What is Design Thinking?

Simply put, Design Thinking is a powerful way for teams to solve tough problems together. It prioritizes people and prototypes, and is inherently iterative as it guides teams toward the most “desirable, feasible and viable” solution.

Since Design Thinking was first described in the 1970s, it has grown into a rich discipline championed by leading institutions and practiced everywhere from Nike to NASA.

The Design Thinking process practiced today was created through the combined efforts of many prominent engineers, economists and designers over the span of decades.

The founders of Design Thinking include Nobel Prize-winning American economist Herbert A. Simon, Welsh designer John Chris Jones, and British engineer Bruce Archer, who in 1979 characterized the “Designerly Way of Thinking” as equally powerful, yet distinct from the traditional “scholarly” methods. [1]

Systems thinking is another approach for solving complex problems often used when implementing technical systems that rely heavily on each other.

Similar to Design Thinking, systems thinking requires overcoming fixation, visual reasoning, use of analogy, and observation of human needs; however, there are fundamental differences between the two approaches. [2]

With its focus on empathy and practical applications, project teams often leverage Design Thinking early in their development phase, shifting to Systems Thinking or Agile methodologies during development and implementation.

The purpose of Design Thinking is to produce innovative solutions that are desirable, feasible and viable. Also referred to as the Three Lenses of Human-Centered Design, these three overlapping criteria help ensure Design Thinking teams focus their efforts on creating usable products that people want.

As Don Norman says in The Design of Everyday Things [4]: “If the design complicates the engineering requirements so much that they cannot be realized within the cost and scheduling constraints, then the design is flawed.”

By keeping the three criteria in mind, Design Thinking helps teams thread the needle through complex requirements and multiple stakeholders.

The prominence of Design Thinking in business is largely due to its ability to solve “ill-defined” problems effectively. Also called wicked problems, these problems typically involve human needs which can’t be easily modelled as systems of inputs and outputs. Wicked problems are inherently ambiguous and can be difficult to discuss and compare.

As design thinker Bruce Archer originally described: “The ‘problem’ [with ill-defined problems] is obscurity about the requirements, the practicability of envisagable solutions, or misfit between the requirements and provisions”. [1]

Archer believed most of the problems people face in daily life are ill-defined, and thus ill-suited for approaches like the Scientific Method. And since Archer’s time, globalization and technology have only made life more complicated. As a result, most of the challenges today’s managers face are “wicked”, and can likely benefit from the Design Thinking principles and process.

Design Thinking’s ability to step back and reframe the problem from a user perspective has helped fuel countless business innovations over the past 20 years. Below are a few thought-provoking examples of when asking better questions led to groundbreaking solutions.

Known as the “3 Es” at Google, these three principles embody the Design Thinking approach, and help setup teams for success. While Design Thinking takes skill and experience to apply, teams working to adopt the 3 Es are well on their way to achieving innovation by design.

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One major advantage of Design Thinking is its separation of “Divergent” and “Convergent” thinking. Simply stated, Divergent thinking creates choices and Convergent thinking makes choices. When working through problems alone, we usually apply both divergent and convergent thinking, evaluating every idea as it arrives. While this type of real-time filtering can work for individuals, it can be limiting when applied inconsistently in teams.

By differentiating between phases of Divergent and Convergent thinking, Design Thinking teams spend more time building on ideas, and less time poking holes in them.

While there are many aspects to the Design Thinking mindset, the most important is simply the confidence to share your thoughts without the fear of being judged. David Kelley, the engineer and entrepreneur who helped found Stanford’s d.school, describes this mindset as “creative confidence”. Without creative confidence, it’s difficult to move past the low-hanging ideas into innovative territory. [7,8]

Additional aspects of the design thinking mindset, such as embracing ambiguity and thinking with empathy, also play an important role in building user-centered designs.

The traditional creative processes used by artists and designers to create shared experiences are similar but not the same as those used in Design Thinking. While both lean heavily on empathy, divergent thinking and brainstorming activities, Design Thinking relies less on intuition and more on collaboration.

The Design Thinking methodology is a problem solving roadmap for cross functional teams. Also called the “Design Thinking framework”, the methodology outlines seven specific steps grouped into three major stages. Using the design thinking methodology as a compass, teams can quickly understand where they are in the design thinking process, and what activities and tools are at their disposal.

Design Thinking stages: There are three stages in the complete Design Thinking Process: Discover, Design and Deliver. Called “The 3 Ds of Design Thinking”, these stages provide convenient checkpoints and help businesses integrate Design Thinking into their existing workflows.

Design Thinking steps: There are seven steps of Design Thinking: Research, Empathy, Define, Ideation, Prototype, Test and Implement. While each step logically follows the next, they are highly iterative, and some steps such as Ideation and Prototyping are returned to frequently within a typical design process.

Design Thinking activities: Design Thinking activities describe all the different tools and techniques teams can apply during the process. Each activity is designed to help teams collaborate on a specific aspect of the opportunity, and results in a specific deliverable. Because design thinking is largely workshop-based, design thinking activities are typically time-boxed and facilitated by a moderator.

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How to Run a Design Thinking Workshop

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Workshops are where all the principles and practices of design thinking come together. Unlike regular meetings, Design Thinking workshops have clearly defined inputs, activities, and alignments required before calling it a day. These elements are crystallized in a Design Thinking workshop agenda, which serves as the playbook for collaboration.

In practice, design thinking workshops include 6-12 participants and run for 1-3 days depending on the scope of the problem and the desired outcomes. While participating in a workshop is not challenging, mastering their facilitation is both an art and a science. Learn more in our guide to Running a Design Thinking Workshop.

Design Thinking is a powerful way for people to solve problems together. It was developed by engineers and designers as a “solution-based” approach to “wicked problems”, and has since been widely adopted and adapted by teams of every type.

In practice, Design Thinking works closely with UX Research and UX Design disciplines to complete innovative projects better and faster than otherwise possible.