Design Thinking

Develop a more systematic, human-centered, results-oriented thought process Design Thinking is the Product Development and Management Association's (PDMA) guide to better problem solving and decision-making in product development and beyond. The second in the New Product Development Essentials series, this book shows you how to bridge the gap between the strategic importance of design and the tactical approach of design thinking. You'll learn how to approach new product development from a fresh perspective, with a focus on systematic, targeted thinking that results in a repeatable, human-centered problem-solving process. Integrating high-level discussion with practical, actionable strategy, this book helps you re-tool your thought processes in a way that translates well beyond product development, giving you a new way to approach business strategy and more. Design is a process of systematic creativity that yields the most appropriate solution to a properly identified problem. Design thinking disrupts stalemates and brings logic to the forefront of the conversation. This book shows you how to adopt these techniques and train your brain to see the answer to any question, at any level, in any stage of the development process. Become a better problem-solver in every aspect of business Connect strategy with practice in the context of product development Systematically map out your new product, service, or business Experiment with new thought processes and decision making strategies You can't rely on old ways of thinking to produce the newest, most cutting-edge solutions. Product development is the bedrock of business ?whether your "product" is a tangible object, a service, or the business itself ? and your approach must be consistently and reliably productive. Design Thinking helps you internalize this essential process so you can bring value to innovation and merge strategy with reality.

Design thinking as a user-centric innovation method has become more and more widespread during the past years. An increasing number of people and institutions have experienced its innovative power. While at the same time the demand has grown for a deep, evidence-based understanding of the way design thinking functions. This challenge is addressed by the Design Thinking Research Program between Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA and Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, Germany. Summarizing the outcomes of the 5th program year, this book imparts the scientific findings gained by the researchers through their investigations, experiments and studies. The method of design thinking works when applied with diligence and insight. With this book and the underlying research projects, we aim to understand the innovation process of design thinking and the people behind it. The contributions ultimately center on the issue of building innovators. The focus of the investigation is on what people are doing and thinking when engaged in creative design innovation and how their innovation work can be supported. Therefore, within three topic areas, various frameworks, methodologies, mind sets, systems and tools are explored and further developed. The book begins with an assessment of crucial factors for innovators such as empathy and creativity, the second part addresses the improvement of team collaboration and finally we turn to specific tools and approaches which ensure information transfer during the design process. All in all, the contributions shed light and show deeper insights how to support the work of design teams in order to systematically and successfully develop innovations and design progressive solutions for tomorrow.

Extensive research conducted by the Hasso Plattner Design Thinking Research Program at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA, and the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, has yielded valuable insights on why and how design thinking works. Researchers have identified metrics, developed models, and conducted studies, which are featured in this book, and in the previous volumes of this series. Offering readers a closer look at design thinking, and its innovation processes and methods, this volume covers topics ranging from understanding success factors of design thinking to exploring the potential that lies in the use of digital technologies. Furthermore, readers learn how special-purpose design thinking can be used to solve thorny problems in complex fields, such as the health sector or software development. Thinking and devising innovations are inherently human activities – so is design thinking. Accordingly, design thinking is not merely the result of special courses or of being gifted or trained: it is a way of dealing with our environment and improving techniques, technologies and life. As such, the research outcomes compiled in this book should increase knowledge and provide inspiration to all seeking to drive innovation – be they experienced design thinkers or newcomers.

"Everybody loves an innovation, an idea that sells." But how do we arrive at such ideas that sell? And is it possible to learn how to become an innovator? Over the years Design Thinking - a program originally developed in the engineering department of Stanford University and offered by the two D-schools at the Hasso Plattner Institutes in Stanford and in Potsdam - has proved to be really successful in educating innovators. It blends an end-user focus with multidisciplinary collaboration and iterative improvement to produce innovative products, systems, and services. Design Thinking creates a vibrant interactive environment that promotes learning through rapid conceptual prototyping. In 2008, the HPI-Stanford Design Thinking Research Program was initiated, a venture that encourages multidisciplinary teams to investigate various phenomena of innovation in its technical, business, and human aspects. The researchers are guided by two general questions: 1. What are people really thinking and doing when they are engaged in creative design innovation? How can new frameworks, tools, systems, and methods augment, capture, and reuse successful practices? 2. What is the impact on technology, business, and human performance when design thinking is practiced? How do the tools, systems, and methods really work to get the innovation you want when you want it? How do they fail? In this book, the researchers take a system's view that begins with a demand for deep, evidence-based understanding of design thinking phenomena. They continue with an exploration of tools which can help improve the adaptive expertise needed for design thinking. The final part of the book concerns design thinking in information technology and its relevance for business process modeling and agile software development, i.e. real world creation and deployment of products, services, and enterprise systems.

The subject of "design thinking" is the rage at business schools, throughout corporations, and increasingly in the popular press--due in large part to the work of IDEO, a leading design firm, and its celebrated CEO, Tim Brown, who uses this book to show how the techniques and strategies of design belong at every level of business. The myth of innovation is that brilliant ideas leap fully formed from the minds of geniuses. The reality is that most innovations come from a process of rigorous examination through which great ideas are identified and developed before being realized as new offerings and capabilities. Change by Design explains design thinking, the collaborative process by which the designer's sensibilities and methods are employed to match people's needs, not only with what is technically feasible, but what is viable to the bottom line. Design thinking converts need into demand. It's a human-centered approach to problem solving that helps people and organizations become more innovative and more creative. Introduced a decade ago, the concept of design thinking remains popular at business schools, throughout corporations, and increasingly in the popular press--due in large part to work of IDEO, the undisputed world leading strategy, innovation, and design firm headed by Tim Brown. As he makes clear in this visionary guide--now updated with addition material, including new case studies, and a new introduction--design thinking is not just applicable to so-called creative industries or people who work in the design field. It's a methodology that has been used by organizations such as Kaiser Permanente, to increase the quality of patient care by re-examining the ways that their nurses manage shift change, or Kraft, to rethink supply chain management. Change by Design is not a book by designers for designers; it is a book for creative leaders seeking to infuse design thinking into every level of an organization, product, or service to drive new alternatives for business and society.

The first step-by-step guidebook for successful innovation planning Unlike other books on the subject, 101 Design Methods approaches the practice of creating new products, services, and customer experiences as a science, rather than an art, providing a practical set of collaborative tools and methods for planning and defining successful new offerings. Strategists, managers, designers, and researchers who undertake the challenge of innovation, despite a lack of established procedures and a high risk of failure, will find this an invaluable resource. Novices can learn from it; managers can plan with it; and practitioners of innovation can improve the quality of their work by referring to it.

The role of design, both expert and nonexpert, in the ongoing wave of social innovation toward sustainability. In a changing world everyone designs: each individual person and each collective subject, from enterprises to institutions, from communities to cities and regions, must define and enhance a life project. Sometimes these projects generate unprecedented solutions; sometimes they converge on common goals and realize larger transformations. As Ezio Manzini describes in this book, we are witnessing a wave of social innovations as these changes unfold--an expansive open co-design process in which new solutions are suggested and new meanings are created. Manzini distinguishes between diffuse design (performed by everybody) and expert design (performed by those who have been trained as designers) and describes how they interact. He maps what design experts can do to trigger and support meaningful social changes, focusing on emerging forms of collaboration. These range from community-supported agriculture in China to digital platforms for medical care in Canada; from interactive storytelling in India to collaborative housing in Milan. These cases illustrate how expert designers can support these collaborations--making their existence more probable, their practice easier, their diffusion and their convergence in larger projects more effective. Manzini draws the first comprehensive picture of design for social innovation: the most dynamic field of action for both expert and nonexpert designers in the coming decades.