The Vital Nature of Design Thinking

And yes, that applies even if you're a STEM major.

I was first formally introduced to the concept of design thinking my senior year of high school. I was attending a high school summer camp (ironically hosted by my current university), where we received a lesson on brainstorming and techniques that could be used to develop the beginnings of a project. It was a simple exercise where we were given sticky notes, a hypothetical problem, and told to write down as many solutions as our hearts desired. At the time I did not think much of the process, but now 2 years later I find myself using design thinking to not only brainstorm, but to find the optimal solution to problems found through out my life. Most of all I think that this approach will allow the next generation to solve many of the worlds biggest and persevering issues that face society today.

Design thinking is defined Tim Brown, the CEO of the international design company IDEO, as “a human centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of the people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” That sounds like a lot, and it is. For me personally, design thinking is hard to define, as each time I learn about the concept it changes slightly. However the general idea is that an individual can solve a problem by not focusing intensively on the issue at hand, but rather focusing on how it is affecting the people who suffer and what solutions can fix this for the future. The differentiation between this concept and typically problem solving methods, is that traditionally the solution came from years worth of consumer historical trends, with solutions being based on how customers in the past acted. Yet, the technological leaps made in the last decade have propelled the marketplace forward into new uncharted territories. Old data simply does not reflect the issues consumers face today, and misguide the problem solving process. This idea of empathy intertwined with innovation allows for solutions that fix problems for the current generation and those after.

As a marketing major and member of Strategic Design and Innovation Fellows, I’ve certainly adopted design thinking wholeheartedly when working on a project. However it can often to get other disciplines on board with the idea, especially scientific minds with the need for statistical proof to support problem solving. Especially when certain team members find it more efficient to skip the brainstorming process altogether and just try to implement tried-and-true solutions than find a new innovative method. It’s often these diverse teams with members from different backgrounds that have the best results, it’s just the struggle of convincing everyone to give the method a try. In these cases, I find it works best to bring in another advocate for design thinking to back you up. Allowing members to hear the benefits of the process from another source, and then running an exercise, like the previously mentioned sticky note activity from camp, opens the entire team up to design thinking.

One of the most memorable and effective times I have used design thinking was in Global Communities Living and Learning Program. The team I worked with was mixed with students from all different majors, gender, and ethnic background, each student bringing their own unique experiences to the table. Our problem: Appeal to an International Nongovernmental Organization in order to gain funding for a solution to a major global issue. Given the broad scope of the project, our professor suggested that groups utilize design thinking to find the best possible solution for future generations. When beginning the design thinking process, my group members were skeptical at first. One suggested we just work independently to develop our own solution and vote, another wanted to just pick an answer out of the blue. After an hour of insisting to give design thinking a try, everyone (to varying degrees) reluctantly agreed. At our next meeting, we each brought sticky notes and poised open-ended questions, including “What are you passionate about?”, “What would your future look like?”, and “What is a global solution?”. Every member was given as many responses as needed to answer the questions, and the end result was a mix of shared interests, humorous wit, and new ideas that excited the entire group. From that 30-minute session we were able to deduce that our project should be about environmental issues, as we each felt passionate toward the topic, and we all rallied behind the idea of a solution that would embrace technology as suggested by one team member. Other 15 minutes later after asking the question “How can we solve environmental issues?”, we found the answer in a teammates response which suggested incentivizing the public to become educated on the environmental impacts of their everyday decisions and particularly focusing efforts around children in order to impact the entire family. Educating families would encourage parents to adopt green practices in the household and raise the next generation to be environmentally consensus citizens.

The Bottom Line:

Design thinking is a practice that benefits every field, as the innovation day changes the entire precedent of basing solutions off past trends in the market. It encourages creativity when dealing with a problem, which makes finding the optimal solution more likely and leverages team members’ diverse backgrounds to be used in a more beneficial manner.

Photo: Yangon Impact Hub, 2017