5min books review #8

Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie: Designing for Growth. A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers

Value for money

5/10

Ebook or Bookshelf?

I would recommend trying to borrow a copy.

Year, Price, Pages, Cover design

2011 by Columbia University Press; EUR 25,99; 197 pages (with Appendix, Notes, About the Authors 227 pages); Hardcover

Gorgeous book layout by Daniel Lombardi, exceptional cover design by Noah Arlow, the exquisite reading experience

5 sentences about the book

Book is not about design thinking as such; it is not about design thinking “philosophy”. It is supposed to be a book — “bridge” which allows managers to cross from the traditional MBA approach to design thinking. Authors apply design thinking principles in business: “What would be different if managers thought more like designers?”

Authors introduce four staged framework (1. What Is?, 2. What If?, 3. What Wows?, 4. What Works?) which is linked to four project management templates (1. Design Brief, 2. Design Criteria, 3. Napkin Pitch, 4. Learning Guide) and ten tools (1. Visualisation, 2. Journey Mapping, 3. Value Chain Analysis, 4. Mind Mapping, 5. Brainstorming, 6. Concept Development, 7. Assumption testing, 8. Rapid Prototyping, 9. Customer Co-creation, 10. Customer Launch). The framework will teach you to

• Explore current reality and framing the challenge (What is)
• Generate new possibilities for growth (What if)
• Test assumptions and refining and prototyping the concept (What wows)
• Enrol customers to shape it into something you can execute (What works) 178

The book is divided into sections that depict a particular framework stage. Sections consist of chapters describing a particular tool. Tool description follows the same scheme: definition, when it is used, how tool de-risk project, a few bullet points “Getting started” and quick homework “Try this at home”.

If you are a non-designer and especially a corporate manager and if you’ve never read anything about this topic before, then this book might be for you.

What did I learn?

• In spite of what I wrote in “What was missing”, I’ve learned that every invention and creativity starts with rigorous analysis of the current state. It is not a coincidence, that What is? stage requires the most work and tools.
• I’ve found project management templates, mainly Design Brief and Design Criteria, very useful during product prediscovery
• The last section, Leading Growth and Innovation in Your Organisation, reminds me of unnecessary steps and rules related to the change management process. When you want to introduce design thinking in your organization — the recap of pitfalls is very useful.

What was missing?

• This was certainly not light reading. I have had a problem motivating myself to finish the book. The last section, Leading Growth and Innovation in Your Organisation, returned me back to the game.
• (In comparison to the Sprint,) Design for growth is a toolkit that is much more complex and heavier to flip from “words and sentences” into practice. Yes, “Getting started” and “Try this at home” sections and many examples from real life should help managers translate what they read into day-to-day practice. But in my opinion, the book is in many places vague: it is up to the reader’s interpretation and imagination how to execute the final step to the realisation. In regards to this “last mile” — how to prepare/facilitate workshops — Sprint is much more transparent and focused on details, so you have a pretty good understanding of the workshops’ timing, prerequisites and inventory.
• To be fair, the book was written 10 years ago and many books since then build their wisdom on such pioneering guides as Design for Growth
• Unnecessary ”wording” differences. Brainstorming is not brainstorming, but ideation; Mind mapping is not mind mapping (as you usually know it — a diagram), but “describe the process of extracting meaning from a vast amount of information” 81. And do not confuse napkin pitch with elevator pitch: napkin pitch is napkin pitch and elevator pitch is an elevator pitch. I would not be so surprised if these wording confusions are results of academic writing.
• Missing index.

Favourite quotes

“The most common reason that managers don’t get to test their hypotheses is that they never even get a chance to conduct the experiment. And the reasons for that usually have more to do with what is happening inside their organisations than outside it. We know that the greatest barriers to growth and innovation in most organisations are not about competitor and customers and market conditions; they are about the organisation’s internal army of designated doubters exercising their veto power before you even have the chance to try” 183–184