Design Thinking in Business
An Integrator of Success and Innovation
Every organization, be it a start-up or a well-established company — each of these businesses have one ultimate goal. Business Success and Innovation.
Business success is dependent on the success of the product and/or service.
The formula for business success has been a continuing quest for every business. The factors that will set the company apart in the market, the strategies to outsmart the competition — give that necessary boost to the business. Any business be it a manufacturing company or an IT services company works towards catering to a set of customers by providing products and services that can add value to their life.
The success of the product and/or service is dependent on the customers’ satisfaction.
What is Design Thinking
It is a human-centered approach, first adapted for use in business by David M. Kelley, who founded IDEO — the design consultancy. The approach is a five-stage process that is a continuous loop, with the understanding that the approach can be applied to the ever-evolving conditions. Design thinking helps businesses achieve desirability, feasibility, and viability of a product.
The five stages in the design thinking approach are -
Empathize > Define > Ideate > Prototype > Test
Empathize with the Customers
Know them well — their needs, motivations, aspirations, and challenges.
Design thinking helps to better understand the customers that the business is catering to. By focusing on the customers and their needs, drawing insights into the challenges they are facing. This method helps in spotting potentially best-suited products or services.
Define the Challenges
Articulate and shortlist the problems your business can solve for the customers.
After understanding the customers well, businesses can spot the gaps in the experiences of the customers. By addressing these gaps, businesses can deliver products or services that will truly solve the customers’ problems.
Ideate Solutions
Think of multiple solutions that can solve the customers’ problems in a better way
By collaborating with design and engineering teams, by combining the technical and the creative forces, one can come up with a multitude of solutions. Out of these possibilities, the best possibility can be considered in the next stage.
Prototype the Best Possible Solutions
Create prototypes to test the solutions in an agile way
By creating prototypes of the best possible solutions, re-confirm the potential of these ideas. It is another crucial step where one needs to keep a track of the customers these solutions are being built for.
Test the Prototype
Test and validate the prototypes
Test the prototype of the solution with a representative group of customers, who can give you sound feedback and suggestions. This will only help you to build a better, well-suited solution for the customers.
The design thinking process is iterative, flexible, and focused on collaboration between the solution makers and the customers. This holistic, human-centered approach requires collaboration between strategy, design, and engineering capabilities to assist businesses to take calculated risks and bring innovation to the market.
As an approach, design thinking is the key to innovation.
Design Thinking for Sustainable Growth
Businesses to progress on the path to profitable growth and innovation, require design thinking. To make the success repeatable, and scalable — design thinking is the key. Businesses can de-risk their products entirely before the market launch.
The value of design
Businesses that grow faster and survive better than others are most often the ones that invest in and understand the value of design. Design thinking is the surest way to gain a competitive advantage. Learn more about the value of design thinking and design for business success.
