Why design thinking is a great approach to (social) innovation

Design thinking is a process for creative problem solving that always keeps people at the center. It is used for creating products and services that are human centered, and the process itself is deeply human, it taps into capacities that we all have. There are many ways of defining it, but you will always find elements of empathizing with people, working in iterations, and experimenting or co-creating with users. The good news is that you don’t need to be a designer to use design thinking. The approach can be used by anyone who deals with a complex problem and need to move forward in a collaborative way. In the case of innovation (original combinations that result in extraordinary improvements), where uncertainty and complexity are unavoidable ingredients, design thinking is a great approach. Let us have a look at why.

Professor Jeanne Liedka from University of Virginia performed a study with the objective of exploring the human tendencies that got in the way of innovation and if the use of a design thinking approach could help with these hurdles. The study involved more than 50 complex projects from a range of sectors over 7 years. Some of the reasons why design thinking is a great approach to innovation, according to the study that was published in Harvard Business review are:

• A clear and simple process, which curbs the tendency to spend too long exploring a problem, or to impatiently skip ahead and help the team to agree on what is essential to the outcome at every phase.
• Discover more original ideas. Defining problems in obvious, conventional ways leads to obvious, conventional solutions, while asking a more interesting question helps to discover more-original ideas. The ideation techniques tools support you in asking more interesting questions.
• A more relevant solution. Neuroscience research indicates that helping people “pre-experience” something novel results in more-accurate assessments of the novelty’s value. That’s why design thinking calls for the creation of basic, low-cost artifacts or “trigger material” that will capture the essential features of the proposed user experience. These are not literal prototypes — and they are often much rougher than the “minimum viable products” that lean start-ups test with customers. But they are flexible and invite interaction. By empathizing with users and stakeholders and involving them throughout the process, the solution is more likely to be relevant and purposeful to them.
• It instills confidence. Psychological safety is essential for the ability to innovate. Most humans are driven by a fear of mistakes, and this makes us focus on preventing errors rather than seizing opportunities. By using the design thinking tools you will move assuredly through the natural flow from research to rollout. Empathizing with the users produces data, which is transformed into insights, and the team uses these insights as a launchpad for brainstorming solutions. Those solutions are examined with rough prototypes that help teams further develop innovations and prepare them for real-world experiments.

How to identify what your future users need

It is widely accepted that solutions are much better when they incorporate a user-driven criteria. Making decisions based on what the users need increases the chances that the solution is relevant and purposeful to the users. Market research can help companies understand user-driven criteria, but the hurdle with this type of research is that it’s hard for customers to express the need for something that doesn’t yet exist.

My experience is that market research is great for verifying an existing product, and to see tendencies in the “what”. The design thinking process on the other hand, is the queen of the “why”. “Trigger material” help users to put words on their abstract thoughts and needs and help the innovator to co-create solutions that aligns with those needs. This way of intertwining user research and development, as it is done with the design thinking approach, proves to be very successful for creating relevant and purposeful social innovation as well as products and services.

A historical overview

The origins of this approach goes back to the 1960’s when researchers started to get interested in how designers work and think, and whether the design process could be applicable to other areas as well. The term was established in1991, when the design thinking consultancy IDEO started to use the design process for solving complex problems areas far from “traditional design”. IDEO is still today one of our most influential design thinking consulting firms.

In Europe, we frequently use the term Service Design, and the term emerged in the beginning of the 21st century when the approach was used to design services. The public sector in many European countries were early adopters in using service design for creating public services that were valued and trusted among the citizens. Around the same time, design thinking started to gain recognition at leading universities across the world, with Stanford d.school, Harvard, and MIT as leading examples.

Today, the approach is used across industries around the world to drive innovation, creativity and customer experience. Some of our most well-known brands as Apple, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Starbucks, Nordstrom, AirBnB, etc. use this approach to put their clients’ needs in the center of their creative process. They have realized that creating a superior customer experience will minimize the risk of launching products and services that people won’t buy.

Social Innovation

Organizations in the impact sector, with the purpose to achieve a positive impact on many people’s life through services in social and environmental sectors are unfortunately more far behind in adopting of this approach. Despite the fact that they often create new markets or seek to disrupt a status quo, they lack an innovative culture. The innovation capacity is considered being crucial to 80% of the leaders in this sector, but only 40% believe that their organizations are set up for it, according to a study conducted by The Bridgespan Group, published in Stanford Social Innovation Review. This is worrying news, as it prevents impact organizations from achieving the large-scale impact they seek.

“Innovation is not simply to make new, improved products and services. It is to make things that are meaningful to the people to use” — Bernadette Jiwa, Meaningful: The Story of Ideas that Fly