Design thinking methodology and examples is an article published specifically for university students. Why specifically? Because its goal is to try to debunk some of the hype around Design Thinking and to add some critical discussion to the millions of published articles you'll find on the internet.
I am sure that you have spent time searching for design thinking methodology and examples on the web.
What did you find?
A lot of the same examples and hundreds of the same process charts. Right? What does this tell you? What does it say about design thinking? That it is bunk, that it is over hyped, that it is a fad?
I hope that you do not come to that conclusion, despite the poor evidence of successful Design Thinking. Design Thinking works. It has worked for designers for over a century. It works for non-designers solving problems in all sorts of situations and types of organizations. But perhaps not in quite the way that you might imagine. I.e. Design Thinking helps you to identify the right problem and potentially find the right solution to that problem in principle, but it does not create the finished product, service or experience. That requires the skills of seasoned professionals. Most of the well known examples, IBM, IDEO, Apple, AirBnB, Philips Medical, Netflix, Bank of America are all examples of the work of designers thinking like designers and DOING real design work, rather than "Design Thinking" as a separate process or project run by non professional designers.
Perhaps the reason that there are so few examples of Design Thinking working is simple. It is used in many meetings, problem solving sessions and brainstorm sessions within companies. It is helping to focus the group on the user, it is creating collaboration and it is arriving at interesting potential solutions. None of which are seen to be worthy of showing on the internet as compared to those huge examples you see.
Is Design Thinking a methodology or a process?
It is mainly a methodology and a mindset. It is an attempt to describe how designers think. it is a process in that the distinct steps are real, but it is not a process in that you do not follow each step logically once through and then you have an answer. To put that in perspective, we are all still trying to understand how the human brain works and therefore, you should understand that the description of Design Thinking is rather basic and at best only an indication of how a designer thinks. The Stanford and IBM figure eight process charts are as good enough starting point as any. But understand that no designer goes through this clean process to arrive at a solution. One step does not logically follow another as the diagrams indicate. There are tons of dead ends, blind alleys and false starts along the way. Designers have to loop and curl back on themselves often and sometimes without joy, but ultimately they have gone through all these steps if they have arrived at a great solution.
That been said, designers are taught the same steps as Design Thinking as well. So far, so good. They are great guideposts.
The difference between Design Thinking and the act of doing design is that the process steps are only the first part of a four year college degree for designers. And yet, it is pretty much what most Design Thinking courses focus on as if this is an end in itself. It's because it is easy to show a process chart, give a few examples and let people do a fun exercise using those process steps. That demonstration is at the heart of the notion that the designers way of thinking can be successfully used to solve any number of problems. And in principle that is true. In principle.
The challenge is that design is as much a craft as a way of thinking. What design thinking does is enable people to creatively solve problems by focusing in on the needs of the users. However, the most likely reason that there are so few examples of successful design thinking available is that unless you have spent many years studying design and practicing the craft of design, you are likely to discover that your solutions simply cannot match those created by a professional designer.
I believe we could all get a lot further if we viewed design thinking as the process that non-designers use to think through problems and arrive at insights about what users need. We would also all benefit if we viewed the outcome of the design thinking process as a brief for professional designers to start crafting a new solution, instead of the solution itself.
Why is the Design Thinking methodology so powerful?
The Design Thinking Methodology and examples of how it is implemented are powerful because they open a door to an entirely different way of thinking - for non designers. One that has not traditionally been employed to solve problems in a business environment. The core difference is the focus on the needs of the user. In most businesses, there is more a focus on the retail store shelf or on the available technologies and how new features can be generated from those technologies. This is more of a make it and they will come - we hope - approach. Whereas Design Thinking methodologies force the discussion about what users actually need from a product or service to solve their problem or create a compelling experience.
Being able to manipulate technology successfully to meet users needs is not a simple matter. However, it does have to start with correctly identifying a users needs, quickly prototyping a solution and testing if that really resonates with users and solves their needs long before big resources are committed to implementing a solution. That in a nutshell is what the Design Thinking Methodology tries to accomplish.
On our website, we have tried to curate some of the best examples of Design Thinking and leave out those that have been described as design thinking (as opposed to great design) after the fact. It is a fine line that we have had to draw as you could claim that all design work starts with Design Thinking, but that would be disingenuous to designers. Examples like Apple are definitely not the result of a "Design Thinking" exercise. Apple is unique because of the intuition and intelligence of Steve Jobs and the immense design skills of Jonathan Ives, their Chief Designer. That is not to say that the thousands of other people working for Apple are any less important. It is simply to recognize that the intuition of these two men primarily steered the company to the right potential solutions. Understand though that without all the brilliant minds and skills of the thousands at Apple, even knowing what the right direction, or solution was, would not have been enough to create Apple. Those potential solutions had to be turned into real products and services to achieve that. To test this, ask what great innovative, original, new products they have introduced since.
You are on a journey, building your understanding of the Design Thinking methodology and most importantly you need to work hard to hone your craft and understand where you should pull in professional designers and anyone else to build your team. Make sure to include these skills from the very start of your project and you are far more likely to succeed. See yourself as the project manager, the spiritual leader and ringleader.
Can the Design Thinking methodology solve any problem?
No. It can't. If the problem involves a user, then the answer would most likely be yes. However, if the problem involves technology, then most likely no. For example, How can we create a rocket powerful enough to get us to the moon? This problem is best solved by understanding and applying the first principles of physics rather than the Design Thinking methodology. How could we get to the moon? That question could be solved via Design Thinking methodologies as it is asking for ideas, alternatives rather than solving a technology problem, at least initially in the idea generation phase.
Use this rule of thumb. Are you trying to solve a problem that involves people? Use Design Thinking.
Start with our Case Study Section to understand more of the nuances of Design Thinking and then work your way through the toolkits section to see what other tools you can apply to help you solve your problems.
Remember that Design Thinking is a methodology and a mindset. Remain fluid about how you progress, asking at every step, "have I successfully solved my users problem yet" and if not, go back as far as you need, iterate steps as much as you need until you can definitely say "yes, my user says I have solved their need!"
To learn more about the science behind creativity read this article.