What is Design thinking and how design thinking courses/training helps in Management/MBA Education?
Posted by: Mr. Vignes Darasan | Digital Future Blogs
Stuck or Struggling to innovate new products, here comes a systematic innovation practice, “Design thinking,” which helps anyone to create/innovate successful products or services.
Today’s world is evolving everyday with new technologies where there is a huge competition between businesses. To embrace these challenges and compete with the upcoming technologies, digital-age managers must be equipped with creative and critical thinking skills.
Design Thinking is a study which helps managers to think systematically with creative and critical thinking skills. The major process in Design Thinking is that it is applied to identify real-world problems and solve it by designing innovative solutions.
In other words, “design thinking can be defined as rapid prototyping of a business model from the user problem statement to create possible solutions that can be tested if it will work or not.
Proven examples are companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google used Design thinking to create successful, innovative products
Design Thinking demands “Your ideas should pass REAL-WIN-WORTH framework to create a successful innovation”
What is Real Win Worth Framework in Design Thinking?
a. Real
Observe the world and identify the real problems faced by the people
Eg: “Airbnb” found a problem that is real
- people are struggling to find a place to stay while travelling
- They feel hotels are expensive
b. Win
Analyse and find whether the problem can be addressed by a feasible solution
Eg: “Airbnb” found a feasible solution
- Creating and managing a platform where tenants and customers interact that is technically achievable with current tools and technologies
- No much competition
c. Worth
Do some basic financial analysis to find the viability of the product
i.e. (will this innovation make some money and can be converted into a profitable business)
Eg: “Airbnb” found the business is viable
- creates profits by earning commissions for each booking
If the idea passed the REAL-WIN-WORTH framework, congrats you are a Design Thinker!
> check-out RVSIMSR’s Approach to Design ThinkingDesign Thinker’s 8 systematic steps for a successful product innovation
1. Identifying Customer needs
Customer needs can be identified by Empathized Interviews and Observations from different types of users. Needs that are unknown to the customers are latent, this has to be identified through observations
For Example:
If a team is planning to design a new pen.
Customer need statement can be “A pen has to write smoothly”
2. Product specifications
Product Specifications must be extracted from customer need statements.
From the previous example:
A pen will be smooth in writing only if benchmarks certain specifications like tip diameter, ink flow rate, etc, with the competitors
Similarly, All the required product specifications are taken from the customer needs statements
3. Brainstorming and Concept Development
Brainstorming is searching solutions for the needs, it can be done in two ways
External: Extracting ideas from the existing solutions and online research
Internal: Creating ideas individually and brainstorm as a group where the ideas are refined and consolidated.
4. Product Architecture
Product Architecture is one of the key steps in design thinking which has to be considered.
From the Example Pen Design:
If the pen is designed with modular architecture, then the refill can be replaced. It can also be designed using an integral architecture where it can be used only once (sketch pens)
5. Environmental Design
Materials used to design a pen must be considered as they impact the environment. Material lifecycle from production to distribution to usage to disposal has to be incorporated into the design document.
6. Prototype and Testing
Create different types of Prototypes to study the product's physical and analytical properties, which helps the design thinking team make better decisions.
7. Financial Analysis
A quick financial projection of investments, costs, projected revenues and profits will provide the approximation viability of the business.
8. Product Development
Finally, one has to decide the feasible product development process according to the type of product planned to be developed. There are a lot of development processes that can be followed. The most popular ones are listed below
- a. Agile and Scum
- b. Spiral
- c. Staged
A digital age manager, techno manager, business development manager, or MBA graduate should be able to solve the business problem by following the above-mentioned design thinking framework. Finally, the design thinking framework shows a positive sign. In that case, the real project can be started; if it shows negative signs, it means it is not desirable, feasible, and viable, so the project plan can be dropped.
> Are you a Design Thinker Check out with RVSIMSR’s Approach to Design ThinkingCareer Opportunities in Design Thinking in India/Worldwide
Each and every company has a developing in-house design thinking team. Accenture has a Design Thinking firm called “Altitude,” which develops medical, industrial, and consumer products completely using the Design Thinking Approach by exploring the market and creating user-centered products. One of their products is walkers for old-age people, which was a huge success.
> check-out RVSIMSR’s Approach to Design Thinking
Similarly, all the big companies keep innovating new products and services to embrace the competition. They are looking for Skilful Design Thinkers for their challenging environment. The key advantage is that Design Thinking is multi-disciplinary, and we can use this across all industries.
Some of the areas where design thinking shines
