Design Thinking - Conceptual Framework with Examples

Editor's Notes

• #3: When it concerns higher profiits, the result is pretty impressive. So the question appears: how are that huge companies like Microsoft having more income and engagement of clients The answer is directly involved with Design Thinking. These companies are aware that nowadays the success of a company depends on Users. They have gradually transitioned into Design Thinking stating that the needs and requirements of clients are the centres of everything. Followed are couple of examples of how the companies applied design thinking and have gained a significant output: Microsoft- as it is obvious, it is one of the huge, leading technology companies around the world. However, Microsoft has shifted from technology-centric to user-centric where they mainly focus on solving customer problems and relating customer needs in the production phase of the company. Nike- One of the most famous brands that has innovation on top of their success. Product design is one of the key success factors of Nike thereby they possess product personalisation. Nike states that innovation starts not only with Customers but also with the employees. Apple- highly profitable company which pinpoints the user experience as a core factor. Therefore, the formation of prototypes and testing phase is quite significant for the company. The interesting instance is that their Operating System was created based on customer desires and afterwards the technical aspect was considered and built. Toyota- having the boost in profit year by year Toyota was able to reform the customer contact centre using Design Thinking. The company is planning to test self-driving cars, innovative road designs, smart home technologies and new mobility products with a full-time population of 2,000, including Toyota employees and their families. PepsiCo- Indra Nooyi brought a new light to the company as she became a CEO and changed the innovation process as well as the postproduction experience. Followed by a new culture, the customer-centric design was the basis of every decision made in the company. Fabrica 360, 2020. 7 of the most profitable companies using design thinking for innovation [online]. Sofia: fabrica360. [Accessed on: 23/01/2020]. Available under: https://www.fabrica360.eu/post/7-of-the-most-profitable-companies-using-design-thinking-for-innovation
• #4: Let’s talk about fundamental characteristics of Design thinking: Problem solving approach: Design thinking as PSA lends assistance to determine the so-called ill or wicked problems. In other words, the cases where the problem,as well as solution , are not known. Thereby, Design thinking is a great use to define the problem, and create a potential solution out of it Human-centric- one of the main points of design thinking is considering the Users. At the end of the day, products and services are provided for users-humans. Understanding and realizing the process to a client as convenient as possible. Iterative- Design thinking is not linear but rather a cyclic process where improvements are implemented at every stage. The feedbacks and review facilitate to generate improvement ideas. Solution-based- this method is a complement to PSA. As we define the problems, the potential solutions would be formed, prototyped, and tested. Subsequently, the outcome would be optimized, and the final solution be acquired. MIFSUD, JUSTIN, 2021. Design Thinking: An Introduction [online]. UsabilityGeek . [Accessed on: 10/05/2021]. Available under: https://usabilitygeek.com/design-thinking-an-introduction/
• #5: As I already mentioned there are a variety of benefits that design thinking brings to an organization, here are presented the notable ones: Collaborative: Design thinking encourages the whole team to participate in the growth & development phase of a process, thereby it looks for active feedback from the members and it is a great chance for every member to propose creative ideas. This leads us to the second point which is: Innovative thinking & solutions: As the ideas of all participants are welcomed, the road to innovative ideas and solutions unfolds. Then the ideas could be analysed and tested to come up with a suitable solution. Mostly innovative solutions set the company apart from the rest. Knowledge broadening: After various ideas and solutions in a team are being reviewed and tested, it provides additional knowledge to the organization. Executing diverse processes stimulates faster learning growth as well as knowledge expansion. More revenue and return: A recent analysis showed that a 32% increase in revenue and 52% more return was acquired as an outcome of the Design Thinking approach. This means that there is a substantial financial advantage of Design Thinking in terms of revenue and ROI. STOREY, MIKE, 2020. The Basics and Benefits of Design Thinking. [online]. Greenville, SC: Worthwhile. [Accessed on: 29/04/2020]. Available under: https://worthwhile.com/insights/2018/11/21/design-thinking/
• #6: Remarking briefly on Digital Transformation is the process of applying the data or using the existing data to adjust the way the company operates and build a new digital customer experience. Here below are the most important points stating why Digital Transformation is necessary for recent years. Enhanced customer experience: Digital transformation opens a gate for digital customer experience. That means this way an organization is able to have a higher reach of potential clients through a digital medium. One of the most successful companies , Accenture states that “Customer Experience has emerged as the key driver of sustainable business growth.” They marked that even a slight boost in Customer Experience could yield millions of dollars for companies. Digital Culture: Digital transformation gradually builds a digital culture in an organization. As the members receive the necessary tools of collaboration and communication the shift seems logical. Besides, it presents an excellent opportunity for digital learning. However, the transition of culture should not interrupt or abort the consistency of a company. Elevated agility & innovation: Agility, becoming more and more significant recently delivers an obvious privilege for improvement. Thereby, Agility comes along with Digital Transformation to continuously improve, encourage innovation and constant learning. It reduces the risk of substantial mistakes. Empowered people: As Digital Transformation brings technological tools, it would be a perfect collaboration with people being organized properly. That being said, productivity would be improved since most manual tasks would be automated. Consequently, members of the team would be empowered which impacts them positively for better performance. SARATH, A, 2021. Impact of Design Thinking on Digital Transformation [online]. San Mateo, CA: Divami Inc. [Accessed on: 10/08/2021]. Available under: https://www.divami.com/blog/impact-of-design-thinking-on-digital-transformation/
• #7: After getting familiar with Digital Transformation, let us observe profoundly the impacts of Digital Transformation in Design Thinking. Obviously always there would be positive and negative impacts, although below are the positive effects presented: Data Management: In a classic Design Thinking method the data is gathered and being informed to the team at the start of the process. Afterwards, the team does not change the data basically the process is linear. Contrary to that, now the process is circular where the data is at the centre serving the process in later phases. Real-time: Again, returning to the traditional Design Thinking approach where physical prototyping and testing always take quite some time. Whereas in a digital environment there is a clear possibility of prototyping, testing and executing it in real-time online. The time is saved as well as the efforts are less in order to achieve the optimal result. Easier testing: Partially mentioned above, testing is tremendously easier in a digital environment. Furthermore, there is the so-called Hawthorne effect that emphasizes the adjustments in behaviour of people when they know that they are being spectated. That makes the testing harder most of the time in a physical environment. For instance, when an individual is being tested while performing an activity online. There is a higher chance that the result is more honest being driven by motives. Continuous: The process is usually continuous which allows people to constantly test, execute experiments and detect data for improvement. Normally Design Thinking seeks a solution to a specific problem in a certain timeframe. This time constrain condemns companies to collect data or approach a higher percentage of efficiency while looking for a solution. At scale: In a typical Design Thinking process, a narrow group of people act and make decisions to improve the process. In a digital case, the company is able to execute tests and gather behavioural data for improvement at scale. It would not have been costly but rather more precise and faster. Low Cost: As far as costs are concerned, it is costly for a company to have multiple teams, roles methods. Digitalization would integrate most of the roles and automate the tasks which reduce the cost. Inclusive: Data is a great instance in this case. The data is available for every member of the team all the time. This means it allows everybody to learn any required process or method, check the correctness of Information or broaden the knowledge. Agile: One of the main advantages of digitaliziation, agility boosts the companies’ growth by assessing and improving constantly. TENNO, HELGE, 2021. Traditional vs. Digital Design Thinking. [online]. California: Medium. [Accessed on: 26/03/2018]. Available under: https://blog.prototypr.io/digital-design-thinking-4b04f476149f
• #8: According to research, in order to observe the potential of digitalization in Design thinking, 21 projects representing 2 sides (half digital, fully digital) were brought together. The results are concluded whereby several significant factors came up. Further elaboration of points: Improved Collaboration in prototyping: In a mechatronic prototype, in order to execute the light patterns for communication with road users, where the light was brought by hardware modules and controlled by software to let set up the innovative features. That is how it enabled the observers to the way the simplicity of changes and digital transfer of artefacts impacted collaboration in prototyping and testing. Prototypes may be transferrable and easily changed. The ability to readily exchange artefacts allowed for high-quality testing with minimal effort, which improved the capacity to learn about user demands iteratively. High-quality prototypes: Since digital depends on current digital technologies, there are a multiplicity of software packages, templates, and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) available for prototyping. When compared to the usage of premanufactured items in mechanical prototypes, there are significant differences: Unlike mechanical components, which must be provided first and may require extensive modification to operate together as intended, digital building blocks are often accessible for download and are designed to be combined, allowing for significantly faster outcomes. The software with the innovative function achieved a significantly better degree of accuracy much faster. Innovative Business Models: During the experiment, the team decided to look at several business model options. As a result, an innovative solution that overcame the limits of purchase and leasing was found. Three characteristics widespread in the digital world were incorporated into the final business model: pay-per-use-servitization, ad-based monetization, and a plat-form mechanism. In pay-per-use-servitization, the team switched from providing a feature fee to offering a price for using the feature in its totality. In ad-based monetization, rather than just paying money, users gain from functionality by accepting the display of advertisements or the collection of their data. The team used a platform strategy, which is a new distribution market wherein the platform owner operates as a facilitator to link varied parties searching for discounted feature prices with those looking to present advertisements. The only challenge that is resulted is: The complex relationship of stakeholders: The digital context has built a complex relationship among stakeholder relationships resulting from the business model that is hard to manage. Not only the digital but also the hardware-dependent business models might cause the complexity in user requirements. As digital artefacts rely on current technologies, purchasing responsibilities rise above and beyond the ordering of mechanical components. Consequently, clients typically use digital solutions as basic components to design their own solutions, extending dependencies. Furthermore, since digital technologies evolve, all technical interactions and connections become essentially dynamic, depending upon the complexity. PRZYBILLA, Leonard, Kai KLINKER and Michael LANG. 2020. Design Thinking in Digital Innovation Projects—Exploring the Effects of Intangibility. ResearchGate. [Online. DOI: 10.1109/TEM.2020.3036818. [Accessed on: 05/12/2020], Available under: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348141679_Design_Thinking_in_Digital_Innovation_Projects-Exploring_the_Effects_of_Intangibility
• #9: Above are the results of the project in fully digital Project. Improved need-finding: Digital assets, like services or applications, may be accessed digitally regardless of physical location, improving stakeholder knowledge when working remotely. A digital environment can enable immersive need-finding through interaction in the actual activity. As a result, a digital object may be used and explored almost everywhere. Ability to provide individualized solutions: Apparently digital environment provides a wide range of individualized solutions without impacting the hardware part. The core reason for that is the cost which is nearly to zero. There were built different types of prototypes based on personalization that provides various options to fulfil the need. Challenges imagining intangible digital features: The Automotive Team designed and prototyped digital features in the context of future mobility, that added another degree of complexity by requiring them to predict future mobility advances. The team was overwhelmed by the scope of the possible solution space, which featured few or no physical aspects as boundary requirements. As a result, This is conceivable in hardware-based or mechatronic projects by replicating the required shape and feature with materials like board, which makes the primary feature immediately visible and experienceable. The capability to reconstruct the complete experience in a totally digital setting is restricted. The team mixed paper prototypes with wireframes of screen-based solutions to generate preliminary prototypes. Precisely estimating feasibility: The team of Automotive Project wanted to build tailored services utilizing sensors and artificial intelligence, being encouraged by digital assistants like Amazon Alexa. They pursued a packed prototype, which featured a vast functionality, despite concerns that even the current level of technology would not allow for such a solution. Thereby the implementation failed. Even though evaluating feasibility is a challenge in hardware implementation, the unique characteristics of digital objects make it more difficult. Software is made up of interconnected modules that must all function together to produce the desired result. Finding the right medium in prototyping: The team of the Automotive Project, particularly those with a computer science background, were more likely to cancel in-depth user testing and need-finding in favour of generating a complete written solution straight away. Showing these prototypes to stakeholders with a higher-than-necessary level of fidelity led to the sobering realization that the solutions did not fulfil user needs. PRZYBILLA, Leonard, Kai KLINKER and Michael LANG. 2020. Design Thinking in Digital Innovation Projects—Exploring the Effects of Intangibility. ResearchGate. [Online. DOI: 10.1109/TEM.2020.3036818. [Accessed on: 05/12/2020], Available under: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348141679_Design_Thinking_in_Digital_Innovation_Projects-Exploring_the_Effects_of_Intangibility
• #10: To put it in a nutshell, I would like to bring up the key takeaways from the topic: Digitalization drives innovation: Design Thinking always tends to encourage innovation. Although digitalization is having more role in Design, innovation exists as another significant part of it. Digitalization carries new lights of innovation having different perspectives (digital). There is tons of opportunities to be uncovered by companies through digitalization. Customer experience is the main focus: As we already reviewed everything, in traditional Design Thinking as well as Digital Design Thinking customer experience remains the main focus. Even though the technology is advanced customer reach is easier, still, the end-users have great importance for the design phases of an organization. Hybrid(half-digital) is more practicable than fully digital: The results of the research (Automotive Inc. Project) clearly stated that at the moment half-digital projects have fewer threats and challenges. Regarding the opportunities, there are still a couple that could be developed and yield an outcome. The fully digital ´projects have still quite a lot of challenges that might put an organization at risk of substantial losses. However, there are opportunities wide open. The transition from Traditional Design Thinking to Digital Design Thinking: the results outline that we are not fully transformed the business models into digital. Nevertheless, after observing plenty of benefits and opportunities which Digitalization might bring to any organization, it feels like the businesses lean more toward Digitalization. That means in a few years there would be more fully digital Startups that build a digital culture and possibly prosper in the future.