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I’m often asked whether it’s not a bit risky to deal with ideas so openly and transparently. An idea is not a product yet, nor a working business model. In order to get there, a process must be carried out in which phases of development alternate with phases of testing and in which both the users and the stakeholders are actively involved. Feedback and active contributions are important. This is the only way for the idea to become a product that meets real needs and delivers a clear value for the user.
Suspending the hierarchy in the design thinking process is vital for a good result. It’s not always easy to achieve it, though. The difficulty is not only to get executives to accept it but also that employees need to learn to develop and communicate their own ideas. They must stop looking out for signals that come from their supervisors. Both sides must be balanced during the workshops.
RÉSUMÉS
Isabelle is a lecturer at HSLU, Engineering & Architecture, and teaches at the interface between technology, economic feasibility, and design. As an industrial designer with her own agency, she advises and supports customers and SMEs in technical areas with industrial design solutions as well as with in-house workshops for design thinking and product developments.
Jan-Erik is currently teaching the Design Management course at Lucerne University of Applied Science. He is also active as a consultant and supports companies with the effective and comprehensive use of design. He writes and speaks about his experience in the world of design and tries to promote human-centric design and the acceptance of design as a key component of corporate excellence.
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As an industrial designer, the leap to design thinking is not so big. Various courses for further training, conferences, and stays in Stanford as well as my work at the d.school there helped me to build up a profound knowledge in the subject matter. Since then, I have been responsible for international, interdisciplinary study teams with partners from industry. In numerous workshops that I hold, I let entrepreneurs experience and get an understanding of design thinking.
I learned design thinking from scratch after I’d worked for a long time as a designer at Philips. One of my tasks was to gear the development of products to the needs of people. One thing I learned there is that a company is received well by the customer only if the collaboration of all those involved in the company is top-notch, along the lines of: “What goes around, comes around!”
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The “bias toward action” mindset is not only a recommendation but a must. If you don’t experience design thinking yourself, you won’t be able to estimate its benefits. Not infrequently, I have had the pleasure of getting positive feedback even from the most stoic of skeptics after they’ve taken part in one of my workshops. The reason it works so well is that design thinking has something to offer everybody.
As a consultant, I experience the introduction of design thinking firsthand. It is often taken up by committed decision makers and introduced to the company, not infrequently by the boss himself. Unfortunately, further implementation is often thwarted by the lack of expertise in the greater organization. Hence my tip is always to clarify the current situation of the organization when launching design thinking. That can be done by examining the degree of customer centricity.
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Jana works as an Innovation Manager and Senior Management Consultant in “Die Mobiliar,” a property insurer. Together with an interdisciplinary team, she develops new products and services there. In addition, she lectures at different universities on design thinking and innovation and speaks at conferences on how the transformation into a customer-oriented company can be successfully done.
Mario has been working as a Product Marketing and Business Development Manager since 2000. He has actively designed the portfolios of start-ups and multinational corporations in the tech industry to get them into peak condition to meet the requirements of e-commerce and digital transformation. As an industrial engineer, he is well versed in the mediation between business and techno- logy, which has proven so important in design thinking.
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I learned design thinking as a structured method at the d.school in Potsdam. Even before that, I provided customers with cardboard, scissors, and glue to develop their living environment in common with them. I was able to deepen my expertise in my functions as change agent in a Web agency and as an advisor of various corporations, which wanted to become more customer-oriented and more innovative.
As a product manager, I experienced myself how solutions focusing on the technology have become less and less attractive and that investment decisions are no longer made by those responsible for technology. For me, design thinking as a method solved this paradox because it puts the people and the problem you want to solve for them at center stage. Design thinking belongs in everybody’s skill set toolbox.
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Design thinking wins over employees when it can be experienced in actual practice. The added value of empathy, interdisciplinary collaboration, and fast, iterative prototyping along the lines of “fail early and often” will swiftly become clear. Anybody interested in applying design thinking to their own company/project should try to experience it as quickly and simply as possible (e.g., in courses/workshops).
In many ways, design thinking breaks with putatively proven approaches. This is why it often meets with resistance. To scribble ideas with colored pencils and paper, instead of presenting PowerPoint slides, is quickly seen as unprofessional or even esoteric. Don’t give up! The result will convince even the doubters.
RÉSUMÉS
Markus is the founder and managing partner of neueBerating GmbH and has been a business consultant for 15 years. As a student, he founded a start-up and gained invaluable experience in e-commerce. Online topics and innovative business models are still part and parcel of his work as a consultant: He has designed the digital transformation of many companies in the imaging and media industry. A graduate in business administration, he nonetheless feels at home among designers.
Mike has been living in Switzerland since 2011. He works as a Systems Engineering Manager in the health care industry. He also has experience in the aerospace and defense industry. He is a co-founder of the Swiss Society of Systems Engineering (SSSE) and of the Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). His great passion is product development, and his track record in the implementation of complex projects is impressive indeed.
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DESIGN THINKING
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In my projects, I make sure I follow design thinking. Because only when technology, economic feasibility, and the alignment come together at the target group can real innovations emerge. I implement this in a form of project work, which is composed of workshops and open-innovation elements, and test the planned project results with the target group early on.
I’m not an expert in design thinking! My strength lies in the field of systems engineering. Some time ago, though, I realized there are significant overlaps between design thinking and systems engineering. Over the course of my career, I realized many complex projects. This experience helps me to educate and train others and to advance the approach through professional organizations such as the SSSE.
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Fail early! An excellent way is to build a 80% prototype with the least effort and then test it with the target group. I’m a perfectionist, so this part is always a little difficult for me. But it helps to keep up the speed and prevents hitting a dead end early on.
In complex product development projects, the importance of the engineering team should not be underestimated. People are the most complex systems in the universe that we kno
w. For this reason, systems made up of people (e.g., teams) are even more complex. To guide such teams in a targeted way, it’s necessary to have a team leader or facilitator with excellent communication and social skills.
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Natalie likes to tap unknown fields of application with design thinking, and for several years has been responsible for teams in human-centric service and product design at Swisscom. She is certainly not above any feedback debacle in terms of a half-baked prototype. She induces enthusiasm in others, with whom she loves to experiment with wild and free thoughts. Since the turn of the millennium, she has applied and taught the FlowTeam® method.
Natalie is the Head of Service Experience at Swisscom. She worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Business Informatics at Bern University and did her PhD in the area of online marketing.
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DESIGN THINKING
EXPERT?
Since 2010, I have been deeply involved in design thinking. I began coaching and experimenting in my own projects with a curious attitude, a balanced creative/analytical approach, and inspiring tools. I achieved breakthroughs in service design that still today inspire me and many other people. What mainly interests me are new, as yet unknown areas of application.
As early as when writing my doctorate, I dealt with customer retention and customer behavior. When I started at Swisscom, I encountered design thinking for the first time in a human-centered design workshop. Design thinking is a priority at Swisscom, and as an employee you get a great deal of support in the use of the methods. Everybody here should have the opportunity of using design thinking in their day-to-day work.
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Design thinking fascinates me because intuitive and analytical skills can be combined with each other. Sometimes, this results in participants being completely at a loss during the process. This is why I find the aspect of letting go quickly quite intriguing—when testing a prototype, for instance. If you can overcome the feeling of failure as rapidly as possible and transform it positively, you will achieve a satisfying goal far more quickly.
No matter the idea you have and no matter how excited you and your colleagues are over it, the idea is valuable only once it has been tested with the customer. Begin involving the customer in the early phases of your ideas. His or her feedback ought to provide you with guidance. Usually, the first prototype is enough to get exciting statements.
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Sophie works as a user insight expert for the Bern-based innovation consultancy INNOArchitects and also as a self-employed consultant. Sophie has international project experience in design thinking, service design, and lean projects, which she attended to and saw through in many industries as well as in the social environment. She is a lecturer in design thinking. She attaches great importance to making the mindset tangible.
Stijn is a lecturer at the Lucerne University of Applied Science. He does research in the areas of user-centric design, sustainability, and product interaction. He participates in the Competence Center Visual Narratives, where he is considered an expert for interfaces between users and products. As a passionate designer, he is busy confronting the world with unique and functional prototypes.
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DESIGN THINKING
EXPERT?
During my time at Deutsche Bank, I was trained in the Stanford design thinking method and the foresight thinking method. The perspective as an outside-in design thinker taught me to attend to and accompany the team dynamics of multidisciplinary innovation teams. As a design ethnographer, I specialized in handling people and in methods for needfinding and user insights.
Design has a social character. True innovations do not come into being behind a computer screen—they result from the social interaction outside our comfort zone. My expertise in design thinking is to create simple prototypes or visual ideas, with which the user can interact, and infer from them the right conclusions.
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Only too often are decisions made in day-to-day work based on assumptions. Design thinking teaches us the conscious dealing with assumptions. It often seems hard to venture out into the world of the user. Be courageous—people have exciting stories to tell that might enlarge your ideas by worlds. The only way to get better in needfinding is to do it yourself—the best place to learn it is outside, in the everyday life of people.
Get feedback in your project as often as possible and engage in a dialog with the users and potential customers. And feedback is more than just a collection of opinions. It is a tool with which you learn to understand your own ideas and goals better. I always give my students the tip of presenting their prototypes to close family members. In my opinion, this is the core of design thinking: involve and collaborate!
RÉSUMÉS
Tamara is the CEO and founder of the Innovation Leadership Board.
She develops tools and processes that promote radical innovation. She was a fellow at the Bay Area Science & Innovation Consortium and previously worked as a consultant at Deloitte Consulting. She specializes in customer experience, marketing strategy, and innovation. She has a PhD and is often invited to lectures to present her work and research.
Thomas works as a Senior Innovation Manager at SIX Payment Services and teaches innovation methods. He studied philosophy and cultural anthropology and has a Master of Advanced Studies in Innovation Engineering. Today, his focus is on creating meaningful and strong added value for customers. He develops and programs digital solutions in the areas of medicine, finance, industrial, and HR. Recently, he won an international hackathon.
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DESIGN THINKING
EXPERT?
I’ve always been keenly interested in the question of how ideas are developed in order to fulfill human needs. I started my career at the Center for Design Research at Stanford University. I was part of a global research community there. Over the last two years, I have enlarged the SUGAR network and turned it into a global innovation network for academic institutions that cooperate with companies in order to solve real-world problems.
I have a deep understanding of end users. Since the 1990s, my way of working has been characterized by creative thinking and the fast development of prototypes. I didn’t imagine that there would be a name for it later. Several times, I led entire teams toward agile working, customer focus, and design thinking. I teach blue ocean strategy, lead-user method, and design thinking at various technical colleges.
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Interesting solutions begin with interesting problems. Keep reformulating the problem. The foresight tools we talked about help understanding the problem better, capturing the problem space, finding unexpected solutions, and supporting the thinking on the team.
Take a lot of time for dealing with end users. The really intriguing and innovation-relevant insights are often only gained once trust has been built after quite some time and the other person is more open. Don’t reduce a personal, in-depth exchange to a 10-minute interview. Don’t turn a conversation into an interrogation. And never ever replace personal contact with a phone call.
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Bill is the CEO and founder of Lead|X, a learning platform that conveys business knowledge in short lectures via social media. As an entrepreneur and interim manager, he has managed various teams and successfully completed 20 projects. At Stanford University, he teaches Foresight & Technological Innovation. He has a PhD, has registered various patents, and wrote the “Playbook for Strategic Foresight and Innovation.”
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If you want to look actively into the future in spite of all the uncertainties, the golden rule is to look for the changes actively.
Over the last 25 years, I have invented, designed, built, and delivered various products. From this experience
, I realized that design is elementary for the entire innovation process and that a user-centric approach is vital for success.
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Each change brings opportunities. Those who recognize the change early on can implement results, solutions, and ideas or at least create the necessary acceptance for it. Seeing the world as constantly changing allows us to get a better grasp of the future. If you aim at the near future, you can shape it and thus attain a competitive advantage.
Sources
Blank, S. G. (2013): Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything. Harvard Business Review, 91(5), pp. 63–72.
Blank, S. G., & Dorf, B. (2012): The Start-Up Owner’s Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company. Pescadero: K&S Ranch.
Brown T. (2016): Change by Design. Wiley Verlag.
Buchanan, R. (1992): Wicked Problems in Design Thinking. Design Issues, 8(2), pp. 5–21.
Carleton, T., & Cockayne, W. (2013): Playbook for Strategic Foresight and Innovation. Download at: http://www.innovation.io
Christensen, C., et al. (2011): The Innovator’s Dilemma. Vahlen Verlag.
Cowan, A. (2015): Making Your Product a Habit: The Hook Framework. Accessed Nov. 2, 2016, http://www.alexandercowan.com/the-hook-framework/
Davenport, T. (2014): Big Data @ Work: Chancen erkennen, Risiken verstehen. Vahlen Verlag.
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