Design Thinking Comes In Many Flavours

Design Thinking has been around for a while with many design groups, consultancies and organisations developing their own ‘flavour’ of design thinking to meet their particular design needs. It’s interesting to see how this design thinking as a methodology and practice has evolved and been honed to be adapted to different contexts and organisational cultures.

As a Design Practice Manager and the Service Design Programme Director in IBM I have adopted IBM Design Thinking, but I also use LUMA’s tools and my own that I have evolved.  There is no definitive approach to design thinking and I advocate developing a good working knowledge of a set of core tools and then adding to them.

I advocate developing a good working knowledge of a set of core tools and then adding to them.

IBM designers work within a global community of 400K people at the cutting edge of design, technology and service innovation and IBM Design in Austin has invested in developing a unique approach to design thinking that is used not only by its 1,300 designers but also by its engineers, developers and throughout the whole organisation.

IBM Design Thinking has been developed to enable disparate professionals and experts to focus on developing user-centric experiences and innovative digital solutions by working collaboratively with each other and with IBM’s clients. IBM Design Thinking is effective because its accessible, easy to adopt and flexible.

At the heart of IBM’s human-centred mission is the IBM Design Thinking framework. It’s a means to solve users’ problems at the speed and scale of the modern digital enterprise. IBM Design Thinking has its roots in traditional design thinking and more recently I have been working with a group of designer to extend IBM’s design practices to include and embrace Service Design.

Whether we’re re-envisioning the customer experience for a multinational bank, or just planning a product’s next release, IBM Design Thinking helps us focus on what matters to our clients and, importantly, their customers.

If you’re interested in the different approaches to design thinking then check out these links and explore the different ways groups and people have adapted design thinking and applied it in their businesses.

If you are new to Design Thinking, here are a few links to help you get started or if you’re familiar with Design Thinking you might be interested in how others are cooking with their own unique recipes.


Harvard Business Review:

Design Thinking and Innovation At Apple

A Harvard business case: Winner of a 2013 ecch Case Award. It describes Apple’s approach to innovation, management, and design thinking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir3E-TEUk48


FirstRoundCapital

How design thinking transformed Airbnb from failing startup to billion-dollar business

A fireside chat between Joe Gebbia of Airbnb and Phin Barnes of First Round Capital. Filmed at Design+Startup at IDEO San Francisco on March 14, 2013.

https://youtu.be/RUEjYswwWPY


IBM Think Academy

How It Works: Design Thinking

Trying to solve a problem or find better ways of getting work done? Get familiar with IBM Design Thinking and Agile. For more information on IBM Design Thinking, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/design

https://youtu.be/pXtN4y3O35M


A New Approach to Design Thinking

In 2013, IBM, one of the world’s largest technology companies, set the mission to create a sustainable culture of design.

https://youtu.be/c0el19EKXYU?list=PL_tdHfg_iV-NsHpFT0_Lolebp0HnVZXzn


Links to online resources:

LUMA empowers people to innovate everywhere, by transforming the way they work.

https://www.luma-institute.com/


IDEO HCD – How It Works

https://www.ideo.com/post/design-kit


IDEO Design Thinking – Methods

http://www.designkit.org/methods


IBM Design Thinking – with resources and methods practice guide

https://www.ibm.com/design/thinking/

 

Hope this helps… If you want to learn more about Design Thinking, Service Design and Digital Transformation please reach out to me here on Linkedin.

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