The Relevance of Design Thinking

What’s your go-to method of problem-solving? Have you tried design thinking? 

InVision defines design thinking as “a process that seeks to solve complex problems by approaching it from the user’s perspective.” This process is useful in solving problems identified across varied platforms, fields, professions, industries, countries, and beyond.

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“Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”

– Tim Brown, Executive Chair of IDEO

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Design Thinking in a Nutshell

The design thinking process has one key point of focus: the user. It identifies the needs of the user and seeks to meet these needs. “Design thinking is both an ideology and a process that seeks to solve complex problems in a user-centric way. It focuses on achieving practical results and solutions,” writes Emily Stevens from InVision. Through five stages, design thinking yields creative and innovative solutions to complex problems.

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Design Thinking Stages

Design thinking is encapsulated by five actionable stages: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.

• Empathize: This stage seeks to understand your target audience and the problem(s) they face. This is accomplished through immersing yourself in the environment of your audience. Ask questions, take surveys, seek experiences, and dig deep.
• Define: After gaining insight into your user’s perspective, you can use what you learned to define the problem. In this stage, the goal is to formulate a problem statement. The problem statement focuses on the user’s core needs. It is a guiding point for all subsequent stages. You can view it as a mission or vision statement.
• Ideate: The third stage involves generating ideas. This is where you brainstorm ways to address your user’s needs. Viewing your problem in alternative ways and thinking outside the box is encouraged. In this stage, it is more important to come up with multiple feasible ideas. Quantity wins over quality here. 
• Prototype: Prototyping involves selecting the best of your ideas and creating an inexpensive version of your solution(s). This experimental stage is a chance to create something tangible. Prototypes are often created using whatever materials may be available, including paper, tape, paper clips, play-doh, popsicle sticks, etc. The product is a simple first draft of your main idea. 
• Test: In the testing stage, your user will interact with your prototype and provide feedback. This stage helps you determine whether your solution is valid or if it needs reworking. Although this is the final stage, your results may lead you back to prior stages, or even as far back as identifying additional needs and redefining the problem.

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Design Thinking Benefits

So why is design thinking relevant? Here are some benefits of design thinking.

• Design thinking helps you gain a deeper understanding of others. It is not focused on a vague problem or hypothetical scenario. Design thinking addresses the needs of real users with valid experiences. It calls you out of your comfort zone into the reality of other people. Instead of judging a situation and making assumptions, design thinking challenges you to ask questions, observe experiences, assess perspectives, gain insight, and think deeply. 

• Design thinking encourages everyone to wear their creative hat. Anyone can be a design thinker. According to IDEO, design thinking “allows people who aren’t trained as designers to use creative tools to address a vast range of challenges.” Furthermore, Fast Company writes, “There are no judgments in design thinking. This eliminates the fear of failure and encourages maximum input and participation. Wild ideas are welcome, since these often lead to the most creative solutions. Everyone is a designer, and design thinking is a way to apply design methodologies to any of life’s situations.”

• Design thinking promotes thinking outside the box. It encourages addressing a problem from various angles. Despite the challenges, design thinking enables optimism regarding the solution. It is an iterative, flexible, and non-linear process. Therefore, it promotes creative thinking, highlights endless possibilities, and generates new ideas. It pushes beyond limits and outside borders. Clint Runge explains that, instead of thinking outside of the box, he thinks “on its corner, its flap, and under its barcode.” 

• Design thinking produces real results. Stevens suggests that design thinking focuses on achieving practical results and solutions that are technically feasible, economically viable, and desirable for the user.

Here’s a real-world example. In 2003, IDEO collaborated with Kaiser Permanente to implement design thinking in hopes of enhancing Kaiser’s patient and employee experiences. “Close observation of actual shift changes, combined with brainstorming and rapid prototyping, produced new procedures and software that radically streamlined information exchange between shifts. The result was more time for nursing, better-informed patient care, and a happier nursing staff” (Harvard Business Review, June 2008).

As a patient with a chronic illness, I can attest to these results first hand. Growing up with Sickle Cell Disease, I experienced multiple pain crises every year. Some of these crises could be managed at home, but severe crises would send me straight to urgent care or the emergency room. In my adolescent years, I became very familiar with Kaiser Permanente, as I was covered under their insurance. To this day, I can say that Kaiser provided some of the best care I have experienced and addressed my pain exceptionally well. Much of this can be attributed to Kaiser’s nurses and employees. Unlike other emergency healthcare services I have encountered, with Kaiser, I rarely waited to be treated, my pain medication schedule was maintained, my crises were assessed accordingly, beds were prepared for me in hospitals ahead of time so that I could skip the emergency department, and I was included in my treatment plan. This can all be attributed to Kaiser’s intentional innovation and design thinking. 

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Final Thoughts

In conclusion, there are many other benefits of design thinking, but I will wrap up with this – design thinking is relevant. Next time you run into a complex problem whether at work, in school, at home, in your county, state, or country, consider taking the design-thinking approach.