Design Thinking, what is it and why you need it.
Puzzles and Mysteries
According to Gregory Treverton there are two types of problems, puzzles and mysteries.
Puzzle are totally solvable as soon as we get enough information. To solve them we might need a different point of view. These have limited boundaries.
Mysteries instead could be made harder to solve with increasing information availability. The problem also is shifting and changing and we need to be capable to adapt the ideas we use to discover it. That’s the domain where design thinking could help us.
A process to innovate
We make questions around stuff we don’t know. By doing that, we start a process of innovation in which we think by design a solution. Design thinking is a way to find a solution to a problem. It works best for a specific kind of problems. Rephrasing the concepts expressed by Jeanne M. Liedtka:
- It is a problem where we need to understand better the people involved. In other terms, people are relevant to that problem.
- We don’t clearly understand the problem itself.
- We have not enough data and/or old data are not going to help us.
You need Design Thinking to find how to solve mysterious problems for real people.
How to start?
Chose a problem deeply relevant for people. A problem not clearly understood.
Visualization → Draw a diagram of the problem.
Learning mindset → Prepare your mind to make mistakes and learn from them.
Broad repertoire → Be able to work and understand a variety of processes and functions connected with the problem.
Customer empathy → Deep interest in the life of people, they are going to be an important source of information.
What do you think? Is Design Thinking already part of your daily mindset?
If the topic interest you just give a look the references: