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I do not understand what Design Thinking is. Can someone explain in plain English without the business verbiage? Every time I come across Design Thinking, it j

I do not understand what Design Thinking is. Can someone explain in plain English without the business verbiage? Every time I come across Design Thinking, it just smells like bullshit - get a bunch of people together, give them post it notes and open walls. IBM’s DT website does not help nor do videos on YT. What is Design Thinking?

wirrbel 8y ago
design thinking is a method that helps justify management opinion with a process of processing people's input so long until it is diluted/lost enough and replaced by the view of ppl in power.
maire 8y ago
Design Thinking is a way of integrating user feedback into the development process. When your product is iterative it almost always works. When your product is outside the comfort zone of the current users - that is when it is a problem. At least it is good to know what the user perception is and experiment.
- kitd 8y ago
  It is one reason why I encourage my s/w dev colleagues to go and spend time in customer support. The environment of what your users experience can be fundamentally different to what you imagined during the development phase. My eyes were opened when I worked on one product. We added scriptability and for 3 years we assumed that would cover a multitude of user requirements. Until I actually tried to implement a customer's solution using it and realised how crap the experience was. 3 years late.
BjoernKW 8y ago
I like the summary given by Jeff Sussna in “Designing Delivery”. In a nutshell, Design Thinking consists of these elements: - abductive thinking - an iterative process - ethnography - empathy
- kristianov 8y ago
  ...so it's just plain old thinking then.
  - taneq 8y ago
    Virtually all methodologies like this boil down, in the end, to an attempt to codify "be smart and do the thing." When I was younger I (foolishly) derided software engineering as 'a way to get code out of people who aren't smart enough to program'. Now I see it like any other power tool - something which lets you do work that you wouldn't otherwise be able to tackle. No matter how smart you are, there's always some problem that's out of your intuitive reach, but which you could solve with a structured approach.
  - booleandilemma 8y ago
    Try selling books and convincing others that you are a thought leader with plain old thinking though.
    - krick 8y ago
      Taleb does.
  - cam_l 8y ago
    "People Think They Are Thinking When They Are Merely Rearranging Their Prejudices" -author contested
  - TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
    No, it's not plain old thinking then. Far too much software has almost no concept of user empathy. Example: yesterday I installed a new webcam. I was supposed to use a captcha to create a new account, and the captcha kept not working. After roughly half an hour of searching I discovered that the captcha didn't work in Europe, but it did work if you set the locale to US. Coincidentally, charges for the webcam cloud backup are much higher in the US. Did a manager decide to ban the EU and force everyone to use the US pricing? Did they tell the developers to make the change as quickly as possible? Did the developers and the sales team forget to inform users? Did something go wrong somewhere else? Who knows? As with many products, the user experience was irritatingly hostile and irrational, and the result was a firestorm of one star reviews on the App Store and Amazon. I have no idea if design thinking could have fixed this problem, but more empathy, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail from the industry as a whole can't possibly be a bad thing.
plainOldText 8y ago
Perhaps this video could help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrdSkqRypsg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrdSkqRypsg
avinium 8y ago
> Every time I come across Design Thinking, it just smells like bullshit - get a bunch of people together, give them post it notes and open walls. IBM’s DT website does not help nor do videos on YT. Yeah, it definitely gives off the vibe of "buzzword filler we can use to hock consulting services and conferences for clueless execs". The core of the idea seems to be fine - put the user/consumer first, accept that you won't know for sure how they'll react until they start using your product/service, and then iterate quickly based on feedback. But that's hardly rocket science, nor does it justify the massive circlejerk and hundreds of breathless blog posts hailing this seemingly radical discovery.
ArtWomb 8y ago
Crash course on Stanford's D.School page: https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources-collections/a-virtual-crash-course-in-design-thinking https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources-collections/a-virtual... Juul serves as a foundational example of design thinking. In the words of the founders, both grads of the Product Design masters program, the concept was not to create an "electronic cigarette" but to annihilate the concept of cigarettes altogether in favor of a true 21st century innovative delivery system. Regardless of your position on the societal ills of underage nicotine dependency, it's a fascinating case study to see how a niche product (Plume, I believe it was called?) for loose-leaf cannabis and extracts dubbed the "iPhone of vapes" evolved into a $15B household brand. How Juul, founded on a life-saving mission, became the most embattled startup of 2018 https://www.fastcompany.com/90262821/how-juul-founded-on-a-life-saving-mission-became-the-most-embattled-startup-of-2018 https://www.fastcompany.com/90262821/how-juul-founded-on-a-l... I think the real skill involved is Visual Thinking. Good old fashioned pencil and paper flow state ideation. If there is one practice I wish I had spent more time acquiring it would definitely be illustration / drafting ;)
- Judgmentality 8y ago
  I do not mean to attack you, but my initial reaction is similar to OP - this just reeks of BS. > How Juul, founded on a life-saving mission, became the most embattled startup of 2018 A life-saving mission? They are currently being banned by the FDA, the organization that Trump just defanged, for their sale of questionably safe products targeted at children. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/health/juul-ecigarettes-vaping-teenagers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/health/juul-ecigarettes-v...
  - Scoundreller 8y ago
    Did they really target children, or just create flavours that were desired by both adults and children? What flavour should they make that don’t (theoretically) appeal the children? Beer? Anchovies? Broccoli? Mesquite BBQ? Adults can like bubblegum or sweet and fruity flavours. I know I ask for them from my dentist for my cleanings instead of mint.
onoj 8y ago
Ultimately, and in addition to many existing "innovation" or "time and motion" tools, Design thinking is in-depth analysis of the customer and desperately hoping that somehow a "new idea" comes out of it. Roll in billions of consultancy dollars. Nothing at all to do with a professional design process however.
maxxxxx 8y ago
This feels like all the "innovation acceleration" programs coming from corporate in my my company. Combine a few buzzwords with the obvious. I think corporate types are into this stuff because they often kill any kind of improvement with the strict control they like to exert but then they have to do this stuff to make people more "creative". I am sure it's also better to have an open workspace so diverse teams can collaborate the whole day.
- itronitron 8y ago
  Natural innovation within an organization depends entirely on rewards and it's been my experience that having multiple different innovation 'programs' with different life-cycles is a good way to foster an innovation culture. Having multiple different programs also right-sizes the opportunities for different ideas. At the very least it gets people talking to each other which in my experience has always been a prerequisite for innovation. The downside of innovation programs is that they may be just an ineffective attempt to patch over the strict control policies that idiot managers put into place in order to protect the organization from its problem employees. I wouldn't be surprised if a company sent it's managers on mandatory vacation for 4 weeks every other month and saw an increase in morale, worker productivity, and meaningful innovation.
fishtank 8y ago
Basically: research, hypothesize, prototype, test, iterate, deliver. It's not new, but here we are with new terminology. It is good because if you're a design firm you sometimes need an HBR-approved buzzword to get your client, the VP of Marketing, to let you do any kind of user research. But ultimately, like any business concept used primarily to sell in client work and justify it up the ladder, it will be replaced by "whatever the stakeholder wants" when push comes to shove.
- virgilp 8y ago
  How's that different than "lean startup" ?
  - fsloth 8y ago
    If you are working for an established consultancy and selling for example a marketing project to a large incumbent I don't really think there is obvious place to sell you services using the term "startup".
- byandyphillips 8y ago
  Sorry, but you completely missed the mark on this one. Are you in UX or have you led design thinking sessions? It's successful because the product stops being something the designer created and starts being a product the whole team created. It gives everyone, no matter your role, a voice in the product and the creativity to build what you think the product should be.
  - jonshariat 8y ago
    It also centers the process, meaning how problems and solutions are validated, on your users.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
avip 8y ago
Thinking + doing, rebranded to confuse engineers.
- AndyNemmity 8y ago
  It's just a structured process. I find engineers are the ones that often benefit the most in Design Thinking workshops, or sessions, or whatever it is you call them. What would otherwise be some roadblocked, upset situation with several engineers feeling like they aren't being heard, ends up somehow moving forward through discussion. At least in my experience, which may be uncommon.
baxtr 8y ago
As Steve Jobs put it: “you have to start from the customer experience and work backwards”
Jedi72 8y ago
How do you sell thinking outside the box to people who only think in boxes? Make a new box.
- AtHeartEngineer 8y ago
  Yes, exactly. Idiots guide to thinking.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
luckydata 8y ago
I hate that moniker and I hope it dies in a fire but it's nothing more than using the same thinking devices used by designers (contextual inquiry, making assumptions explicit, mapping journeys and outcomes) by people that are not professional designers. The thinking is teaching the fundamentals can help teams of non designers achieve better outcomes in collaboration with a designer. IMHO design thinking is just... thinking.
- wpietri 8y ago
  I would agree, but unfortunately it's not a common kind of thinking. Especially at larger companies. So I think it's useful to have a defined name and a set of practices so that people who aren't used to thinking that way can start to grapple with it. For example, I got to sit in on a 3-day design thinking class at a large financial company. The attendees were from all over the company, from programmers to back-office people to account reps. Many of them had never met a customer in the course of their jobs. The design thinking concepts were deeply alien their normal work. But by half-way through they had a bunch of real users in for the attendees to interview. By the end, they were forced to produce new product ideas and mock-ups. It was really a revelation to a lot of the people there. Three days was only enough to give them a taste. But it was clear from the talk afterwards that a lot of them could now see why it was worth thinking beyond their designated jobs and really understanding what they were doing from the user's perspective.
  - chii 8y ago
    > thinking beyond their designated jobs and really understanding what they were doing from the user's perspective if a company treats their (low level) employees like replaceable cogs, and never involve them in decision making, then yes, this does seem like a revelation! However, this just goes to show that having trust, and empowering employees to be more autonomous and self-directed (with the appropriate amount of compensation based incentives of course) will achieve the same kind of results imho.
    - TuringTest 8y ago
      It doesn't help allowing employees to be autonomous and self-directed if they never see or get feedback from real users. A large part of design is validating whatever tool it is that they produce with the people for whom you're building it, and do it again at every step of the process with the intermediate designs - not just as a single upfront gathering of requirements. This is not something that you get from an eat-you-own-dog-food approach.
AndyNemmity 8y ago
Structured process towards coming up with plans and decisions on actions that provides improved outcomes. I've been a part of several Design Thinking workshops, and they always go better than workshops in other formats in my experience.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
simaracode 8y ago
Coming from consulting and having the same initial reaction to design thinking, here is the key elemento IMHO: 1. A simple way to reqllly focus with many stakeholders or team of people to really think problems thru with the minimal structure possible to get some ideas or potential projects. 2. It is refreshing is a big 4 consulting company used to charge you 6/7 fissures for a strategy you then needed your people to buy in. You are maki g it with them in a day or couple of days. (Iterate caster) 3. Gives a low risk model of getting people to really think customer first, with the problems and potential solutions. From my own point of view it really works, especially in big traditional enterprises where people have trouble Channing. I hate to say it but is almost magical. My 0.02 cents.
pif 8y ago
Just another useless, empty, void attempt to formalize common sense.
Spooky23 8y ago
The sessions help people to focus on what they need out of context. It’s isn’t bullshit... I’ve seen people who were close to blows about how to approach a problem come up with a good solution a few hours later through the exercise. I would say that novelty is powerful, not sure how effective it is after 100x.
adverbly 8y ago
In my opinion, having taken 2 design thinking courses for my Masters in Product Design: "Design Thinking" = Bullshit "Design" + "Thinking" = Designing using modern techniques and practices. You are better off paying attention to the specific techniques and practices than paying attention to the overall philosophy of "Design Thinking". Some of these techniques are very high leverage. - Learning how to do proper user interviews is really powerful and a very hard skill to master - Multidisciplinary groups for design sessions are very effective - Creating a positive, playful, open environment boosts creativity - Iteratively converging and diverging on the problem leads to non-trivial solutions
zorak 8y ago
Design Thinking is just solving problems (and creating new solutions) from the end-user's perspective. Some people are naturally good at it, but others need some structure to make it happen.

wirrbel 8y ago

design thinking is a method that helps justify management opinion with a process of processing people's input so long until it is diluted/lost enough and replaced by the view of ppl in power.

maire 8y ago

Design Thinking is a way of integrating user feedback into the development process. When your product is iterative it almost always works. When your product is outside the comfort zone of the current users - that is when it is a problem. At least it is good to know what the user perception is and experiment.

kitd 8y ago
It is one reason why I encourage my s/w dev colleagues to go and spend time in customer support. The environment of what your users experience can be fundamentally different to what you imagined during the development phase. My eyes were opened when I worked on one product. We added scriptability and for 3 years we assumed that would cover a multitude of user requirements. Until I actually tried to implement a customer's solution using it and realised how crap the experience was. 3 years late.

BjoernKW 8y ago

I like the summary given by Jeff Sussna in “Designing Delivery”. In a nutshell, Design Thinking consists of these elements: - abductive thinking - an iterative process - ethnography - empathy

kristianov 8y ago
...so it's just plain old thinking then.
- taneq 8y ago
  Virtually all methodologies like this boil down, in the end, to an attempt to codify "be smart and do the thing." When I was younger I (foolishly) derided software engineering as 'a way to get code out of people who aren't smart enough to program'. Now I see it like any other power tool - something which lets you do work that you wouldn't otherwise be able to tackle. No matter how smart you are, there's always some problem that's out of your intuitive reach, but which you could solve with a structured approach.
- booleandilemma 8y ago
  Try selling books and convincing others that you are a thought leader with plain old thinking though.
  - krick 8y ago
    Taleb does.
- cam_l 8y ago
  "People Think They Are Thinking When They Are Merely Rearranging Their Prejudices" -author contested
- TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
  No, it's not plain old thinking then. Far too much software has almost no concept of user empathy. Example: yesterday I installed a new webcam. I was supposed to use a captcha to create a new account, and the captcha kept not working. After roughly half an hour of searching I discovered that the captcha didn't work in Europe, but it did work if you set the locale to US. Coincidentally, charges for the webcam cloud backup are much higher in the US. Did a manager decide to ban the EU and force everyone to use the US pricing? Did they tell the developers to make the change as quickly as possible? Did the developers and the sales team forget to inform users? Did something go wrong somewhere else? Who knows? As with many products, the user experience was irritatingly hostile and irrational, and the result was a firestorm of one star reviews on the App Store and Amazon. I have no idea if design thinking could have fixed this problem, but more empathy, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail from the industry as a whole can't possibly be a bad thing.

plainOldText 8y ago

Perhaps this video could help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrdSkqRypsg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrdSkqRypsg

avinium 8y ago

> Every time I come across Design Thinking, it just smells like bullshit - get a bunch of people together, give them post it notes and open walls. IBM’s DT website does not help nor do videos on YT. Yeah, it definitely gives off the vibe of "buzzword filler we can use to hock consulting services and conferences for clueless execs". The core of the idea seems to be fine - put the user/consumer first, accept that you won't know for sure how they'll react until they start using your product/service, and then iterate quickly based on feedback. But that's hardly rocket science, nor does it justify the massive circlejerk and hundreds of breathless blog posts hailing this seemingly radical discovery.

ArtWomb 8y ago

Crash course on Stanford's D.School page: https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources-collections/a-virtual-crash-course-in-design-thinking https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources-collections/a-virtual... Juul serves as a foundational example of design thinking. In the words of the founders, both grads of the Product Design masters program, the concept was not to create an "electronic cigarette" but to annihilate the concept of cigarettes altogether in favor of a true 21st century innovative delivery system. Regardless of your position on the societal ills of underage nicotine dependency, it's a fascinating case study to see how a niche product (Plume, I believe it was called?) for loose-leaf cannabis and extracts dubbed the "iPhone of vapes" evolved into a $15B household brand. How Juul, founded on a life-saving mission, became the most embattled startup of 2018 https://www.fastcompany.com/90262821/how-juul-founded-on-a-life-saving-mission-became-the-most-embattled-startup-of-2018 https://www.fastcompany.com/90262821/how-juul-founded-on-a-l... I think the real skill involved is Visual Thinking. Good old fashioned pencil and paper flow state ideation. If there is one practice I wish I had spent more time acquiring it would definitely be illustration / drafting ;)

Judgmentality 8y ago
I do not mean to attack you, but my initial reaction is similar to OP - this just reeks of BS. > How Juul, founded on a life-saving mission, became the most embattled startup of 2018 A life-saving mission? They are currently being banned by the FDA, the organization that Trump just defanged, for their sale of questionably safe products targeted at children. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/health/juul-ecigarettes-vaping-teenagers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/health/juul-ecigarettes-v...
- Scoundreller 8y ago
  Did they really target children, or just create flavours that were desired by both adults and children? What flavour should they make that don’t (theoretically) appeal the children? Beer? Anchovies? Broccoli? Mesquite BBQ? Adults can like bubblegum or sweet and fruity flavours. I know I ask for them from my dentist for my cleanings instead of mint.

onoj 8y ago

Ultimately, and in addition to many existing "innovation" or "time and motion" tools, Design thinking is in-depth analysis of the customer and desperately hoping that somehow a "new idea" comes out of it. Roll in billions of consultancy dollars. Nothing at all to do with a professional design process however.

maxxxxx 8y ago

This feels like all the "innovation acceleration" programs coming from corporate in my my company. Combine a few buzzwords with the obvious. I think corporate types are into this stuff because they often kill any kind of improvement with the strict control they like to exert but then they have to do this stuff to make people more "creative". I am sure it's also better to have an open workspace so diverse teams can collaborate the whole day.

itronitron 8y ago
Natural innovation within an organization depends entirely on rewards and it's been my experience that having multiple different innovation 'programs' with different life-cycles is a good way to foster an innovation culture. Having multiple different programs also right-sizes the opportunities for different ideas. At the very least it gets people talking to each other which in my experience has always been a prerequisite for innovation. The downside of innovation programs is that they may be just an ineffective attempt to patch over the strict control policies that idiot managers put into place in order to protect the organization from its problem employees. I wouldn't be surprised if a company sent it's managers on mandatory vacation for 4 weeks every other month and saw an increase in morale, worker productivity, and meaningful innovation.

fishtank 8y ago

Basically: research, hypothesize, prototype, test, iterate, deliver. It's not new, but here we are with new terminology. It is good because if you're a design firm you sometimes need an HBR-approved buzzword to get your client, the VP of Marketing, to let you do any kind of user research. But ultimately, like any business concept used primarily to sell in client work and justify it up the ladder, it will be replaced by "whatever the stakeholder wants" when push comes to shove.

virgilp 8y ago
How's that different than "lean startup" ?
- fsloth 8y ago
  If you are working for an established consultancy and selling for example a marketing project to a large incumbent I don't really think there is obvious place to sell you services using the term "startup".
byandyphillips 8y ago
Sorry, but you completely missed the mark on this one. Are you in UX or have you led design thinking sessions? It's successful because the product stops being something the designer created and starts being a product the whole team created. It gives everyone, no matter your role, a voice in the product and the creativity to build what you think the product should be.
- jonshariat 8y ago
  It also centers the process, meaning how problems and solutions are validated, on your users.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

avip 8y ago

Thinking + doing, rebranded to confuse engineers.

AndyNemmity 8y ago
It's just a structured process. I find engineers are the ones that often benefit the most in Design Thinking workshops, or sessions, or whatever it is you call them. What would otherwise be some roadblocked, upset situation with several engineers feeling like they aren't being heard, ends up somehow moving forward through discussion. At least in my experience, which may be uncommon.

baxtr 8y ago

As Steve Jobs put it: “you have to start from the customer experience and work backwards”

Jedi72 8y ago

How do you sell thinking outside the box to people who only think in boxes? Make a new box.

AtHeartEngineer 8y ago
Yes, exactly. Idiots guide to thinking.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

luckydata 8y ago

I hate that moniker and I hope it dies in a fire but it's nothing more than using the same thinking devices used by designers (contextual inquiry, making assumptions explicit, mapping journeys and outcomes) by people that are not professional designers. The thinking is teaching the fundamentals can help teams of non designers achieve better outcomes in collaboration with a designer. IMHO design thinking is just... thinking.

wpietri 8y ago
I would agree, but unfortunately it's not a common kind of thinking. Especially at larger companies. So I think it's useful to have a defined name and a set of practices so that people who aren't used to thinking that way can start to grapple with it. For example, I got to sit in on a 3-day design thinking class at a large financial company. The attendees were from all over the company, from programmers to back-office people to account reps. Many of them had never met a customer in the course of their jobs. The design thinking concepts were deeply alien their normal work. But by half-way through they had a bunch of real users in for the attendees to interview. By the end, they were forced to produce new product ideas and mock-ups. It was really a revelation to a lot of the people there. Three days was only enough to give them a taste. But it was clear from the talk afterwards that a lot of them could now see why it was worth thinking beyond their designated jobs and really understanding what they were doing from the user's perspective.
- chii 8y ago
  > thinking beyond their designated jobs and really understanding what they were doing from the user's perspective if a company treats their (low level) employees like replaceable cogs, and never involve them in decision making, then yes, this does seem like a revelation! However, this just goes to show that having trust, and empowering employees to be more autonomous and self-directed (with the appropriate amount of compensation based incentives of course) will achieve the same kind of results imho.
  - TuringTest 8y ago
    It doesn't help allowing employees to be autonomous and self-directed if they never see or get feedback from real users. A large part of design is validating whatever tool it is that they produce with the people for whom you're building it, and do it again at every step of the process with the intermediate designs - not just as a single upfront gathering of requirements. This is not something that you get from an eat-you-own-dog-food approach.

AndyNemmity 8y ago

Structured process towards coming up with plans and decisions on actions that provides improved outcomes. I've been a part of several Design Thinking workshops, and they always go better than workshops in other formats in my experience.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

simaracode 8y ago

Coming from consulting and having the same initial reaction to design thinking, here is the key elemento IMHO: 1. A simple way to reqllly focus with many stakeholders or team of people to really think problems thru with the minimal structure possible to get some ideas or potential projects. 2. It is refreshing is a big 4 consulting company used to charge you 6/7 fissures for a strategy you then needed your people to buy in. You are maki g it with them in a day or couple of days. (Iterate caster) 3. Gives a low risk model of getting people to really think customer first, with the problems and potential solutions. From my own point of view it really works, especially in big traditional enterprises where people have trouble Channing. I hate to say it but is almost magical. My 0.02 cents.

pif 8y ago

Just another useless, empty, void attempt to formalize common sense.

Spooky23 8y ago

The sessions help people to focus on what they need out of context. It’s isn’t bullshit... I’ve seen people who were close to blows about how to approach a problem come up with a good solution a few hours later through the exercise. I would say that novelty is powerful, not sure how effective it is after 100x.

adverbly 8y ago

In my opinion, having taken 2 design thinking courses for my Masters in Product Design: "Design Thinking" = Bullshit "Design" + "Thinking" = Designing using modern techniques and practices. You are better off paying attention to the specific techniques and practices than paying attention to the overall philosophy of "Design Thinking". Some of these techniques are very high leverage. - Learning how to do proper user interviews is really powerful and a very hard skill to master - Multidisciplinary groups for design sessions are very effective - Creating a positive, playful, open environment boosts creativity - Iteratively converging and diverging on the problem leads to non-trivial solutions

zorak 8y ago

Design Thinking is just solving problems (and creating new solutions) from the end-user's perspective. Some people are naturally good at it, but others need some structure to make it happen.