SC_Design Thinking Activity

Design Led Innovation – Exploring the Synthesis of Needs, Technologies and Business Models

The term Design is used to describe a wide range of activities. Like the term innovation, it is often used to describe both an activity and an outcome. Many products and services are often described as being designed, as they describe a conscious process of linking form and function.

many and varied processes of design are often used to describe a cost centre of an organisation to demonstrate a particular competency.

design is often not used to describe the ‘value’ it provides to an organisation and more importantly the ‘value’ it provides to both existing and future customers.

Design Led Innovation is a process of creating a sustainable competitive advantage, by radically changing the customer value proposition.

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Design Thinking

by Tim Brown

I believe that design thinking has much to offer a business world in which most manage- ment ideas and best practices are freely avail- able to be copied and exploited. Leaders now look to innovation as a principal source of dif- ferentiation and competitive advantage; they would do well to incorporate design thinking into all phases of the process.

Historically, design has been treated as a downstream step in the development process— the point where designers, who have played no earlier role in the substantive work of inno- vation, come along and put a beautiful wrap- per around the idea. To be sure, this approach has stimulated market growth in many areas by making new products and technologies aesthetically attractive and therefore more de- sirable to consumers or by enhancing brand perception through smart, evocative advertis- ing and communication strategies. During the latter half of the twentieth century design be- came an increasingly valuable competitive asset in, for example, the consumer electron- ics, automotive, and consumer packaged goods industries. But in most others it re- mained a late-stage add-on.

rather than asking designers to make an already developed idea more at- tractive to consumers, companies are asking them to create ideas that better meet consum- ers’ needs and desires. The former role is tacti- cal, and results in limited value creation; the latter is strategic, and leads to dramatic new forms of value.

Empathy. They can imagine the world from multiple perspectives—those of col- leagues, clients, end users, and customers (current and prospective). By taking a “peo- ple first” approach, design thinkers can imag-

ine solutions that are inherently desirable and meet explicit or latent needs. Great de- sign thinkers observe the world in minute de- tail. They notice things that others do not and use their insights to inspire innovation.

Integrative thinking. They not only rely on analytical processes (those that produce either/ or choices) but also exhibit the ability to see all of the salient—and sometimes contradictory— aspects of a confounding problem and create novel solutions that go beyond and dramatically improve on existing alternatives.

Experimentalism. Significant innovations don’t come from incremental tweaks. Design

thinkers pose questions and explore con- straints in creative ways that proceed in en- tirely new directions.

Collaboration. The increasing complexity of products, services, and experiences has re- placed the myth of the lone creative genius with the reality of the enthusiastic interdisci- plinary collaborator.