{"id":5,"date":"2016-01-08T21:20:22","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T20:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/designthinking\/?p=5"},"modified":"2016-01-10T02:04:14","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T01:04:14","slug":"what-is-design-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/designthinking\/2016\/01\/08\/what-is-design-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"What is design thinking?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my first post I would like to share with you what design thinking\u00a0means\u00a0to me.<\/p>\n

When people ask me what design thinking is, I usually encounter one major problem:\u00a0design thinking<\/em> is by no means defined, so the term might\u00a0have different meaning depending on the person you talk to. So what I will tell you about design thinking<\/em> might be something completely different to what, let’s say an SAP manager will tell you<\/a>. Having said this, there is\u00a0<\/i>an excellent study\u00a0on\u00a0design thinking<\/em>\u00a0in organizations that has been published recently, which also looks at its understanding and application. It’s called Parts without a whole<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(Schmiedgen et al., 2015) and was conducted by scholars from the Hasso-Plattner-Institut, Potsdam. I will try to wrap up the relevant sections for you:<\/p>\n

Design thinking is usually seen as an iterative process<\/strong> for problem solving<\/strong>. This process particularly focuses on\u00a0empathizing with users and thereby helps to develop human-centered<\/strong> products or services. It also helps to organize collaboration<\/strong>. Lots of people also regard\u00a0design thinking<\/em> as a mindset<\/strong>, advocating exploration<\/em>, ambiguity<\/em>,\u00a0optimism<\/em> and future-orientation<\/em> (Schmiedgen et al., 2015; Hassi & Laakso, 2011).<\/p>\n

I am aware that this summarization sounds like just another string of buzzwords. In fact, it scores a whooping .94 on the BlaBlaMeter \u2013 how much bullshit hides in your text?<\/a>. So let’s dig deeper into how design thinking is actually used.<\/p>\n

To understand\u00a0this, it is helpful to distinguish between mindsets<\/strong>, methods<\/strong> and tools<\/strong>, all of which can be linked to\u00a0design thinking<\/em>. While mindsets are very abstract and hard to obtain, methods\u00a0are easier to work with. Tools even more so.<\/p>\n

So what methods\u00a0are used to do\u00a0design thinking? To me, it all boils down to four\u00a0major methodological approaches:<\/p>\n

Diverse collaboration:<\/strong> It is very helpful to solve problems in diverse teams. Team members can bring different competences to the table and \u2013 even more important \u2013 will\u00a0scrutinize convictions of their team mates, which will lead to reasoned\u00a0results.\u00a0People who use design thinking<\/em>\u00a0will often use whiteboards and post-its as tools to support and foster collaboration, e.g. during brainstorming sessions<\/a> or to keep track of their project’s process.<\/p>\n

\"Diverse<\/a><\/p>\n

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User-centeredness:<\/strong> Almost all the\u00a0problems we are solving in today’s world have one or more human beings as stakeholders (we probably would not try to solve it elsewise). Typically we are developing a product or service\u00a0for a user. To\u00a0do this, design thinkers often interview<\/a> and observe<\/a> users in their everyday life or \u2013 later on \u2013 using a prototype of solutions they came up with.<\/p>\n

\"User-centeredness\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Prototyping:<\/strong> Design thinking is an iterative process, where solutions are constantly improved to get to the final product. Therefore, it is helpful to use prototypes to understand user needs and the feasibility of solutions one comes up with.<\/p>\n

\"Prototyping\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Five-step iterative process:<\/strong> Finally, design thinking is often taught as a five-step iterative process, for example at the d.school, Stanford University<\/a>. This is used as a framework for less experienced design thinkers.<\/p>\n

\"Five<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, a lot of people (including me) will argue that the usage of tools and methods that link to design thinking<\/em> does not mean you are design thinking<\/em>. In fact, I would even argue that design thinking<\/em> is possible without using any of its particular methods or tools, namely just by applying a design thinking<\/em> mindset to a problem. But in order to understand and practice design thinking<\/em> as a mindset, methods and tools are a very helpful starting point! They will foster the design thinking<\/em>\u00a0mindset, meaning that they encourage\u00a0exploration<\/em>, ambiguity seeking<\/em>,\u00a0optimism<\/em> and future-orientation<\/em>\u00a0(taken from my bullshit paragraph above\u2026).<\/p>\n

So to wrap it up, design thinking<\/em> is not so much a methodology but rather a mindset that helps\u00a0finding great solutions to problems. Nevertheless, to get started with design thinking<\/em>\u00a0it helps to use certain methods and tools, which foster and support the particular mindset we are looking for.<\/p>\n

P.S.: If you are looking for a description of “design thinking methods”, you can find a good overview here: DesignKit by ideo.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Hassi, L., & Laakso, M. S. (2011). Conceptions of design thinking in the management discourse. Proceedings of the 9 Th European Academy of Design (EAD), Lisbon<\/i>.<\/small><\/p>\n

Schmiedgen, J., Rhinow, H., K\u00f6ppen, E., & Meinel, C. (2015). Parts Without a Whole? \u2013 The Current State of Design Thinking Practice in Organizations (Study Report No. 97) (p. 144). Potsdam: Hasso-Plattner-Institut f\u00fcr Softwaresystemtechnik an der Universit\u00e4t Potsdam. Retrieved from\u00a0http:\/\/thisisdesignthinking.net\/why-this-site\/the-study\/<\/a>
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Graphics based on works by Lil Squid, Yazzer Perez, and Chris Gregory from The Noun Project.<\/small><\/p>\n

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