Stepping up: Beyond Design Thinking

DMI Transforming Design

Stepping up Kevin McCullaghFounder, Plan

08 September 2010

Design thinking Wicked problems / user-driven / inter-disciplinary iterative / prototyping / failing early

The opportunity

Stepping up

Why it leaves so many designers cold

Stepping up


Why it’s such a hot topic with business

Stepping up


Why it’s such a hot topic with business

How designers can step up to seize the opportunity

Designers left cold

Stepping up

2009

Milan2009

‘Even turkeys can fly in a tornado’

Designers drinking too much of their own Kool Aid?

Milan2009

Milan2009

Fluffy concept

Design thinking An ill-defined notion

Roger MartinA way of thinking

Tim BrownDesigner’s sensibility and methods

Balanced left and right brain thinking

Analytical Intuitive

Martina Navratilova

Designers’ brain

Tim BrownA false distinction

Designthinking

Designdoing

Tim Brown 2008

Designthinking

Designdoing

Tim Brown 2009

DesignThinking

DesignDoing

Design thinking = Design processtool for managers to tackle a wide range of business problems

Source: Tim Brown, ‘Design Thinking’, Harvard Business Review, June 2008

Bill Moggridge New story, old idea

‘ design thinking is a new story, not a new process.’

Bill Moggridge, Designerly Thinking: In conversation with Bill Moggridge, NESTA, 12 June 2007

Design thinking An ill-defined notion





Title Sub-headingDesign thinking An ill-defined notion

Thinking

Title Sub-headingDesign thinking An ill-defined notion



Thinking

Designing

Helen WaltersFormer editor of Design and Innovation, Bloomberg BusinessWeek

‘ [we] need [a] better definition of design thinking, more widely understood. [it’s a] Wild west of interpretation right now.’

Helen Walters, Tweet, 9 March 2010

Don Norman

‘ Design thinking is a nonsensical phrase that deserves to die’ Don Norman, ‘The Research-Practice Gulf’, Design Research Conference, 11 May 2010

Don Norman

‘ Design thinking is a public relations term for good, old-fashioned creative thinking.’ Don Norman, ‘Design Thinking: A useful myth’, Core77, 25 June 2010

Hot topic with business

Stepping up

Redesign Business Summit11-12 March 2010

The Big Re-Think Redesigning business summit 11-12 March 2010

‘ Business leaders are casting around for new ideas... ...design thinking is offering itself up as one of the new ideas’

Vijay V Vaitheeswaran, ‘The Big Re-Think: redesigning business summit’, 11-12 March 2010

Vijay V Vaitheeswaran, Global Correspondent, The Economist

Crisis of trust and legitimacy

Richard Fuld, Ex-CEO Lehman Bros

Discredited ideas Efficient markets

Shareholder value

The wisdom of crowds

High pay = high talent

Light-touch regulation

The rise of design

Leaders discredited, designers legitimated

Leaders

Designers

Section heading

198719972007

Margaret Thatcher

1987

Hair

1987

1987

Ford Escort

1987

Newcastle PolytechnicBA Design for Industry

Design craftsman

Design thinker

1987

Design was a cult

1987

Section heading

198719972007

The return of Steve Jobs

1997

New Labour elected

1997

Creative Britain

‘ We can say with pride that Britain is the “design workshop of the world” – leading a creative revolution’

Tony Blair, ‘Britain’s design industry, Foreign and commonwealth office, 1998

1997

The creative sector40 million Americans !

Fine art auctionsAdvertisingIT servicesMusic industry DesignGallery and museum attendants

1997

Death of Diana

1997

Emoting

1997

Culture of emotions A shift from the head to the heart

1997

Section heading

198719972007

Design on TV

2007

Raised aesthetic expectations

‘ The rise of look and feel – aesthetics are a universal human desire NOT a luxury’

Virginia Postrel, ‘The Substance of Style’, 2003

2007

Creativity a mass aspiration

2007

Tim Brown is a big hit at Davos

2007

Stepping up – seizing the opportunity

Stepping up

Cut down on the Kool Aid!

Design Thinking©®™

Not a magic process

New capabilitiesSkills + Knowledge

Facilitation / Corporate perspective / Technical & Marketing knowledge

Specification

Prototyping

CAD/DTP

Detailing

Sketching

Creativity

Synthesis

Trends analysis

User research

Craft skills

Strategic skills

New skillsDifferent problems require different specialist knowledge and skills

Facilitation / Corporate perspective / Technical & Marketing knowledge

????

????

Specification

Prototyping

CAD/DTP

Detailing

Sketching

Creativity

Trends analysis

User research

Craft skills

Strategic skills

Section heading

FoundationsRecent stepsNext steps

More than stylists5 levels of design

Source: adapted from www.bplusd.org

Foundations

5 Problem framing

4Problem solving

3Functionality & usability

2Aesthetics

1Accidental design

More than stylists

5 Problem framing

4Problem solving


2Aesthetics

1Accidental design

Design


Foundations

More than stylists

5 Problem framing

4Problem solving


2Aesthetics

1Accidental design

Design thinking

Design


Foundations

Cross-silo facilitators Taking a holistic view as interdisciplinary translators and bridges between silos

Cus

tom

er s

uppo

rt

Cha

nnel

Pac

kagi

ng d

esig

n

Fina

nce

UX

Pro

duct

des

ign

Mar

ketin

g

R&D

Designers

Foundations

Cross-silo facilitatorsChristopher Lorenz envisaged a bigger role for designers in 1980s

‘ [designers good] translators, bridges and catalysts [between corporate silos]... [playing the role of] facilitator, coordinator, evaluator and completer.’

Christopher Lorenz, ‘The Design Dimension’, 1986

Foundations

Resolving and completing

‘ Design is the best you can do by next Wednesday!’

Charles Eames

Foundations

Basic skills

Creativity

Prototyping

Visualising

Foundations

SynthesisersChristopher Lorenz envisaged a bigger role for designers in 1980s

‘ It is not the mundane skills of sketching, shaping and colouring which make the industrial designer such a valuable resource, but the multi-faceted ability to contribute to the work of other disciplines, and to stimulate, interpret and synthesise it.’

Christopher Lorenz, ‘The Design Dimension’, 1986

Foundations

Synthesisers

Foundations

‘ Laser intelligence probes deeply into a topic, but ignores opportunities to cross-pollinate... Searchlight intelligence may not probe as deeply but is always scanning the environment and [spotting] connections across spheres.’

Howard Gardner, ‘Five Minds for the Future’, 2007

Ambiguity Tackling fuzzy and multi-dimensional ‘wicked problems’

Foundations

Title Sub-headingScope

Foundations

Title Sub-headingFrame

Foundations

Title Sub-headingAnalyse

Foundations

Title Sub-headingSynthesis Knitting together disparate information into a new and coherent whole

Foundations

‘ It was about being very focused and not trying to do too much… the key was getting rid of stuff’

Jonathan Ive quoted in ‘The guts of a new machine’, New York Times, 30 November 2003

Editors Disciplined focus

Foundations

Cultural interpretersNo need to be defensive about aesthetics

Foundations

‘ [Design is] ‘problem solving in a cultural context’

Ron Arad


Better at communicating process

Recent steps

User research methods have been formalised

Recent steps

Experience design A genuinely new and powerful approach

Recent steps

Service design A genuinely new and powerful approach

Trip planning At airport In aircraft Destination

Recent steps

Social design

Engagement facilitators

‘ those looking for a prescribed way to implement design thinking are destined to be disappointed. It’s a messy, opaque process that depends as much on group dynamics as intellect or insight....the process was more important than the product.... the idea is that people need a way to engage in multiple places within their community.’

Helen Walters, ‘Inside the Design Thinking Process’, Businessweek.com,14 December 2009

Recent steps


Design needs to raise its game

‘ Creativity is not in short supply... Design no longer delivers competitive advantage’

Roberto Verganti, Design-Driven Innovation, 2009

Next steps

Design needs take more of its own medicine

We need to innovate how we innovate

There is no one size fits all approach to innovation

Roberto Verganti

Next steps

High quality design is hardWe’re all designers, it’s what separates us from the apes

‘ Design is not important. Good design is important.’

Jonathan Ive, ‘Lessons from America’, Design Council / HEFCE, September 2006

Next steps

More analytical rigourBalanced left and right brain thinking

Analytical Intuitive

Next steps

More analytical rigourPrecision over woolliness

Next steps

Too much focus on consumers

Next steps

Vision Over insight and empathy

‘ Radical innovation does not come from users... Designers have become less visionary. They have spent the last 10 years getting close to consumers and trying to become businessmen, and have lost their visions.’ Roberto Verganti The Big Re-Think: redesigning business summit 11-12 March 2010

Next steps

Consumer needs last

‘ Technology first, invention second, needs last.’ Don Norman, ‘Technology First, Needs Last’, interactions.acm.org, March/April 2010

Next steps

Foresight

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

‘ Strategy must be created from the future backwards’

Gary Hamel

Next steps

Foresight of interpreters

ConsumersRear-view mirror outlook

ExpertsProfessional interpreters of the future

Next steps

Design leadership challengeBalancing Process, Context and Talent

Next steps

Process

Context Talent

Design thinkingOverly focuses on process

Design thinking Process

Context Talent

Setting the context is key the design leadership challenge

KnowledgeAnalysisForesightVision

Process

Context Talent

Underplays the importance of finding, nurturing and motivating talent

Design thinking

Process

Context Talent

A new generation of talentRachel

Thank you We join the dots

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