Upload
others
View
5
Download
2
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
DESIGN THINKING
DESIGN THINKING
New Product Development Essentialsfrom the PDMA
Edited byMichael G. Luchs
K. Scott SwanAbbie Griffin
Cover image: C. WallaceCover design: Vector Swirl © iStock.com/antishock
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright ©2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New JerseyPublished simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any formor by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except aspermitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the priorwritten permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy feeto the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978)646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should beaddressed to the Permissions Department, JohnWiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030,(201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts inpreparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with the respect to the accuracy orcompleteness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties ofmerchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by salesrepresentatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not besuitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither thepublisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom.
For general information about our other products and services, please contact our Customer CareDepartment within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 orfax (317) 572-4002.
Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Somematerialincluded with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or inprint-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the versionyou purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For moreinformation about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Design thinking (2015)Design thinking : new product development essentials from the PDMA / edited by Michael G. Luchs,K. Scott Swan, Abbie Griffin.
pages cmIncludes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-1-118-97180-2 (cloth), 978-1-118-97182-6 (ePDF), 978-1-118-97181-9 (epub) andP010238748 (oBook)1. Product design. 2. Critical thinking. 3. Creative ability in business. I. Luchs, Michael, 1968– II. Swan,Scott, 1962– III. Griffin, Abbie. IV. Product Development & Management Association. V. Title.TS171.D4695 2015658.5′752—dc23
2015021569
CONTENTS
About the Editors xvii
1 A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DESIGNTHINKING 1Michael G. Luchs
Introduction 1
1.1 The Concept of Design Thinking and Its Role withinNPD and Innovation 1
1.2 A Framework of Design Thinking 4
1.3 Design Thinking as a Nonlinear Process 8
1.4 The Principles and the “Mindset” of DesignThinking 9
PART I: DESIGN THINKING TOOLS 13
2 INSPIRATIONAL DESIGN BRIEFING 15Søren PetersenJaewoo Joo
Introduction 15
2.1 Nine Criteria of an Inspirational Design Brief 16
2.2 Writing the Inspirational Design Brief 21
2.3 Research Findings about Inspirational DesignBriefs 23
2.4 Three Pitfalls to Avoid 24
2.5 Conclusion: Keys to Success 24
v
vi CONTENTS
3 PERSONAS: POWERFUL TOOLFOR DESIGNERS 27Robert ChenJeanny Liu
Introduction 27
3.1 Defining Personas 28
3.2 The Importance of Personas 29
3.3 Creating Personas 30
3.4 Illustrative Application of Personas 31
3.5 Summary 37
3.6 Conclusion 38
4 CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAPPING: THE SPRINGBOARDTO INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS 41Jonathan BohlmannJohn McCreery
Introduction 41
4.1 Inputs to the Experience Map 43
4.2 The Experience Mapping Process 48
4.3 The Experience Map as a Springboard to InnovativeSolutions 50
4.4 Conclusion 55
5 DESIGN THINKING TO BRIDGE RESEARCHAND CONCEPT DESIGN 59Lauren Weigel
Introduction 59
5.1 Challenges in Idea Generation 59
CONTENTS vii
5.2 The Need for a Systematic Method to Connect to theUser 60
5.3 The Visualize, Empathize, and Ideate Method 61
5.4 The Importance of Visualizing and Empathizingbefore Ideating 63
5.5 Applying the Method 64
5.6 Conclusion 68
6 BOOSTING CREATIVITY IN IDEA GENERATIONUSING DESIGN HEURISTICS 71Colleen M. SeifertRichard GonzalezSeda YilmazShanna Daly
Introduction 71
6.1 Where Do New Design Ideas Come From? 72
6.2 A Tool to Assist with Idea Generation: DesignHeuristics 72
6.3 How Design Heuristics Were Identified: The EvidenceBase 73
6.4 77 Design Heuristics for Idea Generation 74
6.5 How to Use Design Heuristics to Generate DesignConcepts 77
6.6 Evidence of the Value of the Design HeuristicsTool 80
6.7 Conclusion 80
6.8 Appendix 81
viii CONTENTS
7 THE KEY ROLES OF STORIES AND PROTOTYPESIN DESIGN THINKING 87Mark Zeh
Introduction 87
7.1 A Design Thinking Product DevelopmentFramework 87
7.2 What Is a Story? 89
7.3 What Is a Prototype? 92
7.4 Putting It Together—Combining Stories andPrototypes 95
7.5 Employing Stories and Prototypes in YourProcess 100
7.6 Conclusion 102
PART II: DESIGN THINKING WITHINTHE FIRM 105
8 INTEGRATING DESIGN INTO THE FUZZY FRONT ENDOF THE INNOVATION PROCESS 107Giulia CalabrettaGerda Gemser
Introduction 107
8.1 Challenges in the FFE 108
8.2 Design Practices and Tools for Assisting in ProblemDefinition 109
8.3 Design Practices and Tools for Assisting inInformation Management 112
8.4 Design Practices and Tools for Assisting inStakeholder Management 117
CONTENTS ix
8.5 How to Integrate Design Professionals in FFE 120
8.6 Conclusion 122
9 THE ROLE OF DESIGN IN EARLY-STAGE VENTURES: HOWTO HELP START-UPS UNDERSTAND AND APPLY DESIGNPROCESSES TO NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT 125J. D. Albert
Introduction: An Emerging Start-up Culture 125
9.1 The Basics 126
9.2 The Process 128
9.3 Troubleshooting Common Mistakes 138
10 DESIGN THINKING FOR NON-DESIGNERS: A GUIDEFOR TEAM TRAINING AND IMPLEMENTATION 143Victor P. SeidelSebastian K. Fixson
Introduction 143
10.1 What Do Non-Designers Need to Learn? 144
10.2 Challenges Teams Face with Design Thinking 145
10.3 Three Team Strategies for Success 147
10.4 Conclusion 154
11 DEVELOPING DESIGN THINKING: GE HEALTHCARE’SMENLO INNOVATION MODEL 157Sarah J. S. Wilner
Introduction 157
11.1 GE Healthcare’s Design Organization 158
11.2 The Menlo Innovation Ecosystem 158
x CONTENTS
11.3 The Significance of Design Thinking at GEHealthcare 168
11.4 Conclusion 171
12 LEADING FOR A CORPORATE CULTUREOF DESIGN THINKING 173Nathan Owen Rosenberg Sr.Marie-Caroline ChauvetJon S. Kleinman
Introduction 173
12.1 The Critical Impact of Corporate Culture on DesignThinking 173
12.2 What Is Corporate Culture? 176
12.3 Corporate Forces that Undermine DesignThinking 178
12.4 Four Pillars of Innovation for Enabling DesignThinking 180
12.5 Four Stages of Transforming to a Culture of DesignThinking 184
12.6 Conclusion 186
13 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AS INTELLIGENCEAMPLIFICATION FOR BREAKTHROUGHINNOVATIONS 187Vadake K. NarayananGina Colarelli O’Connor
Introduction 187
13.1 Designing Amidst Uncertainty 188
13.2 Knowledge Management Tasks for BreakthroughInnovation: From Intelligence Leveraging toIntelligence Amplification 190
CONTENTS xi
13.3 KM and Selected Tools for BreakthroughInnovation 194
13.4 Organizational Implications 199
13.5 Appendices 200
14 STRATEGICALLY EMBEDDING DESIGN THINKINGIN THE FIRM 205Pietro MicheliHelen Perks
Introduction 205
14.1 Role of Key Personnel 207
14.2 Organizational Practices 210
14.3 Organizational Climate and Culture 212
14.4 Embedding Design Thinking 215
PART III: DESIGN THINKING FOR SPECIFICCONTEXTS 221
15 DESIGNING SERVICES THAT SING AND DANCE 223Marina CandiAhmad Beltagui
Introduction 223
15.1 Products, Services, and Experiences 224
15.2 How to Design for Compelling ServiceExperiences 227
15.3 Services that Sing and Dance 232
15.4 Designing a Service Experience Is NeverFinished 233
15.5 Conclusion 234
xii CONTENTS
16 CAPTURING CONTEXT THROUGH SERVICEDESIGN STORIES 237Katarina Wetter-EdmanPeter R. Magnusson
Introduction 237
16.1 Service Design 239
16.2 Context, Stories, and Designers asInterpreters 240
16.3 Context Through Narratives—The CTNMethod 241
16.4 Case Illustration of the CTN Method 241
16.5 Conclusion and Recommendations 248
17 OPTIMAL DESIGN FOR RADICALLYNEW PRODUCTS 253Steve HoefflerMichal HerzensteinTamar Ginzburg
Introduction 253
17.1 Communicate the Challenge Goal toward RadicallyNew Products 254
17.2 Shift Time Frames to Future and Past 256
17.3 Promote an Emerging Technology Focus across theConsumption Chain 257
17.4 Promote the Use of Analogical Thinking 259
17.5 Look for Novel Ways to Solve Simple Problems 261
17.6 Leverage More Ideators via Crowdsourcing 261
17.7 Conclusion 263
CONTENTS xiii
18 BUSINESS MODEL DESIGN 265John AcetiTony Singarayar
Introduction 265
18.1 What Is a Business Model? 265
18.2 When Do I Need to Think about My BusinessModel? 267
18.3 What Value Should I Expect from a Business ModelDesign? 268
18.4 What Method Can I Use to Design a BusinessModel? 269
18.5 Process of Designing a Business Model 271
18.6 How Do I Implement My New or Revised BusinessModel? 276
18.7 Conclusion 277
19 LEAN START-UP IN LARGE ENTERPRISESUSING HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN THINKING:A NEW APPROACH FOR DEVELOPINGTRANSFORMATIONAL AND DISRUPTIVEINNOVATIONS 281Peter Koen
Introduction 281
19.1 Lean Start-up 282
19.2 Transformational and Disruptive Innovation: Definingthe Domain Where the Lean Start-up Process ShouldBe Used 285
xiv CONTENTS
19.3 Why Is a Business Model a Valuable Part of the LeanStart-up Process? 286
19.4 Lean Start-up through the Lens of Human-CenteredDesign 289
19.5 Implementing the Lean Start-up Approach inEnterprises 296
19.6 Conclusion 298
PART IV: CONSUMER RESPONSES AND VALUES 301
20 CONSUMER RESPONSE TO PRODUCT FORM 303Mariëlle E. H. Creusen
Introduction 303
20.1 How Product Form Influences Consumer ProductEvaluation 304
20.2 Product Form Characteristics and ConsumerPerceptions 305
20.3 In What Way Will Product Form Impact ConsumerProduct Evaluation? 308
20.4 Practical Implications 314
21 DRIVERS OF DIVERSITY IN CONSUMERS’ AESTHETICRESPONSE TO PRODUCT DESIGN 319Adèle Gruen
Introduction 319
21.1 Culture 320
21.2 Individual Characteristics 324
21.3 Situational Factors 328
CONTENTS xv
21.4 Discussion 329
21.5 Conclusion 330
22 FUTURE-FRIENDLY DESIGN: DESIGNINGFOR AND WITH FUTURE CONSUMERS 333Andy Hines
Introduction 333
22.1 A Framework for Understanding Changing ConsumerValues 334
22.2 Emerging Consumer Needs 335
22.3 Going Forward 345
PART V: SPECIAL TOPICS IN DESIGNTHINKING 349
23 FACE AND INTERFACE: RICHER PRODUCT EXPERIENCESTHROUGH INTEGRATED USER INTERFACE ANDINDUSTRIAL DESIGN 351Keith S. Karn
Introduction 351
23.1 Divergent Paths: User Interface in Physical andDigital Products 352
23.2 Emerging User Interface Technologies 354
23.3 New Technology Demands a New DevelopmentProcess 355
23.4 Seven Questions to Guide the Integration ofIndustrial Design with User Interface Design 359
23.5 Practice Makes Perfect 365
xvi CONTENTS
24 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTIONFOR DESIGNS 367Daniel Harris Brean
Introduction 367
24.1 “Design” in Intellectual Property 367
24.2 Utility Patents 368
24.3 Design Patents 373
24.4 Copyrightable Designs for Useful Articles 376
24.5 Trademark Rights for Product Design 377
24.6 Legal Overlap, Trade-Offs, and StrategicConsiderations 379
24.7 Conclusion 380
25 DESIGN THINKING FOR SUSTAINABILITY 381Rosanna Garcia, PhDScott Dacko, PhD
Introduction 381
25.1 Design for “X”? 382
25.2 Design Thinking Integrated into Design forSustainability 386
25.3 Conclusion 397
INDEX 401
ABOUT THE EDITORSDr. Michael G. Luchs is an Associate Professor and is the Director of the Innovation andDesign Studio at the College of William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Busi-ness. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008. Prior to earninghis Ph.D., Dr. Luchs worked for over a decade as a consultant and executive. As a Prin-cipal with the consulting firm Pittiglio, Rabin, Todd & McGrath (now PwC), Dr. Luchsworked with a broad client base to improve their product development and marketingpractices and performance. Clients included Fortune 500 companies as well as SMEs inthe consumer packaged goods, consumer durables, computing & telecommunicationsequipment, and telecommunications services industries. In addition to his consultingexperience, Dr. Luchs worked in industry as the Sr. VP of Marketing for Labtec Inc. (nowLogitech) and as a Product Manager for Black & Decker Power Tools.
K. Scott Swan is a Professor of International Business, Design, and Marketing atThe College of William & Mary. Prof. Swan was awarded a Fulbright and named the2015–2016 Hall Chair for Entrepreneurship in Central Europe at WU (Vienna, Austria)and The University of Bratislava (Slovakia). His latest publications are: Innovationand Product Management: A Holistic and Practical Approach to Uncertainty Reduction(Springer Science & Business Media) October 2014 and A Review of Marketing Researchon Product Design with Directions for Future Research (forthcoming in JPIM). Dr. Swan haslectured internationally at University of Applied Science Upper Austria (Wels), CorvinusUniversity in Budapest, MCI in Innsbruck, Tsinghua University in Beijing, AoyamaGakuinUniversity in Tokyo, WHU in Koblenz, Germany, and the Vienna Business School (WU)in Austria. His research interests have led to publications in journals such as StrategicManagement Journal, Journal of International Management, Journal of InternationalBusiness Studies, Management International Review, Journal of Business Research, and TheJournal of Product Innovation Management. He serves on the editorial boards of JPIMand The Design Journal.
Abbie Griffin holds the Royal L. Garff Presidential Chair in Marketing at the DavidEccles School of Business at the University of Utah, where she teaches the 1st-year coreMBAMarketingManagement course. ProfessorGriffinobtainedherB.S. ChE fromPurdueUniversity, MBA fromHarvard Business School, and Ph.D. inManagement of Technologyfrom MIT. Her research investigates means for measuring and improving the process ofnew product development. Her latest research can be found in the book titled: SerialInnovators: How Individuals in Large Organizations Create Breakthrough New Products. Her1993 article titled “Voice of the Customer” was awarded both the Frank M. Bass Dis-sertation Paper Award and the John D. C. Little Best Paper Award by INForms and hasbeen named the 7th most important article published in Marketing Science in the last25 years. She was the editor of the Journal of Product Innovation Management from 1998to 2003. The PDMA named her as a Crawford Fellow in 2009, and she currently serves asthe Vice President of Publications for the Association. She was on the Board of Directorsof Navistar International, a $ 13 billion manufacturer of diesel engines and trucks from1998 to 2009. Prof. Griffin is an avid quilter, hiker, and swimmer.
xvii
1A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO
DESIGN THINKING1
Michael G. LuchsInnovation and Design Studio, College of William & Mary
IntroductionWithin the context of new product development (NPD) and innovation, design thinkinghas enjoyed significantly increased visibility and, for many, increased perceived impor-tance over the last decade. For others, however, this term can be fraughtwith confusion,questions of relevancy and, for some, the perception of a fad. Within that context, theobjectives of this chapter include the following: First, I briefly describe the concept ofdesign thinking and its role within NPD and innovation. Next, I provide and describea simple framework of design thinking, followed by a summary of some fundamentalprinciples of the “mindset” of design thinking. Throughout, I identify linkages with theother chapters in this book. While this chapter provides an overview of design thinkingas well as some context, the remaining chapters in this book provide significantly moredetail and a wide variety of specific examples. Thus, this chapter concludes with a visualoverview of the book to help guide you to the specific ideas, tools, and practices mostapplicable to the NPD and innovation problems and opportunities that you and yourfirm are facing today.
1.1 The Concept of Design Thinking and Its Role withinNPD and InnovationWhat is design thinking? At its core, design thinking can be construed as a creativeproblem-solving approach—or, more completely, as a systematic and collaborative
1This chapter was adapted from “Understanding Design Thinking: A Primer for New Product Develop-ment and Innovation Professionals.” © 2014 College of William & Mary.
1
2 A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN THINKING
approach for identifying and creatively solving problems.2 The term design thinkingsimply means that one is approaching problems, and their solutions, as a designerwould. While this will be elaborated subsequently, an illustrative characteristic ofthe design thinking approach is that it is intentionally nonlinear. Designers, whetherin the arts or industry, tend to explore and solve problems through iteration. Theyquickly generate possible solutions, develop simple prototypes, and then iterate onthese initial solutions—informed by significant external feedback—toward a finalsolution. This is in contrast to a linear process, such as the traditional Stage-GateTM newproduct development (NPD) process, in which prototyping is typically done toward theend of the process to reflect the culmination of the development phase and to exploremanufacturability, rather than as a mechanism for gaining market feedback. A morethorough description of design thinking as a process and mindset follows, but first Iaddress an important question for those involved with new product development andinnovation: When is design thinking most applicable?
When to Apply Design ThinkingGenerally speaking, design thinking is best applied in situations in which the problem,or opportunity, is not well defined, and/or a breakthrough idea or concept is needed,that is, an idea that has a significant and positive impact, such as creating a new mar-ket or enabling significant revenue growth. Design thinking methods have been usedsuccessfully in different ways within business including new venture creation, businessmodel design, and process improvement. While our focus is on applying design think-ing to the challenge andopportunity of newproduct development3 and innovation, thisbook also includes several chapters that address other contexts, such as businessmodeldesign (Chapters 18 and 19).
Within the context of NPD, design thinking is very well suited to use in markets thatare quickly changing and when user needs are uncertain, such as the emerging marketfor wearable biometric devices. However, design thinking is equally applicable in moremature markets as a means to identify new, latent customer needs and/or in an effortto develop significant or radical innovations (Chapter 17). Whereas incremental inno-vations are also critically important to most companies, they typically are bounded bywell-defined problems or established customer needs, such as improving gas enginefuel efficiency. In those situations, a more linear, Stage-Gate process is still appropriate.Nonetheless, even in these situations there may be specific elements of a design think-ing approach—specific tools or techniques—that can improve a project’s outcome.
For the right situations, however, a design thinking approach is more likely to leadto better solutions that address the most important customer needs, and do so moreefficiently than traditional NPD approaches alone. One of the reasons for this is thatdesign thinking helps to avoid the trap of investing too many resources too early in a
2Given a focus on the customer’s perspective, I refer throughout to “solving problems,” but in the contextof NPD, it would clearly make sense to also think of problems as opportunities.3For simplicity, I refer to products, where products can be physical goods and/or services.
THE CONCEPT OF DESIGN THINKING AND ITS ROLE WITHIN NPD AND INNOVATION 3
project toward developing a specific, single solution. Rather than placing such a “bigbet,” design thinking encouragesmany “little bets” (Sims, 2013) about customer insightsand possible solutions. Sims describes these little bets as “low risk actions taken to dis-cover, develop, and test an idea.” These little betsmake it more likely that a project teamwill quickly converge on solution concepts with the highest potential market success.At some point, of course, specifications need to be well defined and the product needsto be developed and, ultimately, produced. In this sense, another way to think aboutdesign thinking is as a clarifying lens on the oft referred to “fuzzy front end” of NPD,whereby a project begins with an iterative, design thinking approach, followed by a tra-ditional Stage-Gate process after enough has been learned about customer needs andpossible solutions.
The Origins of Design ThinkingThe methods and mindset of design thinking, although championed by progressivecompanies and design consultancies, draw from a wide field of disciplines includingsoftware development, engineering, anthropology, psychology, the arts, and busi-ness. Design thinking as it exists today has co-evolved across a variety of disciplinesand industries. Over time—well over 50 years, and even longer depending on yourperspective—the best and most generalizable methods and practices have emergedand converged in a quasi-Darwinian process of natural selection. These have beencodified, integrated, documented, and championed by leading design firms (suchas IDEO and frog) and academic institutions (such as Stanford’s d.school, and theRotman School of Management), and have increasingly been adopted by industry andpopularized by the media under the shared moniker of design thinking.
While this co-evolution and vetting of design thinking has led to a robust set ofmethodologies, it has also contributed to some confusion given the proliferation oftools, methods, books, seminars, and, more recently, online training available. Ratherthan getting lost in the details from the start, a useful way to learn about design thinkingmethods is through the lens of an organizing framework. Even here, however, there area variety of frameworks to choose from, each with its own nuances and biases. To thenovice, this, too, can be daunting. Given the time to explore these, however, it becomesapparent that there actually is significant consistency across these frameworks. In asense, each of these has been a prototype framework—building on the ideas andlessons of its predecessors. In that iterative spirit, I propose a framework for designthinking in the next section that is intended to reflect the shared elements of existingframeworks, with the objective of retaining the most important elements of designthinking and their distinctions, while simplifying their depiction and terminology. Atthe least, this framework introduces themajor elements of design thinking as efficientlyas possible and facilitates an exploration of the rich content contained within the otherchapters of this book. Further, it will make it easier to quickly navigate other designthinking frameworks in use and, in so doing, enable an efficient exploration of the vastlibrary of tools, techniques, and advice beyond these pages.
4 A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN THINKING
1.2 A Framework of Design ThinkingThere are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of specific design thinking–related meth-ods and tools available, and this book will explore many of these. Learning about justa few of these and understanding how they are used together is likely more valuablethan trying to experiment with them without any context. The following framework isintended to provide that context, by organizing thesemethods and tools based on theirrole or purpose.
Design thinking, as a systematic and collaborative approach for identifying andcreatively solving problems, includes two major phases: identifying problems andsolving problems. Both of these phases are critical, but in practice most people andproject teams within companies are more inclined to focus on the latter, that is, onsolving problems. We are naturally creative beings, and given any problem—howeverill-defined—most of us can generate a set of ideas. Unfortunately, these often will notbe great ideas, that is, ideas that are both original and that solve the problems with thegreatest potential. One of the most powerful features of design thinking is its emphasison identifying the right problems to solve in the first place. This is, therefore, a keyelement of the following framework, as indicated by the two phases of design thinkingdepicted in Figure 1.1: Identify and Solve. Next, I describe the purpose of each of themodes within these two phases, followed by a discussion of the iterative nature of theprocess as a whole.
DiscoverThe purpose of the first mode of the design thinking framework (see Figure 1.2) is toDiscover new customer insights. One of the challenges for many product developmentteams is that they are immersed in theworld of products and, often, technologies.Whilethat is clearly important expertise, it can limit their field of view and perspective; marketinformation tends to get framed in terms of product specifications relevant to exist-ing products. As a consequence, well-intended research, even when conducted withproduct users, is often unintentionally biased toward relatively minor modifications to
Create
Identify Solve
Evaluate
Discover
Define
Figure 1.1: A framework for design thinking.
A FRAMEWORK OF DESIGN THINKING 5
Create
Identify Solve
Evaluate
Discover
Define
Figure 1.2: Discover mode.
existing products. Instead, a quest for breakthrough ideas often begins with an openexploration of customer4 needs—especially latent, undiscovered needs thatmay be dif-ficult to articulate—also referred to as customer insights.
So howdoes one identify customer insights that will inspire great ideas?While thereare many specific methods, they generally are qualitative in nature and are intended tohelp the project team become immersed in their customers’ context. This is typicallydescribed as a process focused on gaining empathy with customers, that is, developingan understanding of their context, experiences, and behaviors (Chapters 3, 4, and 7).
At some point during data collection, the project team needs to begin synthesiz-ing the data that they have collected. This does not mean that their discovery work iscomplete. Indeed, the Discover mode is built on iteration between data collection anddata synthesis, where data synthesis is the process of summarizing and deriving mean-ing from the data. Given the qualitative nature of the data (i.e., pictures, transcripts,audio recordings, etc.), the data synthesis process is very different than what is typicallyassumedwithmarket research. Rather than relying on numerical data and statistics, theteamneeds to be able to translate qualitative data into specific customer insights. Thereis a variety of ways to do this, including coding transcripts, drafting personas and empa-thy maps of archetypical customers, and journey maps that describe the customer’scurrent or ideal experience (Chapters 3 and 4).
Onceagain,while there aremanydifferent techniques available, an importantprinci-ple of the Discovermode is to continually iterate between data collection and synthesis,that is, to attempt to synthesize insights throughout rather than wait until all data havebeen collected. This requires flexibility and patience but helps to ensure that the mostappropriatemethods are used as needed rather than rigidly prescribing exactly how theresearchwill be conducted at the start of a givenproject. Once the team is confident thattheyhave identifieda set of significant customer insights to consider, then they are readyto proceed to the Define mode.
4For simplicity, I refer to customers throughout. These methods are not, however, limited to design-ing products for traditional customers. They are equally appropriate for any person or group thatuses a product or service, or that is part of product or service creation and delivery, for example, ahospital nurse.
6 A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN THINKING
DefineThe Discover mode can be characterized by the development of an expanded under-standing of the customer—their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and needs. In contrast,the Define mode (see Figure 1.3) is characterized by a distillation of customer insightsand framing of specific insights as well-defined problems to solve. At this point in theprocess, the team should have an inventory of synthesized information about their cus-tomers and their contexts. The challenge is to identify the needs and insights most wor-thy of pursuit through the next phase of the process. Toward that end, these needs andinsights are often framed as discrete “problem statements” to use in the next phase asa basis for idea generation, the initial activity within the Create mode. These problemstatements generally are short statements that describe the customer type, an unad-dressed need, and the insight that explains why the identified need is especially worthyof addressing. For example:
■ A busy parent of teenagers (customer type)…■ … needs a way to reconcile and integrate the dynamic schedules of all members of
the family (the need)…■ …because the lack of reliable, up-to-date information about conflicting schedules
is leading tomissedactivities andunnecessary stress (the insight that clearly explainswhy the need is worth addressing).
Next, the team needs to converge on a subset of these problem statements toaddress in the next mode: Create. Multivoting is one of the skills that is most usefulat this point. While there are different ways to vote for ideas, or problem statementsin this case, the intent is to take advantage of the evolving wisdom of the group thathas collectively benefited from participation in the Discover mode (which depends onconsistent teammembership throughout the project).
CreateThe purpose of the Create mode of design thinking (see Figure 1.4) is to develop a con-cept or set of concepts that can be shared with the target market for feedback and that,through iteration, can be improved upon. While customers can respond to an idea onits own, the best feedback will result from their engaging with a rough prototype of a
Create
Identify Solve
Evaluate
Discover
Define
Figure 1.3: Define mode.
A FRAMEWORK OF DESIGN THINKING 7
Create
Identify Solve
Evaluate
Discover
Define
Figure 1.4: Create mode.
concept since a good prototype can provide an experience to respond to and anotheropportunity for designers toobserve actual behaviors. Thus, the twoprimary activities ofthe Createmode are idea generation and prototyping. Although thesewill be describedin sequence, in practice they are, once again, highly iterative in nature.
The first major activity within the Create mode is idea generation. There is a widevariety of tools and techniques available to do this (Chapters 5 and 6). Next, after group-ing and refining ideas, the team can again use some form of multivoting to convergeon the most promising ideas. At this point, it is appropriate to consider a broad set ofcriteria. A simple schema to consider might include (a) desirability (from the customer’sperspective), (b) feasibility (the ability to deliver the product), and (c) viability (the abilityfor sustained business benefit, either financial or strategic). It is important, however, toremain focused on the identified customer insights and to avoid filtering ideas toomuchbased on other criteria, since the idea is still nascent at this point and can be improvedupon during the next activity, prototyping.
When practitioners of design thinking talk about prototypes, they are not referringto the camera-ready or fully functioning prototypes that appear in the popular press.Rather, they are referring to simple prototypes that provide a very basic experience of aproduct or feature of aproduct (Chapter 7). These are often referred to as “low-resolutionprototypes” (d.school, 2014). These early-stage prototypes can be three-dimensionalobjects, a sequence of screen shots of a “software app” concept, or even a mocked-upservice counter with actors as agents. One of the unique features of design thinking isthat prototyping is used as another activity for exploring an idea—to accelerate andimprove idea generation by considering different manifestations of the concept. Thus,a series of prototypes might be developed within the group before one or more arechosen to present to prospective customers for feedback.
EvaluateThe final mode of the design thinking framework is Evaluate, as shown in Figure 1.5.The purpose of this mode is to get feedback on concept prototypes, and the ideas andassumptions embedded within them. Within the design thinking framework, we typi-cally assume that much of this feedback will be used to iterate and improve upon theconcepts, especially in the first iteration of the four modes. In other words, this is not
8 A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN THINKING
Create
Identify Solve
Evaluate
Discover
Define
Figure 1.5: Evaluate mode.
the “final step.” This will be elaborated on subsequently, but for now it is important toappreciate that the purpose of the feedback is initially as a mechanism to learn morerather than merely to validate.
There are typically two types of activities conducted with this mode. The first is toshare prototypes with potential customers to gain feedback. To get the most valuablefeedback, the prototype should be used to help simulate an experience for the userrather than serve as a prop for presentation. After the teamhas collected sufficient feed-back, they proceed with a process of synthesizing the feedback. This activity is similarin spirit to the data synthesis completed during the Discover mode, with the obviousdifference being that users now have a tangible solution concept to respond to. Theobjective is, however, quite similar: to gain further insight in addition to converging onthe most promising solution or elements of a solution. Depending on the synthesis ofthe feedback, the team thendecideswhere to gonext in the design thinking framework.The ultimate objective, of course, is to move beyond concept prototyping to full devel-opment of the product or service. The assumption within design thinking, however, isthat this is likely to occur only after multiple iterations of one or more of the modes ofdesign thinking, to which we turn next.
1.3 Design Thinking as a Nonlinear ProcessThus far, I have presented themodes of design thinking as a linear sequence of activities.This is likely the easiest way to learn about these modes and, in practice, the first itera-tion of these modes will typically proceed as they have been described above: Identify(Discover and Define) and then Solve (Create and Evaluate). However, design thinkingis not intended to be a linear process, nor would that be desirable in most situations.Instead, the design thinking approach is to create potential solutions as quickly aspossible—knowing that our knowledge is incomplete and that these solutions will beincomplete and potentially flawed—and then use these initial solutions as a means oflearning more, of developing more refined insights, and creating better solutions.
Thus, design thinking is best understood as an iterative approach to problem solv-ing, rather than as a sequence of steps—hence the use of the term mode as opposed
THE PRINCIPLES AND THE “MINDSET” OF DESIGN THINKING 9
to step. The number of iterations depends on the project and is, to a certain degree,unknowable at the initiation of a project. This is a judgment call, based on the objectivesand constraints of the project, as well as the perceived progress of the work. Decidinghow to proceed on a given project is one of the key tasks of the team and its leaderthroughout the project. This includes deciding when to shift to a different mode andwhen, ultimately, tomovebeyond concept evaluationwithin the design thinking frame-work into a more traditional, linear product development process once the concept hasbeen sufficiently described and evaluated.
At first glance, the lack of predefinition of which modes to use at a given point inthe project, to what degree, and in what order may seem unnecessarily complex andat odds with the logic and efficiency of traditional Stage-Gate development processes.In the right situations, however, this approach provides important flexibility, increasingthe odds of arriving at great solutions, while minimizing wasted time and effort. Thisrequires a fundamental shift in mindset, a point to which we turn to next.
1.4 The Principles and the “Mindset” of Design ThinkingAt this point, it is likely evident to the reader that design thinking is as much abouta way of thinking and doing as it is about process. Process is clearly important, andthere are specific, tested tools to consider within each mode, each with its own setof inputs, outputs, and well-defined activities. Beyond process, design thinking isalso about mindset, where mindset can be thought of as an integrated set of beliefsand attitudes.
Several chapters in this bookwill address themindset andprinciples of design think-ing, as well as the implementation of design thinking in the firm (Chapters 8–14). How-ever, I share below some common themes that can serve as an initial primer. Becomingfamiliar with these should enable a flexible approach to exploring the wide variety oftopics addressed throughout the remaining 24 chapters of this book, collectively illus-trated in Figure 1.6. In that spirit, some common principles of the design thinkingmind-set and philosophy include the following:
People-centric: A shift from a product and technology-centric orientation to a primaryfocus on the values, experiences, and needs of people; although products and tech-nologies are clearly critical to ultimately addressing customer needs, they are viewedas enablers of solutions that follow from customers’ needs.
Cross-disciplinary and collaborative:Using teamswith awide variety of backgrounds andtraining, and with team members that are open to the different perspectives andabilities of a diverse team. While team membership should be relatively consistentthroughout the project, it may be wise to occasionally include participants externalto the organization—such as customers, suppliers, and other subject matterexperts—for select modes or activities.
Holistic and integrative: Although details are important, design thinkers are also able tosee and consider relationships, interactions, and the connections between seem-ingly disparate ideas.
10 A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN THINKING
Specific tools for the various modes
Topics include
implementation,
facilitation, training, culture
and strategic implications
Topics include Design
Thinking for services,
radically new products,
early stage ventures and
business model innovation
Topics include both
general and situation-
specific consumer values,
attitudes and behaviors
Topics include user
interface design,
intellectual property and
sustainability inspired
innovation
Create
Identify Solve
Evaluate
Discover
Define
Introduction to Design Thinking
Ch. 1
Design Thinking Tools
Ch. 2-7
Design Thinking
within the Firm
Ch. 8-14
Consumer Response
and Values
Ch. 20-22
Special Topics
Ch. 23-25
Design Thinking
for Specific Contexts
Ch. 15-19
Figure 1.6: A brief guide to the chapters in this book.
Flexibility and comfort with ambiguity: Design thinking is best suited to addressingambiguously defined problems and opportunities, and requires great flexibilitywith respect to both content and approach (e.g., through as-needed iteration ofmodes and phases).
Multimodal communication skills: A willingness to communicate and work in variousmodalities, including verbal, visual, and tactile. Design thinkers sketch and createprototypes, without being constrained by a perceived lack of ability or skill. And,last but not least…
Growth mindset: Awillingness to test ideas, concepts, andprototypes in aneffort to learn,unhindered by a fear of failure.