5 Reasons Why Design Thinking is in Vogue
Design Thinking has been the buzz word in the corporate world recently. The main reason being that world has become more unpredictable and is experiencing change at an exponential rate. Due to this, businesses all around the world have to wake up everyday with some problem or a breakthrough cropping up. The sailing is not smooth as it was, but as with every challenge people become more adept and innovative professionals have finally discovered the anchor that will pave the way for smooth sailing and that anchor is called- Design Thinking.
Design Thinking was popularized by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO (a design thinking firm) in 2008, when in Harvard Business Review, he shed light on the importance of design thinking in all sectors ranging from hospitals to bicycle companies. Now the important question that comes in mind is what is Design Thinking all about? What is so unique about it? The answer lies in the the fact that it can be used across all sectors, all the goods or services are provided to CONSUMERS. So, if all the things are produced for consumers shouldn’t all the problems of businesses be solved through consumer centric approach? This is what design thinking is all about- it helps businesses to creatively solve the problems by placing consumers need above all else i.e., making it Human Centric.
Now, you must be thinking that this is something that businesses should have already known because businesses thrive when they satisfy their stakeholders. Answer to this is yes, they have known this fact but the process they were following was very linear i.e., they used to identify a problem, brainstorm to find solutions and then through elimination one best solution was thought of. Whereas, Design Thinking is an iterative process, meaning that instead of focusing and spending time on research, it believes in building prototypes that can quickly reach consumers to know about their expectations. Through this, the maker gets to know what the consumers want and especially what the consumer does not want so that they can refine the product and add value to customers experiences.
Design Thinking works through 5 stages:
1. Empathize — It is the basic building block because through this, the designer can get to know as to how the consumers interact with the goods or services. Designer needs to be very cautious because he needs to observe without any biases or judgment forming in his mind about what is that the consumer wants. It is important to identify the human need.
2. Define — Through empathizing, designer knows about the issues that consumers faced or what were the things that attracted them the most. After a careful analysis, the problem statement needs to be defined.
3. Ideate — After knowing the problem in hand, designers need to come up with solutions and ideas to fix it.
4. Prototype — Whatever ideas have been generated in third stage need to be practically applied so that one solution could be reached at. It is important to understand that many prototypes will be generated so that the consumer needs can be truly reflected.
5. Test — It is the final and the most important stage because prototypes are provided to the consumers and feedback is collected from them.
Now, after setting a background as to what is Design Thinking and how it works? It is important to understand as to why it has created a storm in the business world.
So, five reasons as to why Design Thinking is in vogue are:
1. Innovative Solutions — Need of the hour is to explore problems that are not visible with the normal eye. Exploring such problems requires out of the box processes which can be achieved with the help of the iterative process of design thinking. Innovative solutions are by product of innovative thinking.
2. Enhancing Efficiency — As design thinking challenges traditional ways of solving problems, it is a great tool for the organizations to reduce cost and time spent on researching and implementing solutions. This increases the efficiency and productivity of the employees.
3. Leaving Behind the Lens of Biases — Traditionally products were made according to the expectations of customers viewed through the lens of designer. Due to this, various biases and prejudices of the designer come into picture while making of the product, this blurs the real needs and wants of the customers. Through design thinking, there is objectivity in the whole process leaving no room for subjectivity.
4. Expanding Knowledge Base — As design thinking is an iterative process, every iteration results into some learning for the designers and employees of the organizations. There is no perfect solution for every problem especially when the subject is human centric because behavior of humans is very unpredictable and changes with a change in internal and external environment. Hence, through design thinking employees can learn to make themselves adept as to how to proceed in the changing wants and needs of the people.
5. Competitive Advantage — One of the most essential qualities that helps a business to strive and thrive is to make disruptions. This can only be possible in the ever-increasing competitive world by being one step ahead of the competitors. It is rightly said that opportunity does not come with a label, its on the business to seize the opportunity and tap on the undiscovered markets. This opportunity can be realized only when efforts are being taken by the businesses to do old things in new ways or do new things in new ways. To do this, the most effective strategy is to establish design thinking as a core strategy among all units of the businesses.
Design Thinking has proved to be a milestone in the way the businesses look at their objectives. Due to this, the markets will see a domino effect because this process, if utilized judiciously and effectively has the power to transform the way people look at products and corporations. It is the perfect example of a blend of sociology with technology giving birth to social technology .
