A Conceptual Model For Integrating Design Thinking And Lean Startup Methods Into The Innovation Process

Cite this article: Marion, T., Cannon, D., Reid, T., McGowan, A.-M. (2021) ‘A Conceptual Model for Integrating Design
Thinking and Lean Startup Methods into the Innovation Process’, in Proceedings of the International Conference on
Engineering Design (ICED21), Gothenburg, Sweden, 16-20 August 2021. DOI:10.1017/pds.2021.4
ICED21 31
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING DESIGN, ICED21
16-20 AUGUST 2021, GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN
A CONCEPTUAL MODEL FOR INTEGRATING DESIGN
THINKING AND LEAN STARTUP METHODS INTO THE
INNOVATION PROCESS
Marion, Tucker;
Cannon, David;
Reid, Tahira;
McGowan, Anna-Maria
NASA
ABSTRACT
Design thinking is a methodology that comes from the industrial design realm and is centred on
culling better needs insight from users. Another popular methodology is based gaining insight on the
potential of an opportunity through experimentation, testing, and iterating with users. This is
commonly referred to as lean startup methods. However, from a research perspective, we still do not
know the most effective way to implement these user focused design methods within the innovation
process within organizations, and which aspects of the design process are the most impactful in
developing new opportunities. In this research, we propose a high-level conceptual process model on
how user focused design methods such as design thinking and lean startup methods can be integrated
into the up-front innovation process within organizations. We review the conceptual model, associated
activities, and process considerations. The article concludes with thoughts on future research.
Keywords: User centred design, Design process, New product development
Contact:
Marion, Tucker
Northeastern University
Entrepreneurship and Innovation
United States of America
t.marion@neu.edu

32 ICED21
1 INTRODUCTION
There are things we know that improve innovation outcomes, such as focusing on the up-front of new
product development (NPD) in terms of pre-development marketing, understanding user needs,
developing concepts, etc. (Cooper, 2008). We also know that highly collaborative teams, having some
process to guide development, and cost engineering early in the process can be helpful (Cooper and
Sommer, 2016; Marion and Meyer, 2010). However, there is little research that shows how design
thinking and lean startup methods can be integrated together in the innovation process. This research
proposes a conceptual process that integrates these two methods together, with an emphasis on early
interaction with users and stakeholders.
There are several design methodologies that have been developed and propagated over the past several
decades. One is centred on culling needs of users to improve problem formulation. This is commonly
referred to as design thinking. Design thinking is a methodology that comes from the industrial design
realm. Popularized by design and engineering firms like IDEO (Brown, 2008), design thinking is a
series of activities that put the user at the center, to gain empathy and a deep understanding of
behaviour, values, and point-of-view, and to develop opportunities out of those insights (Liedtka,
2018). Over the past ten years, design thinking implementation at the corporate level has gained an
enormous amount of traction, with IBM, Ford, SAP, and Intuit among those that have implemented
design thinking methods in their organizations. Case results such as those at IBM have indicated
improvements not just in new top-line revenue, but substantial reductions in cost (IBM, 2018).
Another methodology is focused on gaining insight into the potential of an opportunity through
experimentation, testing, and iterating with users, typically centred further along in the product
development process than design thinking. These approaches are commonly referred to as lean startup
methods (Ries, 2011). Lean startup methods have been in the minds of new ventures and more
recently established firms because of the potential to increase the amount of knowledge related to a
particular idea or product through low cost, iterative testing, and ultimate reaction to the test case. This
incremental development, test, learn, and recalibrate philosophy has its roots in the practical works of
Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Blank (Blank, 2013). The book, The Lean Startup (Ries, 2011),
popularized the methods and exposed this thinking to the corporate world. Firms from medical devices
to energy companies are trying to integrate these methods into existing processes, such as agile
development.
However, from a research perspective backed by qualitative and quantitative studies, we still do not
know the most effective way to implement these user focused design methods within the innovation
process of organizations, the overall effect on innovation, the impact on process improvements, or
which aspects of the design process are the most impactful in developing new opportunities. In this
research, we propose a high-level conceptual process model on how user focused design methods such
as design thinking and lean startup methods can be integrated into the up-front innovation process
within organizations. This framework is the result of conceptualization of the design process from
literature and observation/participation with an early design process integration study at a large
organization. We contribute to the current state of knowledge by proposing ways in which two
established methods can be combined in a novel manner to improve the up-front phases of the
innovation process.
In this article, design thinking and lean startup methods are briefly reviewed. Then, research methods
are detailed, followed by a discussion of the proposed process. We conclude with potential directions
and questions on future research areas of interest to both academics and practitioners.
2 THE INNOVATION PROCESS
The NPD or innovation process has been studied extensively since the late 1960s. From the first
studies of the Boston Consulting Group, through Project SAPPHO in the 1970s, through the various
works of Robert Cooper starting in the 1980s (Kleinschmidt and Cooper, 1987; Cooper, 2008; Cooper
and Sommer, 2016), nearly all aspects of the innovation process have been investigated, from teams to
process controls. We know that the rate of product and service failure rates hover around 40%

ICED21 33
(Markham and Lee, 2013), so given the number of research and development (R&D) funds spent on
developing new products and services, improving innovation outcomes is still an area that needs active
academic and practitioner investigation. This research is of particular importance because those failure
rates have not changed since the initial studies in the 1960s. However, over the last thirty years,
research has shown what does work to improve innovation performance for those organizations that
seek to implement specific processes and methods. A focus on the front-end of development —
explicitly getting customer insight and early marketing work; iterative learning during development; a
way to manage the process; and a properly executed launch (Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1987; Cooper,
2017) — has been shown to improve innovation outcomes.
We segment the innovation process into three total phases, namely Discovery, Development, and
Commercialization (Ulrich and Eppinger, 2015). While some NPD and innovation literature has more
stages, the process can be distilled into three overall segments that contain fundamentally different
activities and tasks. During the Discovery phase, ideas are generated, markets are scoped, initial business
cases are developed, and ideas are developed into concepts. These are activities that Cooper (2005) terms
'doing your homework' to vet thoroughly the opportunity and concept, with a constant eye on the
customer and market. During the Development phase, detailed design and engineering begin. Further
market planning is completed, and prototypes for components and systems are completed. During
Commercialization, final testing, design tweaks, and manufacturing set-up are completed for the product
launch. Often, this process is reflected as a funnel, with more ideas being investigated during Discovery,
then culled as the process matures, with less attractive designs being halted.
It is during the Discovery phase that both design thinking and lean startup methods are most naturally
focused (Luchs, 2016; Lockwood, 2009). Both are designed to develop and gain user feedback on
early idea generation, although some have argued the fundamentals of the processes are different
(Fixson and Rao, 2014). However, each has its unique attributes and approach that we describe in
more detail in the next sub-sections. Overall, both of these methods are designed to improve the
quality of opportunities and ideas entering the innovation funnel, while simultaneously trying to
improve and validate the overall concepts. The intention is that higher quality, vetted opportunities and
ideas will improve the overall success of innovation efforts.
2.1 Design Thinking
Design thinking has drawn substantial attention from academics over the last 15 years as it has become
increasingly embraced by practitioners. Micheli et al. (2019) found a nearly exponential increase in
academic publication on design thinking since 2005. At its core, design thinking is human or user-
centred. While there may be differences in implementation between IDEO, Stanford's d-School, and
IBM, there are commonalities in approaches (Seidel and Fixson, 2013). One is the use of ethnography
and field research to gain an understanding of people's actual behaviours. Ethnography is the study of
people in their natural setting as a way of gaining empathy for and a rich understanding of their
behaviour and point-of-view, which can help identify interesting insights into what they may need or
benefit from (Micheli et al., 2018). Another common attribute of design thinking is a variety of
systematic approaches to building on information from ethnographic investigation. These can include
developing and framing users’ traits through the use of personas, mind mapping the opportunity space,
and structured brainstorming to create and sort ideas. The last common thread among different design
thinking processes is experimentation, which may take the form of visualization and presentations,
low-cost field experiments, and other ways to gain feedback on the opportunity, ideas and concepts
(Gans et al., 2019). IDEO terms these phases inspiration, ideation, and implementation (Brown, 2008).
In her 2018 article, Jeanne Liedtka synthesizes the results of studying over 50 projects and suggests
that design thinking can be as transformative to organizations as TQM was in the 1980s (Liedtka,
2018). She notes aspects from employee buy-in to sensemaking to experimentation as characteristics
that make it so powerful. Company examples like the dramatic improvements in project time-to-
market promoted by IBM, Ford’s use of design thinking for the future of mobility, and the many
projects noted by design firms like Continuum and Frog abound. However, recent research has
questioned the overall ability of design thinking to deliver truly innovative ideas (Iskander, 2018).

34 ICED21
Design thinking research has generally focused internally on development teams themselves, but given
the potential of design thinking, how can users and stakeholders best be integrated into the overall
NPD or innovation process within an organization? In research on the internal implementation of
design thinking, these questions have not been adequately addressed. We formally synthesize this into
the following research proposition:
Research Proposition 1: How might design thinking be best integrated into the overall innovation
process of an organization?
2.2 Lean Startup Methods
Lean startup methods, popularized by the work of Eric Ries (2011) and Steve Blank (2013), espouse
the concept of a more scientific approach to the development of startups. The lean startup method is
centred on the idea of experimentation and validation (Blank and Dorf, 2020) through the use of a
minimally viable product or MVP. The MVP is used to gather data from users and customers,
evaluated, and changes to the concept or business model are then introduced. This data-informed
change is the concept of 'pivoting' or changing direction based on this iterative feedback loop. Recent
research has indicated that this informed, hypothesis-driven approach to startup development can help
entrepreneurs pursue more promising ventures (Felin et al., 2019).
In organizations, having teams develop concepts and test them more extensively can be useful,
particularly during the Discovery phase and part of what Cooper (2006) describes as the up-front
‘homework.’ The MVP is a crucial attribute and is where design thinking and lean startup methods
overlap. Many design thinking processes discuss this prototype phase as low or zero cost. The
ExperiencePoint and IDEO design thinker innovation simulations ask teams explicitly to develop a
prototype for feedback that can be constructed, tested and deployed in less than an hour and for less
than $100. On the plus side, this can push teams to distil their concepts to their most basic elements.
The lean startup also has ties to agile processes, where customer feedback on core features is essential.
However, there are questions to be answered by research to give a complete story of how best to
implement lean startup methods, particularly in engineering organizations. In the startup realm, recent
research suggests that a more well-defined plan of action is needed, rather than a series of low-cost
experiments and pivots (Felin et al., 2019). That may indeed be the case in zero-stage ventures, where
decisions can mean a binary outcome of making it to first revenue or ceasing existence. In established
organizations, the situation is different, and low-cost experiments can help inform decisions and
directions on very immature projects. However, what type of low-cost experiments would be the most
useful needs more examination. What are the most impactful MVPs for the development of an
opportunity within organizations? And what level of complexity and cost best inform the innovation
process? Taken together, these questions on lean startup integration within NPD bring us to our second
research proposition:
Research Proposition 2: For established organizations, how might lean startup methods such as MVPs
best be integrated into the development process?
2.3 Integrating Design Thinking and Lean Startup Methods in Organizations
Fundamentally, design thinking and lean startup methods hold enormous promise to be integrated into
the innovation process together. One could argue that they are best integrated into the first phase of the
innovation process to allow new ideas time and validation to mature. Traditionally, stage-gate, by its
nature, is designed to stop unproven or underwhelming projects from moving further into the process.
While this is beneficial from a project control and management perspective, it can eliminate those
more innovative projects that do not conform to the firms' preferred plans, business models, and
existing markets. Design thinking and lean startup methods operate to improve idea quality and then
gain insight into the quality of that idea before committing to expensive design and engineering. These
methods include multiple steps such as ethnography, structured brainstorming, and building prototypes
that organizations will need to perform, manage, and integrate into existing processes. This brings us
to our last research proposition. Stated formally:

ICED21 35
Research Proposition 3: How might design thinking and lean startup methods be integrated together in
an organization’s more established innovation processes?
3 RESEARCH METHODS
This research represents an investigation into design thinking and lean startup methods and how they
can integrate into the design innovation process with a focus on engagement with users and
stakeholders. To accomplish this task, this study uses a mix of digital ethnography, business
historiography, and ethnographic, embedded participant observation of an organization's project. A
multi-method approach allows this research to triangulate observations and viewpoints (Given, 2008;
Collier & Elman, 2008; Creswell, 2003). Following the recommendations of Yin (1994), we studied
in-depth one organization as it developed a design innovation process. Weekly process design
meetings were observed for a period of three months. In addition, three prototyping workshops on the
design process were held with a total of 23 participants. Coding was performed in real-time with the
research team. Studying one organization allows for the development of a deep understanding of how
an organization operates (Tripsas, 2009). We approached this research at the project-level, which is a
preferred method for studying innovation and the associated activities and tasks that support it
(Bunduchi, 2017; Barczak, et al., 2008; Devaraj and Kohli, 2003).
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In scoping how design thinking and lean startup methods could be integrated into an organization's
opportunity development efforts, we propose the following high-level conceptual process, as a
framework fitting the developing innovation process we observed. An innovation process that
integrates design thinking, lean startup methods, and agile development can be conceptualized with
two fundamental phases as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Innovation process noting the problem space and the solution space (Marion and
Fixson, 2018).
On the left side of the diagram is the Problem Space, which involves identifying promising
opportunities, articulating them, and then selecting the most promising candidates. This part of the
process, often referred to as the 'fuzzy front-end,’ encompasses investigation into user needs, the
market, and business and technology strategy (Cooper, 2005). On the right side of the diagram is the
Solution Space, which involves developing concepts, selecting or combining them into a single
Design Thinking
Lean Startup
Agile
Understanding needs
and opportunities
through empathy
Structured ideation
and concept
development
Low-cost functional
prototyping and testing with
users
Design and refinement
sprints with continued
customer feedback

36 ICED21
project, and designing and engineering the project to bring it towards commercialization (Marion and
Fixson, 2018). Within these two spaces, fit the overall frameworks and activities of innovation.
Moving down a level of detail are the activities that comprise both design thinking and lean startup
methods that align with and inform problem articulation, problem selection, concept generation, and
concept development. For this conceptual research, we investigate: understanding user needs (problem
articulation); approaches to structured ideation (problem selection); low-cost prototyping (concept
generation); and design and refinement sprints (concept development).
4.1 Problem Articulation, User Needs and Selection
In this design process model, the purpose of the problem articulation activities is, as just noted, to bring
an appropriate breadth and depth of contextual knowledge into the early problem formulation stages of
this innovation process. It is true that this sort of knowledge-gathering takes place, to some degree, as
part of design thinking or lean startup processes. But, for organizations, our research leads us to
hypothesize that background knowledge gathering is often insufficient, if just interleaved with other
activities like rapid ideation, prototyping, testing, and such — especially for more complex projects.
Within Problem Articulation, a broad spectrum of technology and market trends should be analysed.
More complex systems will have to take a large number of external factors into consideration and will
tend to take longer to design and bring to market than is typical of design thinking or lean startup
efforts. In gathering preparatory knowledge, it will be helpful to cast a wider net over the marketplace,
and more and longer-term trends will need to be understood. Activities similar to these do typically
take place as part of a firm's ongoing technology and marketing strategy development (Schilling &
Shankar, 2019). But they may not be as sharply-focused to explore specific problems, or as directly
connected to a specific design effort, as would be needed for identifying promising opportunities.
Their lack of connection to specific design efforts is suggested in common descriptions of the design
process, where they are often just labelled as undifferentiated "experience" or "exploration," as inputs.
(Cross, 2008 - chapter 3; Lewrick et al., 2018). Thus, they are given as up-front preparatory steps, an
explicit part of this conceptual process, rather than as assumed background.
Gaining deep insight into behaviour and non-obvious user needs is a central tenet in design thinking.
This can be accomplished through field research, observation, interviews, and other qualitative
methods. As already noted, ethnographic approaches are commonly employed. In this conceptual
framework, we propose that each of these methods be used at the discretion of the design team.
Industry examples include the development of the Insulet Omnipod via EPAM Continuum (EPAM
Continuum, 2021). This complex project was driven by a deep understanding of a specific user group:
active children with Type 1 diabetes.
For large organizations, and/or for complex projects, a greater variety of people, firms, and other
stakeholders are likely to be important. These may be grouped and described not just as personas, but
as archetypical firms and organizations, other market participants, and may also include, if
appropriate, more general segments of society. As with personas, these are characterized, with an
emphasis on their interests, needs, and functions, and on aspects of their economic or business drivers
and constraints. This emphasis aligns with the first two areas in the Desirability, Viability, Feasibility
viewpoints often taken in design thinking work. And, in a similar way, these help to balance concerns
about technical feasibility that can often dominate early decision making in more complex projects.
4.2 Concept Generation, Selection and Development
4.2.1 Structured ideation and concept development
Ideation is designed to create multiple options which express the opportunity (Liedtka, 2015). These
may take the form of raw ideas expressed as text or simple visual graphics. Common to this step are
approaches such as small brainstorming teams working with sticky notes or virtual teams using
networked collaborative software packages, including visual collaboration, project wikis, discussion
fora, and the like. Different design techniques for ideation exist and can be useful in different contexts
(Daly et al., 2016). While individual techniques vary, most are group-oriented. These may include
brainwriting, design heuristics, and other analysis techniques.

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4.2.2 Low-cost functional prototyping and testing with users
As demonstrated by design thinking and lean startup processes, the value here of eliciting reliable
feedback from users and stakeholders cannot be overstated. This may result from feedback on
sacrificial concepts and associated prototypes. This phase is designed to have the user pre-experience
something new or novel (Atance and O'Neil, 2001; Liedtka, 2015). At the core of lean startup methods
(Ries, 2011) is the concept of a purely functional minimally viable product, or MVP. For more
complex projects, prototypes may be a more abstract representation of the sacrificial concept, such as a
storyboard or journey map. One option is to implement a strategy of maximizing the use of the latest
digital tools and prototyping solutions. This may include digital renderings and other simulation
techniques.
In this phase, these prototypes can be presented to users for feedback. Any feedback can then
quickly inform changes to opportunity and sacrificial concepts. This can include feedback on overall
scope, technical feasibility, etc. This open cycle of feedback and development iteration is an
example of agile development. While not as formal as SCRUM (see scrum.org) methods for
software development, this back and forth between potential customers and the design team is at the
heart of agile methods. It is expected that once implemented, specific design sprints will be a feature
of this phase of the process — again, supported by in-person or online collaborative software
packages. Project communication and collaboration by team members should be intense (Marion
and Fixson, 2020).
In terms of research proposition 1 (RP1), design thinking may be integrated directly into the very
beginning phases of an organization's development process. This can include a broad field
investigation with an extensive cadre of users that can help inform the process and early stages of
problem articulation — a kind of mapping of the relevant territory. The development team can
establish a close bond with potential users and partners through such activities as uncovering user
needs, and listening to the particular requirements of specific applications. Once these relationships are
formed, the interchange of information on project needs may extend further, become regular, and
break down the traditional pre-contractual barriers between parties.
In terms of RP2, design thinking may have a substantial influence on the first phase of the innovation
process. Design thinking is naturally tailored for this up-front stage. For lean startup processes, the
focus on iteration and learning cycles is a match for the next phases of concept development, which
includes concept generation, testing, and interfacing with users. The iterative approach with potential
users can then mature as the project progresses. This includes continued refinement of the opportunity,
with constant testing and feedback. Fundamentally, this transition from design thinking to lean startup
to more agile methods of final development and execution can be integrated seamlessly.
In terms of RP3, we hypothesize that a sequential adoption and integration of these methods may
prove successful. In a sequential adoption of these methods, a key to informing the project can be the
development of close relationships with potential users, as just noted. This can allow more impactful
insights on the application, future product plans, and gaps in competitive solutions. Design thinking by
its nature is human-centered; the human relationships formed by this type of approach can build strong
and forgiving bonds as a project progresses through a sometimes-messy development effort.
There are several theoretical and practical implications for integrating design thinking and lean startup
methods into the design innovation process. One is that most organizations rely on a form of stage-
gate (Cooper, 2019). Increasingly, methods like design thinking, lean startup, and agile are being
integrated and embedded into traditional forms of innovation management. Cooper and Sommer
(2018) found that agile methods and design thinking naturally pair well because of the iterative nature
of concept development. These can be used sequentially at different stages in the process. However,
many firms still separate design thinking initiatives from the traditional front-end of the design
innovation process (Carlgren et al., 2016), rather than integrating fully into the overall process. Often,
these can be in centralized innovation departments or labs whose mission is to innovate, but not
commercialize. This can lead to problems with downstream attempts at selling promising projects, as
the hand-off from central labs to individual business units can be challenging. The conceptual process

38 ICED21
described in this research shows how closely design thinking, lean startup, and agile can be blended
into one process, with a specific focus on integrating users from beginning to end. Incorporating these
methods may help foster better external relationships, which have been shown to improve innovation
efforts (Knudsen, 2007).
This conceptual research illustrates that the process of concept development, prototype development,
and interaction with users can be tightly integrated and fluid during the innovation process if design
thinking and lean startup methods are linked together. Less formal and more frequent interaction with
users can normalize the relationship sooner and break down some of the barriers that inhibit
communication during development. Leading industry complex engineering examples that use this
type of design thinking-based co-development methodology include Philips Healthcare, who use a
process termed Cocreate (Philips Cocreate, 2020). Their process involves customers and users that
Philips can ‘innovate with, rather than develop for.’ Philips has been a leader in design thinking
application for over 30 years.
5 CONCLUDING THOUGHTS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
This article notes some of the potential of two methods that are designed to develop and vet new ideas
for organizations. These two methods, design thinking and lean startup, are increasingly accessible to
firms looking to improve their innovation process. In this research, we look at where these two
methods might fit into an organization's overall development process. We examine a conceptual
process, highlighting the idea that alignment with users across several segments of the process may be
a strategy to accelerate opportunity development. The ability to identify opportunities, prototype and
test them, and get early feedback on market potential can be an advantage to firms. Design thinking
and lean startup methods may be paired to create an effective way to implement these strategies into
the innovation process. The strengths of each of the methods in terms of customer needs, ideation, and
development integrate well with a focus on user interaction.
Even with current research and the exponential growth in academic publications, there are still
questions of best practices regarding implementation. One is a question with the organization itself.
While firms like IBM have begun to have design thinking propagate throughout the organization, what
is the best approach? Is it preferred to have implementation be similar to Six Sigma, with design
thinking 'black belts' leading the charge? Or are specialized 'S.W.A.T.' teams within the organization
to be used as a way to kick-start implementation? Lastly, what about implementing these methods
within organizations developing complex systems engineering projects? There is little research that
shows how well classic design thinking and design process methods for NPD can be applied to Large-
scale Complex Engineered Systems (LaCES) which are usually developed in large organizations using
expansive teams. LaCES include aerospace (e.g., aircraft, space systems), large maritime (e.g.,
submarines, aircraft carriers), nuclear (e.g., power plants), and major civil infrastructure systems (e.g.,
water supply systems, electric power grids, offshore oilrigs, and air and ground transportation
systems). These systems require hundreds to thousands of engineers and scientists working over many
years and in many locations to design and complete them. The current research is limited to theoretical
comparisons of systems thinking and design thinking (Buchanan 2019) and the articulation of what
makes a designer a good systems thinker (Dym et al., 2005; Frank, 2012; Greene and Papalambros,
2016). Our future research, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, will seek to shed light on
this topic for integration of design innovation methods in the development of complex systems.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank the NASA Convergent Aeronautics Solutions Project for its contribution to
and support of this research.
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