3. Improving childhood nutrition in rural
Vietnam.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ouicoude divergent
In 1990, to tackle malnutrition in rural Vietnam a team created a childhood nutrition program
that was inspired by spending time with Vietnamese families with abnormally healthy children
and observing their diet and food habits. Source:http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/
design_thinking_for_social_innovation/
4. divergent
In 2011 in an effort to preserve and revitalize endangered languages, a team created an
online learning system and put a rough early prototype online inviting potential users to try it
out and give feedback.
What do these two projects have in common? They’re both examples of Design Thinking in
action. And that’s what I’m going to talk about for the next few minutes.
5. desirable
feasible viable
Inspired by: http://dschool.stanford.edu/our-point-of-view/#design-thinking
divergent
But what is design thinking?
Essentially it is a methodology for innovation and change.
Design thinking is a way to create innovations that are desirable for people, viable for
business and practically feasible.
It draws on mindsets and methods from art, social sciences, business and engineering and
covers the full scope of innovation activity from research, planning, development,
implementation and evaluation.
6. Collaboration Iteration Prototyping Action-oriented
Human-centered
Inspired by: http://dschool.stanford.edu/
divergent
Before we understand what DT means in practice we need to appreciate the big ideas behind
it.
The house of DT has 5 key foundation stones.
It is fundamentally human-centered - focusing on understanding and designing for human
needs and experiences.
DT is driven by collaboration; multi-disciplinary teams, deep stakeholder and user
involvement. In DT innovation is a group activity.
DT relies on iterative development - repeated cycles of making and testing, making and
testing.
Connected with iterative development, is the extensive use of prototyping to learn quickly
about the strengthes and weaknesses of solution ideas.
Despite the name, DT is an action-oriented methodology. It favours practical
experimentation, doing over talking, and making over theorizing.
7. "For judgment thinking, the desired output is
truth.... For design thinking, the output is
value. For logical thinking, certainty is
essential. For design thinking, possibility is
essential. ”
Edward De Bono, from http://www.cognitivedesignsolutions.com/DesignProcess/
DesignThinking.htm
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/people/40773692@N06 divergent
So what is DT like in practice? I’m going to cover three aspects - how you think, what you do
and what you say.
Firstly and most fundamentally DT is a way of thinking, a mindset. And this mindset can be
quite different to how we’re traditionally taught to think in our schools and quite different to
how we tend to think in business.
Edward de Bono articulates this difference beautifully when he says “For judgment thinking,
the desired output is truth. For design thinking the output is value. For logical thinking,
certainty is essential. For design thinking, possibility is essential.”
8. Critical thinking Creative thinking
analytical generative
Design Thinking
convergent divergent
vertical lateral
probability possibility
judgement suspension
focused diffuse
objective subjective
the answer an answer
left brain right brain
verbal visual
linear associative
reasoning richness
yes but yes and
Adapted from - http://www.cognitivedesignsolutions.com/DesignProcess/DesignThinking.htm
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Traditional critical thinking emphasises convergence, probability and logic. DT leans on
divergence, possibility and insight.
Though DT leans more towards creative thinking, in reality it is a blend of both critical and
creative thinking, utilising different thinking styles at different points in the design process.
9. divergent
Perhaps the key behaviour of DT is qualitative research to uncover authentic insights into
human behaviour that can be used to inspire innovation. This research usually sees designers
going out into the places where people live their lives and seeking to understand peoples’
experiences from their point of view. Designers pay great attention to context and are
interested in not only what people say but what they do, what they use and the environments
the do it all in. DT favours this kind of research for it’s authenticity and ability to uncover
unarticulated needs. DT goes beyond surveys, questionnaires and focus groups and uses
ethnography-style research to gain a rich empathy for the reality of peoples’ lives and inspire
innovation.
10. divergent
Another key behavoiur in DT is prototyping.
DT uses prototyping to quickly learn about the strengthes and weaknesses of an idea by
making it tangible and experiential and putting it back into the hands of potential users.
DT favours quick and dirty prototyping rather than high-fidelity. This enables us to balance
investment with insight. In DT anything can be prototyped, from physical spaces, to events,
to services to strategies.
11. Let’s prototype this
what if?
Yes and...
let’s just explore
this for a minute? how might we?
how about we look at it
another way?
there must be a
better way!
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Another key practical aspect of DT is language: what you say during the innovation process.
Like any discipline DT has a language of it’s own. Yep there is a bit of jargon to get used to
but some of the most important phrases in the DT lexicon feature very ordinary words yet
have extraordinary power when it comes to enabling innovation.
Phrases like “how might we?” encourage exploration of possibilities. Phrases like “yes and,”
allow designers to build on the ideas of others and synthesise divergent ideas and insights.
Language is a key part of the practice of DT as it sets the stage and gives permission for
people to be creative and innovative.
12. improve evolve invent transform
Source: Cheskin Ltd.
divergent
What can Design Thinking practically help you with?
DT can help across the full spectrum of business innovation from: improving efficiencies,
evolving core offerings, inventing new value and transforming relationships between
businesses and their customers.
13. products
strategies
customer-facing change
services
businesses
processes
internal change
movements
policies
experiences
plans
events systems
divergent
DT can be used to innovate all sorts of things. DT is context and output agnostic. It works
equally well for small organisations and large ones, for the private sector and the public.
From products to services, from business models to goverment policies, DT can be used to
create change that is more human-centered and therefore more likely to deliver the intended
value.
14. divergent
A typical design project looks a bit like this. It loops back on itself at a couple of points,
explores divergent paths that can become dead ends but follows a steady trajectory from
inception to innovation. DT projects can look and feel chaotic but it’s the openness to
possibilities, the willingness to explore and reframe that makes it such a good methodology
for innovation.
forming the brief and project plan
putting together a team
user-research - going into the wild
reframing the problem/opportunity based on user needs
generating a wide range of solution ideas
prototyping to learn fast
testing with users
Refining ideas
Implementing to market
15. a methodlogy for innovation and change
human-centered, highly collaborative, iterative development,
prototyping and action-oriented
a mindset emphasising creative thinking over critical
heavily reliant on ethnography-style research for understanding
peoples’ needs
framed by language that encourages creativity, permits wild ideas
and supports synthesis
drive change right across the innovation spectrum: improvements
- transformational change
context and output agnostic
divergent
To summarise...
- a methodlogy for innovation and change
- human-centered, highly collaborative, iterative development, prototyping and action-
oriented
- a mindset emphasising creative thinking over critical
- heavily reliant on ethnography-style research for understanding peoples’ needs
- supported by language that encourages creativity, permits wild ideas and supports
synthesis
- drive change right across the innovation spectrum and context and output agnostic
So why should you care about all this?
From a business perspective, design thinking is about innovation, about creating things that
meet the needs of your customers therefore helping you to stay ahead of the competition and
survive in a complex and rapidly changing world.
As members of the digital industry forum, you are all agents of change and designers of a key
part of the Waikato’s future. I think DT has a lot to offer you in that endeavour, so I want to
finish
by leaving you with a big question to ponder - how do you think DT help to grow the
Waikato’s digital industry?
16. How might design thinking help to grow
the Waikato’s digital industry?
divergent
