Design Thinking and Social Innovation — Why They Work So Well Together
The previous article discussed what social innovation is and what it may mean for a community, when introduced as an alternative method of solving societal issues.
Design thinking, a powerful innovation method, is increasingly mentioned alongside social innovation and taken up outside of the private sector, by non-profits and international organizations too. The application of design thinking, with its focus on inspiration coming from communities, may help in supporting and scaling innovative solutions to pressing social problems.
What is design thinking?
In short, design thinking is an innovation method prompting us to turn problems on their heads, challenge assumptions and change ways of thinking in order to arrive at viable, desirable and feasible solutions to problems.
While it does not have one ultimate definition, five iterative, non-linear stages tend to form the basis of the process. The design thinker will:
- Empathize with the community
- Define the problem
- Ideate
- Prototype
- Test the solution (Friis Dam and Yu Siang, 2022) before implementing it.
In the Empathize stage, design thinkers aim to immerse themselves in the context of the problem to better understand its root causes and implications. Starting with the problem itself and its Definition helps the researcher to focus attention on the right issues. During Ideation, design thinkers try to come up with as many ideas as possible, not focusing on their quality just yet. A prerequisite for a successful ideation session is a judgment-free environment, leaving all participants and all ideas space to be expressed. After the most feasible ideas are decided on, the Prototyping phase can start.
Ideas are always prototyped — no assumptions are made about their quality and effectiveness until a simple, testable prototype holding their essence is presented to the context. The prototypes are put in a real life environment to be tested and prove their worth. The process may be repeated, and the order of steps changed — the method is at the service of the solution.
Design thinking relies on design principles to shake up existing approaches to problems. And while it first found success in the private sector, in recent years, it caught the attention of nonprofits and international organizations, as well as social enterprises. What makes design thinking so fitting for innovating solutions to social challenges?
Local solutions for local problems
Local communities around the world face an array of socio-economic challenges which may be addressed with social innovation. Design thinking relies on ethnographic research, prompting the innovator to spend time with the affected community and understand the depth and origins of the problem, but also potentially find already existing solutions that may be scaled.
A famous example was one of Jerry and Monique Sternin of Positive Deviance Initiative, who were invited to help solve the issue of child malnutrition in Vietnam. Having spent some time with the communities, they discovered that donated supplements were not entirely effective. However, they found examples of families living in extreme poverty whose children nevertheless did not suffer malnutrition.
Observing their eating habits, the Sternins discovered that the families collected shrimps and crabs and added them to the children’s food, and served their kids several smaller meals a day, managing to avoid the problem of malnourishment. The Sternins scaled this local solution by offering cooking classes based on this model and replicating the efforts in 14 villages across Vietnam (Brown and Wyatt, 2010).
Innovative solutions for old issues
Many of the most pressing challenges faced by communities around the world are the product of centuries of poorly designed or discriminatory policies. These are structural and deep-seated problems, to which traditional solutions work sometimes only as patches. In order to move away from them and create fair communities, new, innovative and sustainable solutions are needed.
Design thinking invites the problem solver to turn the issue on its head. It takes into consideration the wider context of the problem, its history and the day-to-day lives of those affected to come up with original solutions to old challenges. It teaches us that, by focusing on possibilities rather than the deep-rooted constraints of the status quo, we open up new avenues of thinking and increase chances for creative solutions.
Design thinking thrives in interdisciplinary environments
Social problems are often the product of a complicated maze of issues. They require strategies and individuals capable of perceiving them in their complex entirety. The best design thinkers tend to be ‘T-shaped people’, experts in one skill, but versed in many, who understand the power of interdisciplinarity. Design thinkers are encouraged to use their professional expertise as well as personal interests, to expand their imagination and draw inspiration from seemingly disconnected areas.
The experience does not end at the product or service
Function of distribution channels, enthusiasm and trust in the organization administering it, as well as timing may all impact the success of implementation of a social solution. The design thinking process prompts us to understand these adjacent factors and ensure the best possible way to anticipate their impact.
Emphasis on cultural context
Design thinking does not take culture for granted. Design thinkers get immersed in the cultural context they are working with and understand its specificities, which may affect the adoption of the solution. They can tailor the solution to the given situation instead of implementing something that worked elsewhere and trust that success will be repeated.
Moreover, design thinking uses a number of tactics to prevent bias to seep into the creation of the solution. An example is a method called Gallery Walk. During the Gallery Walk, the innovation team will note down the most important data gathered on large posters. Given the focus design thinking keeps on end users, the posters will often feature photos and quotes from people interviewed during the inspiration phase. The most important stakeholders will then jot down the most remarkable pieces of data from the gallery on Post-it notes, separate into smaller teams, share thoughts and observations, sort them in overarching topics and look for insights (Liedtka, 2018).
Seeing the people affected by the problem at stake and sharing opinions with peers reduces the possibility of individual bias influencing decision making, which is especially important if the problem-solvers do not belong to the cultural context they work in.
A humane methodology for humane solutions
Design thinking is by definition a human-centered methodology. It heavily relies on soft skills of the innovators — they must be able to empathize, be intuitive, and infuse emotional meaning in their products and services (Brown and Wyatt, 2010), humanizing the whole innovation process and bridging the gap between tech and people.
While traditional customer research relies on data from surveys, polls and focus groups, the approach to the data may be impersonal, prone to researcher bias (Liedtka, 2018) and blind to under-expressed, hidden needs of the users.
Through immersion in the lived experience of affected communities, design thinking opens avenues for noticing subtle yet important patterns, which may be especially important in solving real-world problems with innovation. By focusing on the needs of the community, this method may enable grassroots solutions to scale up and create lasting impact.
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Sources:
Brown, T and Wyatt, J, (2010), Design Thinking for Social Innovation, Stanford Social Innovation Review; https://ssir.org/articles/entry/design_thinking_for_social_innovation#
Liedtka, J (2018), Why Design Thinking Works, Harvard Business Review; https://hbr.org/2018/09/why-design-thinking-works
IDEO Design Thinking; https://designthinking.ideo.com/
Friis Dam, R and Yu Siang, T (2022), What is Design Thinking and Why is it So Popular?, Interaction Design Foundation; https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-design-thinking-and-why-is-it-so-popular
