Design Thinking at Work

Difficult Magic

Design thinking focuses on users finding solutions that meet their needs while driving business value. Successful design thinking demands creativity and systems thinking. Design thinking helps you identify business problems and generate creative solutions through iterative development that involves feedback, experimentation and reflection. Outcomes often produce novel, creative and practical solutions – sometimes even industry-changing breakthroughs – but still must survive organizational processes. Design thinking requires patience and long-term commitment from designers, the organization and its leaders. 

The Design Process

When innovator Gerwin Hoogendoorn reinvented the umbrella, he didn’t conduct market research or study umbrella history. He took umbrellas apart and experimented by reconstructing them in different ways. He drew pictures, pieced together prototypes, tested those prototypes in harsh weather and talked with people who tested them for him. He considered his results before starting the process...