Implementing Design Thinking: A Blog Series
I was actually quite surprised to find myself deep undercover in Design Thinking activities in the last 12 months 4+ years. The great thing was that these activities were varied, spanning from running Design Thinking workshops, developing a Design Thinking curriculum, lectures on leveraging on the power of design, and best of all implementing Design Thinking within organizations that are non-traditional buyers of design. What a ride!
What is even more interesting, was finding out that Design Thinking has not died (or become a failed experiment as some say), but more accurately, it has evolved into a vibrant ecosystem of activities that focuses on businesses, brands and organizations leveraging on design as a strategic competitive advantage.
Some of you might mistakenly think that I’m against the whole concept of Design Thinking. I don’t blame you as this probably stem from an article I wrote on how Design Thinking is Killing Creativity. If you read that article, it actually explains that the problems of Design Thinking stems from the activity not being facilitated or managed correctly, or worst still, subjected to the negative influences of traditional corporate culture. Those observations in that article have been validated time and time again during my year-long continuous involvement with Design Thinking.
Therefore I thought it would make a lot of sense to run a regular series here on Design Sojourn to share my thoughts and my experiences in how I helped companies implement Design Thinking as a tool for business success and ultimately Design Leadership. Furthermore, this seems to be a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) and discussion point with my clients and participants of my workshops.
This post will contain a table of contents that will be updated whenever new posts from this series are published. So I would like to encourage you to bookmark this post and visit our blog frequently? I hope you enjoy my thoughts and the ensuing conversation. Do stay tuned!
Table of Contents:
Implementing Design Thinking 1: Focus on the Outcome not the Process
Implementing Design Thinking 2: Have the Guts to Say it Sucks
Implementing Design Thinking 3: What Kind of Design Thinker are You?
Implementing Design Thinking 4: It is a Full Time Activity!
12 Thoughts on Implementing Design Thinking in Your Organization. [ Series Ends! ]
Sunil Malhotra
September 5, 2018 at 3:52 pm“If you read that article, it actually explains that the problems of Design Thinking stems from the activity not being facilitated or managed correctly, or worst still, subjected to the negative influences of traditional corporate culture.”
You missed out the guys who have no clue and are slapping the ‘label’ design thinking on whatever they’ve been doing and going about ripping off unsuspecting clients. A case of the blind leading the blind. My neck of the woods is infested with these sharks.
Brian
August 7, 2013 at 5:56 pmBrian, this is such a great resource for small businesses who need an edge in realigning their purpose and goals! I love the presentation and resources that you have so freely shared! Will be sharing this with my mates!
Ryan Hill
May 1, 2013 at 8:39 pmWorking for a design company myself I find that it has never been easier to implement your ideas no matter how far fetched, I don’t feel that Design Thinking is killing creativity, I think it is freeing it
Brigitta
April 9, 2013 at 7:26 amIts good to see that Design Thinking is still alive 🙂