Why Founders Can't Stop Talking About Design Thinking

If you have ever sat in on a startup lecture, a brainstorming session, or even a hackathon, chances are you have heard the term Design Thinking. In recent years the phrase has swept the globe, and it has become one of the must-read theories for entrepreneurs. Hong Kong’s 2017 Policy Address even mentioned it: “Design thinking is a problem-solving capability, and more than that, a new mindset that adds value and champions cross-sector collaboration.” In the article below, we take a closer look at what Design Thinking really is and why it matters.

The origins of Design Thinking

toilet philosophy (image from the internet)

When it comes to designing a business model, humans never used to have a systematic way of unearthing creative ideas. Plenty of people relied on a cold shower, or that sudden “ping” in the loo, to stumble upon a “eureka” moment, and then simply acted on it. They typically went in with a “never mind, let’s just give it a go” attitude, and whether the “eureka” was actually any good came down to pure luck. On top of that, you cannot mass-produce a “eureka”: when the people you rely on for them (designers, marketers, say) hit a creative block, that is when the real headaches begin.

It was not until Nobel laureate in economics Herbert A Simon published The Sciences of the Artificial in 1969 that people began bringing a structured way of thinking to design in scientific fields. Architect and urban planner Peter Rowe’s 1987 book Design Thinking was the first design text to use the term “design thinking” in a deliberate way, offering designers and urban planners a systematic, evidence-based approach to solving problems. Later, multinational giants such as Apple, IBM and SAP began applying this way of thinking to the innovation of their products and services, bringing Design Thinking to far wider attention.

The five elements of Design Thinking

Tim Brown, chief executive of the design firm IDEO, defines design thinking like this:

“A human-centred design spirit and method that considers people’s needs and behaviour, while also weighing up what is technologically and commercially feasible.”

Steve Jobs once put his finger on the heart of design thinking too:

“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works.”

Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (widely known as the d.school), famous for teaching design thinking, proposes the following five-stage design thinking model:

The model above is made up of five elements — “Empathy”, “Define”, “Ideate”, “Prototype” and “Test” — and we will work through each one in turn, looking at how entrepreneurs can use these five elements to systematically think their way to an innovative business plan:

Understand the user — Empathy

This is the human-centred key to design thinking. First, an entrepreneur needs to apply empathy to understand the real problems faced by the people using their product or service. The point to bear in mind is that you should put yourself in someone else’s shoes and find the problem from their angle, not your own. It is not enough to simply decide that an existing product has a problem; instead, you have to interact with customers, get inside the user’s mind, and experience, listen to and observe their needs, emotions and goals.

Define the need — Define

After empathising, the entrepreneur needs to assess the full range of difficulties the user faces, then reframe and define exactly what the core problem is. For example, if the user difficulty uncovered during the Empathy stage is “face masks are stuffy and uncomfortable to wear”, then the user-centred problem definition becomes: “Hong Kong people wear masks and need a cooler, more breathable material; the mask must offer a certain level of protection against viruses, and the design cannot be too outlandish.” Framed as an HMW (how-might-we) question, that would be: “How might we help Hong Kong people pick the coolest, most breathable option from the world’s many mask materials?” and “How might we help Hong Kong people buy good-looking, highly protective masks at a reasonable price over the long term?”

Think up answers — Ideate

Next comes the time for everyone to gather round and brainstorm. The entrepreneur needs to come up with an “answer” that helps solve the user’s problem. After the process of deeply experiencing the problem and setting a problem statement above, the brainstorm should come fairly easily — but if everyone still finds it difficult, you can refer to the seven brainstorming rules put forward by the design firm IDEO:

1. Defer judgement of others’ suggestions, so that everyone in the group can speak their mind and put their ideas forward without holding back.
2. Encourage all the wild and offbeat ideas; very often the genuinely creative ideas grow out of something a little “out there”.
3. When responding to others, don’t say “but...”; say “yes, and...” instead. Try building on someone else’s idea and then add to it.
4. Stay focused on the core throughout — that is, the problem statement set earlier. Keep an eye on whether the discussion is drifting off topic.
5. Have everyone speak one at a time; don’t interrupt others or hold a side conversation with another member.
6. Visualise different ideas as quickly as possible. Ideally, one or more members of the group should write everyone’s suggestions on sticky notes — even pairing them with images — and then post them on the wall or a whiteboard.
7. Generate ideas in volume as fast as you can. It is better not to evaluate whose idea it is at first; come up with dozens of ideas, then lay them all out so everyone can choose the best one.

Build a model — Prototype

Once you have hit on a good idea, it is time to move to the execution stage. The entrepreneur first designs a prototype, then puts it into practice right away to test whether it works. A prototype can also be a service: for example, if you have decided your business idea is to run a unique guided tour, then the prototype is to think through every detail of the tour itinerary, run a trial tour once, and have friends and family test out this guided-tour “prototype”.

Test the model — Testing

Design Thinking is not a linear way of thinking. If problems surface when testing a prototype, you may need to make some changes and create a new prototype — or even jump back to the Define stage and revise the problem statement.

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The difference between design thinking and analytical thinking

From a young age, school and society teach us to use analytical thinking, but design thinking and analytical thinking are two entirely different modes of thought. To begin with, analytical thinking is more rational, whereas design thinking is intuitive thinking, with the emphasis on understanding, imagining, conceiving and executing. What is more, design thinking is not a linear process: depending on the industry and the practical circumstances, it loops back to earlier stages to refine your own fixed ideas and explore new directions.

After all that, design thinking might look rather complicated. But there is no need for founders to overthink how to train themselves in design thinking — just take action. Going straight ahead and designing a business model with the Design Thinking method you already know, then learning as you go, may well be the more efficient approach. Here’s hoping everyone can Think Like a Designer!

Originally published on CountAudit

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