Art and science in Design Thinking

Design is an important element for all companies. It is related to aesthetic as well as technical and strategic aspects, since it does not remain only in the product or service, but can be incorporated in all types of processes (management, operations, strategy, support, evaluation, among others). Thanks to the latter, Design Thinking has become more than a methodology, it is a philosophy that allows identifying root causes of complex problems and generating successful creative and innovative solutions.

Blog that might interest you: Introduction to Design Thinking

For this, design thinking has a structure that can be modified as needed, as there are different frameworks of the concept suitable for different situations. Despite this, all frameworks retain the same essence, it is necessary to have a deep understanding of the people involved, then question assumptions and processes, then identify opportunities for improvement and define problems, and finally generate solutions. It should be noted that this methodology uses a combination of science and art to generate spaces for thinking "outside the box", which gives that component of creative innovation that traditional methods lack.

In this blog I am going to talk about how design is affected by the work team, what is its usefulness for a business and we are also going to see some tips to apply it effectively.

Ways of thinking in Design Thinking

Design thinking is a problem-solving tool that uses as its basis the focus on the human being, thanks to which it defines it as the axis of the whole process. In spite of this, I quote Goethe's phrase that says "A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart". A politician, a doctor, an engineer, an artist and a child see the conflicts of their country from a very different perspective each, just as many times a marketing manager, a general manager, a sales manager and a financial manager may see the strategic needs of the company from their own area.

However, rather than seeing this as a problem, we can see it as a great opportunity. On the one hand, design thinking requires multidisciplinary groups seeking to take advantage of the experiences and perspectives of the people who make up different areas of knowledge; on the other hand, we all have different creative processes that if combined can be worth more than the sum of individual contributions.

There are people whose training tends towards the scientific side, they have a profile of "discoverers", as Charles Owen (2007) calls them. They look for explanations to the phenomena that occur, they try to make us understand what surrounds us and that is why they are responsible for a large part of the progress of companies. However, they are systematic, they look for every possible combination of factors that can affect a business system, based on this they formulate different hypotheses and follow a scientific method to test them. This process can be useful, but inefficient as it consumes a lot of time and human resources.

There are also "doers", who seek to be creative and innovate by sintering ideas and building preliminary solutions. People who work in this way first present different minimum viable products and then they are taken to the test, where it is confirmed whether they are potential solutions or not.

Design thinking seeks to unite the rational part of scientists with the intuitive part of designers to understand user needs, use experience, identify parameters and working conditions, but also evolve and reinterpret ideas, visualize the problem, produce prototypes, adapt and falsify them to arrive at the best available option. It is thanks to the combination of these two disciplines that a project does not remain only in the schematization of the problem, nor are solutions generated at random until one of them matches. On the contrary, it learns to delimit, to plan and forces to take action on the fly, which serves as a guide and drives the project forward.

We recommend you read: Design Thinking Tools

What is it for?

Having mentioned a little about how multidisciplinary work teams can collaborate to generate solutions, it is also important to consider that, being a human-centered improvement philosophy, its field of application can touch all aspects of a company.

Some of the reasons why you should consider using it are:

• It allows to understand and develop empathy with users, getting to internalize their needs, expectations and frustrations regarding our products and/or services.
• It requires questioning both the problem and the assumptions and their implications, leading to the root cause of the problems, even when they are undefined or unknown.
• Introduces a new way of thinking in the company, avoiding stagnation with traditional problem-solving methods.
• Helps to define the business strategy, giving voice to the different areas and departments of the company, thus defining the current and expected (future) overall situation.
• Promotes learning. Many companies generate data about their users, but do not use it as a source of information. This methodology not only allows, but practically forces us to do so, and this teaches us to generate value for users, which is a great competitive advantage.
• It is an agile process, born from the scientific need to understand the problems, but also from the creative impulse of the designers. Thanks to this, no matter how much research you want to do, the methodology asks you to show ideas quickly from the early stages, which allows you to generate ideas from the beginning of the project.
• Ideas can be validated while minimizing costs through the creation of the concept and its iterated improvement until it is deemed necessary.

Tips for application

As a major tip, do some research on the different design thinking frameworks, find out which one best suits your need and take it as a guide for your project. There are phases that may not be mentioned, however, the essence of the structure of this methodology is preserved and is based on five stages: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.

• Start with the empathy phase. First focus on getting to know the humans involved, since they are the ones for whom you want to generate the solution. Explore their experience, question your knowledge and put yourself in the shoes of your users.
• Then describe and share the vision of the challenge. All participants will have their own perspective and facilitate the understanding of the real problem. For the process to work, everyone must have internalized the problem and everyone must agree on the problem definition.
• Look for interdisciplinary teams to take a holistic approach to the solution, considering the skills and expertise of each area. But look for an expert in the methodology to help put order and guide the exercise, since everyone's participation is vital, which makes good communication necessary.
• Create spaces for the generation of divergent ideas. This benefits the team's creativity and solutions can emerge without any prior judgment.
• Also generate convergent creation spaces, where the generated ideas are matured by analyzing, combining and perfecting them.
• Accept the complexity of problems. Sometimes they will be difficult to define, which means that solutions may need to integrate many elements, this requires accepting the working conditions and open the mind to achieve that synergy.
• Do hands on, prototypes are for testing. If you understand well what their problems are and how they can be improved, you will have to use them as if you were the user. This allows you to identify opportunities for improvement that will be addressed in later stages.
• Reiterate, review the results of the first stages, as you should not lose sight of the reason. In addition, reviewing stages can help generate new knowledge.
• Consider business ecosystems. A solution may seem successful to a user, but you need to define well the structure of your business (business model) to ensure that your value proposition will be accepted by a market segment, that you have the right distribution and communication channels, to identify the necessary resources, processes and potential strategic partnerships. With all these elements you will be able to estimate your revenues and costs, analyzing the financial viability and technical feasibility for the sustainability of your business.

In this blog we talked about a very important aspect of design thinking, the work of multidisciplinary teams. Thanks to advances in each discipline, people develop different faculties throughout their personal and professional lives, everyone is a discoverer and a doer, a scientist and a designer. All people can contribute to their organization, beyond their roles, in a wide range of options. Design thinking is focused on users, whether they are internal or external customers, so I recommend you follow the tips to design the solution to one problem at a time and ensure the continuity and success of your business.