Design Thinking: A Strategic First Step
by edavis on 04/01/11 at 12:18 am
I’m always looking for new ideas, approaches, and experiences that allow me to provide better products and services to my clients. In addition, I’m constantly searching for better ways to foster my team’s creative genius and position them to work harder, smarter, and more strategic. Luckily, I was exposed to the power of creativity for business leaders through my MBA coursework and this then lead me to learn more about design thinking.
So, what is design thinking? Basically, it is an iterative, nonlinear approach to solve problems and discover new opportunities. Tim Brown, the CEO and president of IDEO and author of the book Change By Design, sums it up best with his 3 spaces of innovation model:
- Inspiration: the problem or opportunity that motivates the search for solutions
- Ideation: the process of generating, developing, and testing ideas
- Implementation: the path that leads from the project room to the market
But to truly understand and appreciate the power of design thinking, I suggest you learn it first hand from Tim Brown himself:
Although I’m only new to design thinking, I am already committed to pushing this more in my work environment. I figure the worst that can happen is that we learn to fail early so that we can succeed sooner. I’ll keep you updated of our progress and welcome any feedback.
