. These designers are at least "double-T-shaped" (Judy Estrin's improvement on Tim's analogy. I prefer to call them "bridge-shaped" because then they can have as many deep dive points as are appropriate. "Bridge-shaped designers" also highlights a core function that these types of designers serve on the creative team--bridging domains and communication gaps.)
If domain designers know that they don't have to worry about the design/systems/integrative thinking stuff, and know that the multi-disciplinary designers who are thinking about it are there to make everybody shine, then the to-buy-in-or-not-to-buy-in issues melt away.
...and I've always believed designers are trained exactly to do that. Translate, interpret what the ends users are saying about their needs and what they actually mean, what business folks need to get done and what needs to be actually done to get them exactly that. Isn't the key to a good design decision, good observation, good analysis of what was observed and good illustration of what is exactly needed ?
I so much identify with the fact that design has become just a ticket to the game. Business folks have now started throwing in design jargons and showcasing all of their case studies to just drive home the idea that they are more design centric that their competitors and therefore better suited to the client needs. What most clients perhaps fail to realize is this exact difference: having a design thinking and having a design philosophy. Design thinking is limited to those who consider themselves the higher ups. managers and ceos who get through some ambiguous design thinking courses and expect things to change over a little period of time. Reading some books or blogs will only bring in a superficial understanding of the design domain. This is a real weird observation and off-topic, but for organizations to really follow the design philosophy, it starts to listen to its employees physical and mental workspace needs first. People who work for you can make you more design sensitive than the end user that you are targeting your product for. Learn through your employees. Learn what they needs and help them find creative solutions to their needs themeselves. Support them, translate that philosophy into the products you design as well. It should work.
That is a good and noble thing, but saddling Design Thinking with the task of solving all the world's ills seems unfair and sets it up for a fall (which this article seems to conclude is happening).
We have a school that is focused on Creative Leadership, and we define that term narrowly in the hope that it also won't become a short-lived buzzword. In our case, teaching the t-shirts how to think like the suits seems like the best way to ensure that creativity (or in the case above, good design) gets implemented at the top of an enterprise.
Far better to teach a "creative" how to run a business with innovation or creativity at its heart than to try to inject some creative gene onto a general manager.
Thanks for a thought-provoking aticle.
Clark
I'm a bit dubious about right brain and left brain talk (the brain being massively hyper-connected) although it's a shorthand that seems to have stuck over the years. The distinction seems to me to be between design (and commissioning organisations) that takes context into account (whether it be technical, business, cultural or social) and design that is an expression of the designer's view. What design thinking methods do, imo, is muster the context as a platform for thinking through alternative scenarios which can be evaluated and, eventually, realised through what is traditionally seen as design. Omit those steps and you have disconnected design which fails to make an impact. However, take only those steps, without the skill to envision and realise a designer brings, and you may be short of a solution.
On the specific issue of user-centred design I partly sympathise with the Don Norman critique that you mention. I think much 'user research' is there for form rather than focused impact. But as a practitioner I am constantly surprised about how remote organisations can be from their users, and they, in turn, are frequently surprised when they see real, rather than idealised, user behaviour. Seeing the reality is often a prompt and context for innovation. I think there's a difference between invention and innovation and Norman is right about the role of user research in invention, but less on target regarding innovation.
As a left brain leaning genetic mix of an engineer (Dad) and artist (Mom) - I'm looking forward to contributing to the design industry's next evolutionary step :)
I've wondered if the design industry had gotten to be something of a bubble with an imbalance of whom design work is for - other designers, "normal people", the other "90%", etc. Still, high-design is valuable to push the envelope...we wouldn't have as efficient and effective air travel if we didn't reach for the moon and stars...
The article makes me consider the value of standards across an industry - perhaps the design industry needs some "left brain love" to create a new way to approach, use, improve, and value standards. It could be something many industries could benefit from...
Best,
Shalin (a.k.a. Left Brain Designer)
As of the topic on "vision vs users", many comments have suggested that there seems to be a misunderstanding on "getting close to the consumers" and co-creation.
I
do not feel the term design thinking leaves us cold. I do feel it is a great challenge to live up to its definitions when different types of problems are constantly added under this umbrella.
After all, like what Mr. Kenya Hara said on the very first page of his book, "Verbalizing design is another act of design." I agree on all the actions that need to be taken, but I also see the value of this "new story" as it does broaden, at least, my view on what design is and can be.
Kevin, this is a great article! Although I did not attend the conference myself, I can tell by the echoes that the two things everybody is uncomfortable with are the meaning of design thinking and, particularly for me, the controversial statement of 'vision over users'.
Verganti's quote about designers losing their vision through getting closer to the consumer and trying to be businessmen in fact outlines why we all feel so itchy about this. Is this what the so-called democratisation of design has done to us? We, the designers and design researchers/strategists, used to feel both proud and unique at being one of the few specialists to sit between people and business and understand both. However, we are now made to believe that we have stretched ourselves a bit too far, but have we?
I read the post twice.
The first time I thought, 'wow, challenging: are we at the beginning of a new era. Is this about paradigm shifting? A backlash? Will this be about designers withdrawing from the public exposure they have had? Wasn't it a good idea to open up our processes, techniques, and philosophies to everybody else back then? Was that all a mere distraction? Are we all feeling nostalgic about the days when Phillip Starck introduced Juicy Salif?'
Then a second read of the post made me feel much better about it all and I understood why it didn't feel right to me in the first place. While I agree with Verganti that 'the key to seeing the future is about finding the right interpreters', I would question his opinion of whom those interpreters are.
Aren't we, the designers/researchers/strategists, supposed to be the interpreters? That is what we do, isn't it? We observe people and conduct ethnographic research but we also talk to industry leaders and experts in various fields: the suppliers, editors, retailers and artists. And we, the interpreters, are responsible for translating all the information and insights into ideas and platforms that contribute to either radical or incremental innovation.
I would therefore argue that in the example of Wii, it was the people in charge of the product's development at Nintendo that were the Interpreters and not the artists, media people, sociologists etc they talked to instead of their users.
And finally I'd like to add that, yes, I agree with Verganti's quote that 'radical innovation doesn't come from the users' because it was never meant to be that way we are not expecting to go out there and observe innovation, uncover it, let alone give users the tools to innovate. For instance, we observe behaviours and uncover insights and patterns, which only we, as the interpreters of people can uncover, and we as the interpreters of businesses can translate.
That is, as I could experience and observe, we learnt to use a method or framework "traditionally" developed or used only in one context (porter's 5 forces for eg) in another.
Then as BusinessWeek's covers splashed "The Empathy Economy" and "the strategic power of design as a force for increasing shareholder value" (I have NO idea where I read or heard this and even accepted the choice of wording myself, unquestioningly, for a few years) along with Dan Pink's then book, The whole new mind, it seemed as though the whole concept of what "design thinking" was became amorphous, fuzzy and the online equivalent of that silver bullet that many have mentioned above.
The rest has been captured very well by Kevin here in this article.
Now the question is, what next?
I have posited in the past that "collaborative intelligence" might be a better way to frame the concept of bringing design skills, engineering processes and business methods together, as a means to address intractable or "wicked problems" - I am more so inclined to do so now, five years later. In fact, John Camillus paper on HBR on strategy as a wicked problem captures many of the essential fundamentals of the "user centered approach to problem solving".
Perhaps, if nothing else, this gives rise to the thought that rather than let leading design studios or rock star designer's take the lead in framing the solution space, what is in fact needed is a place for all of us to have a conversation that debates and defines this subject area?
Look at how the comments are already flowing from your thoughtful and provocative argument, thanks Kevin :)
Business must understand the role of design as it relates to strategic decision making.
Design must understand the importance of strategic relevance over stylistic relevance.
Business must be more 'design oriented'.
Design must be more 'strategic'.
It's that simple -- it has nothing to do with 'thinking' but more so with 'management', 'collaboration', 'mutual understanding' and 'interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary' execution. I've been teaching a course on Design Management for the past four years and this is the way we run it -- we are NOT teaching MBAs to be 'designers' or 'think like designers'. We are teaching MBAs to understand the role of design and implement design into the strategic thinking EARLY ON rather than WAY DOWN THE LINE.
Feel free to read my thoughts 'On Design Thinking' here:
http://raymondpirouz.tumblr.com/post/425102443/on-design-thinking
One way "design thinking" is valuable is that its methodologies and processes attempt to force us out of our comfort zones. However, as other studies prove, radical innovation -- that is sustainable radical innovation -- is more dependent on corporate culture than on one time intensives. This is what Verganti's research also showed. Just as products have meanings and languages, corporations can have meanings and languages. Language is culture and culture defines behaviors and behaviors determine actions taken and actions not taken. What the discussion about design allows us to do, more than anything, is influence the conversation.
Thank you for your balanced and irenic coverage of the symposium.
Glad to hear some design people out there are still grounded and sceptical!.
Take the Wii example you used. If you've read the 'Iwata asks' conversations about Wii development from Nintendo website you'll see that the goal for Miyamoto with Wii was to create a more inclusive gaming experience where the whole family could play on equal terms. This came from an observation where people who could master the complex console controller would be playing and the rest of the family was largely ignored and were left outside of the experience. This is a very keen observation indeed and leads to myriad of opportunities. In any interview with Miyamoto I've seen this common theme come up. This I'd say is the essence to Wii experience.
So the key with user center design - or design thinking (as I understand it :) is not to ask user what they want (which leads to incremental innovation) but the understand them, their context and the needs and drivers and design for that. In the case of Wii: How can we create a more inclusive gaming experience for the whole family together. Once you have this you look at different solutions to problem, mew technologies and prototype the hell out of it (as nintendo did) with the best and the brightest designers and engineers (preferably together). Nintendo also had bunch of technologies from the past that did not use to be mature enough and it all cam beautifully together. So to me Wii is such a user centered innovation as it understand the context and it's users quite deeply (in a way sony and microsoft had completely failed to do). This led to Nintendo being able to make the right compromises in technology to balance the price and experience just right.
So to say revolutionary innovation does not come from users is technically true. User will never come to you and say: "I wish I had a TV remote I could swing like tennis racket and use it as a pointing device for my next generation console that's actually only marginally more advanced that the previous generation was". However the way I preach and practise user centered design is not about asking. It's about understanding, being empathic and especially about having the best designers, engineers and managers to design and deliver the best new products and services that users will intuitively gravitate towards, as they just make sense.