As opposed to popular thought, 'Design Thinking' is not restricted to just the creative field. In fact, it is a creative problem solving technique that is currently taking the business world by a storm.
Design thinking as a concept was popularized by a design consulting firm called IDEO in the early 2000's and the methods gained momentum in the larger business world when it's use in fields like healthcare and manufcturing became apparent.
The concept of design thinking has reached such popularity that the Stanford University now offers courses in 'Designing Your Life', which provides insights into application of design thinking towards building a career and life.
So, what does design thinking focus on?
Design thinking is a problem solving process that prioritizes the needs of the customer. It starts with empathizing with the end user and observing or watching how the user interacts with the environment/product and finding the need gap. Once there is this basic understanding, the focus turns to creating a new and innovative solution.
The crux of the whole design thinking process is therefore, human-centric; because the basis to create a solution is evidence found by observing consumers (humans) while they are engaging with the product or service.
Design thinking is NEVER a linear process, in contrast to other methods of problem solving, which are exclusively linear. In fact, design thinking seems to be an ever evolving process, something that can weave to and fro between stages inorder to respond to the evolving needs of the consumer. It does not believe in the traditional The five step design thinking, non-linear process is illustrated in the figure below, include - empathize, define, ideate or brainstorm, prototype and test.
Design thinking, although it orginated from the design sector, can benefit a host of businessnes like healthcare, manufacturing, technology and finance. The main advantage of using design thinking as a problem solving tool is that it can be used to break down problems occuring within complex systems and can support innovation and creativity while humaninsing problem solving.
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