Design Thinking as an Innovation Engine

A Crying BabyIn his book "Hit Refresh", Satya Nadella (now, CEO of Microsoft) talks about the interesting incident when he was getting hired into Microsoft. In Year 1992, when Nadella, went through his first round of interview, he was posed a question by the recruiting manager Richard Tait that "Imagine you see a baby laying on the street, and the baby is crying. What do you do?"

Nadella quickly replied, "You call 911." 

As Tait walked Nadella out of his office, he put his arm around Nadella and said, "You need some empathy. If a baby is laying on the street crying, you pick up the baby."

Nadella still got a job but the lesson of "EMPATHY" and he would take this lesson throughout his career at Microsoft.

Empathy is formally defined as "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another."

Renewed Interest

The word "Empathy" is coming back to center stage recently and this empathy is towards customer needs and the kind of the experience they would love to emmerse themsleves into. The process of Design Thinking has this empathy at its core.

There is a renewed interest in Design thinking by companies in Software Engineering, Healthcare industry, Automotive industry and other industries who are proactive in taking their User Experience & Engagement to a next level and use that as competitive edge in the overcrowded market.

Design thinking is a method for resolution of problems in a practical, creative and Emphatic way. Let us look at the crux of this practice.

A)   It is Different from a normal Problem Solving method

Normal “Scientific method” is more about the coming up with a hypothesis/theory resulting in model supporting by stats/facts. However, Design thinking goes one step ahead by considering “emotional” aspect of the problem along with traditional ways of designing. It not only considers the stated issues by a user for a particular product, but also throws a light on non-stated problems which helps in discovering the intangible underlying issues which cannot be uncovered by using pure maths/physics based approaches. This method brings in “Human-Centric Point Of View” and has “Empathy” to its core. Constructive and practical solution is the aim of Design thinking.

A normal PROBLEM SOLVING results in Answers but Design Thinking results in “New Possibilities” and Solutions. Following simple example will help in understanding this better.

B)   Main 3 Ingredients of “Design Thinking”

Following three factors are vital in using this method which results in what is referred as PREDICTIVE INNOVATION

1. DESIRABILITY (About People)

• Tries to answer the question “What your User want?”
• This is #1 and most overlooked area
• Answer to this question will generally result in

① Value Proposition,

② Customer Relationship and

③ Customer Segments

2. Viability (About Business)

• Tries to answer the question “What can be sold in the market?”
• Lot of companies start from here but this should come after “Desirability”
• Answer to this question will result in

① Cost Structures

② Revenue Streams

③ Channels

3. Feasibility (About Technology)

• Tries to answer the question “What is possible with Today`s Technology?”
• This is point where one should make best use of the Digital innovation both in Software and Hardware to our disposal. This is the right way to become digital (if required)

・Answer to this question will result in

① Key Partners

② Key Activities

③ Key Resources

C)    The meeting points and the Core innovation

As indicated in the figure below,

1.    The area where Desirability and Viability meet results in EMOTIONAL INNOVATION and helps in branding, marketing and Relationships.

2.    The area where Viability and Feasibility meet results in PROCESS INNOVATION

3.    The area where Desirability and Feasibility meets result in FUNCTIONAL INNOVATION

4.    And as a whole, this activity results in “Most Valuable Design and Innovation” at its core.

D)   5 Main steps in Design Thinking

Main Five steps in design thinking are broadly divided into

1.    Problem

• Empathize with the user situation and problem
• Define the problem

2. Solution

• Ideate based on the inputs
• Prototype as early as possible
• Test the prototype with use
• If it meet and solves the problem, implement is vision in full scale.

There are whole set of tools (will explore in other post) on how to go about actually engaging with a client who intend to solve their problems and want to bring the Customer-Centricity, User Experience and Engagement to the core of the their business. By using Design Thinking, an enterprise can get started on their journey towards Innovation, rather Predictive Innovation.

You might have your own views/experiences around Design Thinking, it would be great to hear those and to take this discussion beyond this forum too.