“How Design Thinking is the New Trend in Creativity Development? — 《The Design of Business — Why Design Thinking is the Next》”
“In the journey of life, we are constantly confronted with a myriad of challenges. With the rapid advancement of technology, machines will increasingly supplant traditional jobs, making creativity an essential skill. Many individuals express concern about their ability to adapt to these changes due to entrenched thinking patterns. Nevertheless, every individual possesses an innate creative spark within them. “The Design of Business — Why Design Thinking is the Next” serves as a valuable source of inspiration and guidance for those seeking to nurture their creativity or pursue creative endeavors.”
《The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage》, written by Roger Martin, is an in-depth look at how design thinking can help companies stand out. Martin points out that the reason why companies fail to gain sustainable competitive advantage is that they cannot balance the two driving forces of “operational optimization” and “business innovation” in their organizations, and points out that Design Thinking can well balance the two driving forces and is a strategic capability for organizations to build sustainable competitive advantage. It is a strategic capability for organizations to build sustainable competitive advantage. This mindset not only accelerates the pace of knowledge advancement but also dramatically increases productivity and reduces operating costs.
The reason for choosing this book stems from my past experience working in entrepreneurship and design, as well as my passion for starting and designing new products in the future. My professional background has given me a deep understanding of the power of design thinking not only to solve complex problems but also to drive continuous innovation and growth in organizations. I am confident that Martin’s insights and strategies will substantially assist me in my future entrepreneurial plans, especially the book’s in-depth discussion of how to combine data analysis with creative thinking and how to implement innovative thinking in an organization, which are important pieces of knowledge that I hope to apply in my own business in the future. In addition, the case studies and hands-on guides provided in this book will be an indispensable resource for me in my design thinking practice.
After reading it, I found it to be an enlightening book that accurately reflects the strategic issues facing many modern organizations. With the change in the market environment, many enterprises have failed by focusing too much on reliability and neglecting effectiveness.
In the context of the current “Internet +” and big data era, the speed of technological progress and product iteration is accelerating. Facing the fierce and changing market competition environment, technology-based enterprises need to adopt design thinking, break traditional thinking stereotypes, and develop a strategic system that meets their characteristics. By integrating internal organizational resources, companies can create an innovative environment from the top to the bottom and build innovative business models. This will not only provide customers with better user experience and services but also shape the corporate image centered on “design thinking”, thus building a competitive advantage for the sustainable development of the enterprise.
Design Thinking focuses on balancing innovation and efficiency, reliability and effectiveness, management and innovation, and rationality and intuition. This book provides a concise roadmap on how to implement Design Thinking in our organizations to help businesses stay competitive in a rapidly changing marketplace while ensuring that solutions are innovative and practical.
There is a first phase to any exploration and innovation, and there are many major challenges, such as sales becoming increasingly difficult, for example, hospitals and medical practitioners want to know what kind of environment can change the effectiveness of chemotherapy for cancer patients. Scientists want to try to unravel mysteries like autism, for example. Or salespeople exploring how our customers think and what kind of a product or service they want. This is the process of facing a real and significant problem and exploring it.
The second stage, getting inspired, is to tap into experiences based on that kind of puzzle, and those experiences will help us narrow down our research so that we can put the puzzle within manageable limits. For example, people may think that autism may be related to genetic mutations, and getting inspired is the stage of thinking where a complex puzzle is simplified and understood.
Logical reasoning comes into play a lot in this regard. And this is when we can concentrate on focusing on specific goals. In the first step, we say that exploring the puzzle is an intuitive process, and this step of getting inspired is a constant convergence, and a constant application of rational thinking.
The third stage, forming a program. When we think carefully about the inspiration, after organizing, integrating, and refining, the inspiration will be transferred from a general rule of thumb to a fixed pattern. For example, let’s take McDonald’s as an example, McDonald’s is because Americans prefer fast, convenient, and tasty food, and the chain of McDonald’s has been systematically sorted out, refined, and standardized to become a thoroughly systematic McDonald’s restaurant. Such a model is a programmed distillation of rules of thumb.
In all three stages, we found that the cross-over between intuitive and rational thinking is critical. We tend to use intuitive thinking when we need to think outside the box and turn to rational thinking when we need to focus and pay attention to details. This strategy helps companies to drive innovation while maintaining a stable organizational structure. However, not many companies can achieve this balance effectively. Those who do master this balancing act usually have strong design thinking qualities.
The text mentions this quote, “Inspiration is an open-ended prompt that motivates people to think and act in unique ways. A program is a rather reliable production process. Without outside intervention or system anomalies, a program ensures that: as long as the established steps are followed or in an agreed-upon order, the operator is sure to obtain a specific result.” This is very relevant to what we learned in the course. Design Thinking is an innovative mode of thinking, and the essence of innovation is breakthrough, i.e., breaking through the old mindset, the old precepts of routine. The most important thing is still to fulfill the needs that customers desire. However it is difficult to perceive its use by only talking about the thinking mode, so a methodology is also needed to flow the innovation to the assembly line. For example, the ideation session we completed in class used a brainstorming methodology. The purpose of brainstorming is for each member of the innovation team to actively participate, contribute ideas, think outside the box, and ultimately select a solution that is recognized as both innovative and feasible.
Design thinking does not directly create value, but rather explores efficient, low-risk innovation and management through the many possibilities generated by innovations in organizational management, strategy, business models, etc., through close analysis of business thinking and implementation of technical feasibility. It is no longer some kind of pure design activity but focuses on the balanced relationship between the effectiveness, possibility, and commercial reliability of design innovation. Design Thinking is more like a business strategy tool, a way of “thinking clearly” about why and what to design, and a human-centered way of thinking.
Overall, Design Thinking should be applied with the understanding that these phases are just different approaches that contribute to the overall design project, rather than a fixed sequence of steps. Always remember that the goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the user and their ideal product.
