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Tag: Design thinking

02 Aug 2016

How Innovation Fuels Design Thinking

How innovation fuels design thinking

As we talked about in our last post, design thinking is a holistic approach to business that, unlike the rigid structure of business, utilizes both logic and creativity. In order to effectively combine and focus these two forces, design thinking is carefully guided by three principles: inspiration, ideation, and implementation. With the help of these three principles, design thinking encourages you to recognize communities with complex problems that you can fix and fuels innovation so you can do just that.

##How design thinking fuels innovation:

1. Encouraging creativity. Unlike the traditional structure of business that analyzes the probability of failure before a project is started, design thinking allows you to explore an idea fully so you can see if the solution is effective. Design thinking encourages you to cast the fear of failure aside and let your creativity...

15 Jul 2016

Common Misconceptions of Design Thinking

The phases of design thinking

Design thinking, a term coined by IDEO’s David Kelley, refers to a set of three principles that can create a successful path to innovation and solve complex problems. These three principles are inspiration, ideation, and implementation. Rather than following the rigid, traditional structure of business that can negatively impact innovation by promoting rationality over creativity, design thinking is a holistic approach to business that integrates both logic and creativity together. Sadly, design thinking is still not a mainstream practice and companies can be reluctant to adopt design thinking in their ventures. So why would companies be reluctant to adopt such a promising technique for innovation? Because they believe some of these common misconceptions of design thinking:

  1. One common misconception of design thinking is that it is an abandonment of good business thinking, ignoring rationality and...

08 Jun 2016

5 Tools Every Design Thinker should be Using

“The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the people you’re trying to design for. Leadership is exactly the same thing – building empathy for the people that you’re entrusted to help.” – David Kelley, Founder of IDEO

When you’re leading a team of Design Thinkers, making sure that everyone’s ideas are heard and recorded is a big part of design thinking philosophy. Design thinking is about creating products and services based on empathy, and listening to the problems from your community. But you need the right design thinking tools to make sure that all these ideas can be recorded, expanded on, and tested. You don’t want to spend your time worrying about the logistics of your project instead of leading your team to create something exceptional. We recommend using the following design thinking tools to keep your team, and your...

15 Mar 2016

How To Solve Complex Problems With Design Thinking (With Case Studies)

The online world has changed the way we solve problems. Instead of one person in charge, we now have a range of individuals from different backgrounds that can solve problems in their communities. Yet, when looking at big problems, finding a process to keep everyone accountable is important. In this article, I’m going to outline how (and why we think) design thinking is the perfect process for solving the worlds biggest problems. 

We’ve talked about what design thinking is, and the human-centered approach of design thinking. So today let’s look at practical solutions to problems by using design thinking. 

Design thinking means starting with observation, rather than a problem, and learning by making.

When you start with observation, you give yourself the flexibility to make sure that you’re asking the right questions. The traditional method for problem solving...

23 Feb 2016

Design Thinking Guides, Whitepapers, and Best Practices

By Jacob Bøtter - https://www.flickr.com/photos/jakecaptive/49915119 (CC)

Design thinking is the human-centred approach to innovation. We hope you find these guides, whitepapers, and best practices helpful in incorporating design thinking into your innovation initiatives. Have something to add to the list? Let us know in the comments!

Guides

An introduction to design thinking process guide - An in depth look at each stage of design thinking.

Asking important questions: A guide to design thinking - How to apply design thinking to the innovation process.

Introduction to design thinking - A methodology for service design.

The MISC guide to design thinking - Navigating the blurred boundaries of business, technology, and design through a series of insightful articles by some of the leading experts in insight, foresight, and innovation.

The essential guide to design thinking - Exploring design thinking’s approach to problem solving.

05 May 2015

Design Thinking Courses

Photo by Ryan Tyler Smith https://www.flickr.com/photos/ryantylersmith/

Design thinking is a different approach to problem solving. Rather than planning first and testing with customers later, organisations are learning to take a human-centered approach. This means getting involved with your communities from the beginning of a project, and learning about the problems they face. Sounds simple, right? Yet organisations often come up short when it comes to solving the challenges their communities are facing. These design thinking courses will help you dive into design thinking practice and theory. From free courses, short courses, and university courses, we think you will find what you are looking for here! If you have taken another course you’d like to recommend, please leave it in the comments- we’d love to check it out!

Design Thinking Courses:

Design Thinking for Business Innovation- This course provides an overview of the design thinking...

24 Apr 2015

Design Thinking For Social Innovation

Design Thinking For Open Innovation

When I was in University, I ran the campus food bank. I went to a conference in Toronto, where I spent the weekend with others running food banks from across the country. The conference was full of hard-working, dedicated people passionate about alleviating poverty and malnutrition. We exchanged ideas, discussed new initiatives and brainstormed how we could run our food banks better. Finally, the last session of the conference arrived. Our hosts explained that the last speakers would be people who had lived on the streets and who had used (or were still using) food banks . To our surprise, the speakers each described their negative experiences with food banks. They had eaten pre-packaged bags of foods filled with things they or their families did not like, or could not eat. They were sick of eating the same canned carrots...

17 Mar 2015

What Is Design Thinking?

“Design thinking starts with divergence, the deliberate attempt to expand the range of options rather than narrow them.”- Tim Brown

Design thinking is an ever-changing process that helps to solve problems creatively. But where did design thinking come from and how does it differ from other kinds of problem solving?

Design thinking in the business world originates from theories in computer science, engineering, architecture, and design. They started developing methodologies to help solve scientific or design problems from a human centered approach. As design thinking started to become more popular, people started to apply it’s methodologies to different subjects like business and education.

Principles Of Design Thinking

There are a few different methodolgies behind design thinking, but the principles behind them are the same:

1. Human centered Using a humanistic approach is an important part of design thinking. Gathering information...

24 Feb 2015

The Design Thinking Process Explained

The Design Thinking Process

We’ve kind of been geeking out over design thinking at WE THINQ over the past few months. So much, so that we’ve re-designed our whole platform to incorporate the concepts of design thinking. We hope this will help make your projects more successful. But what exactly is the design thinking process, and how does it work?

The design thinking process varies depending on where you look for answers. There are a few different theories out there, but they are essentially similar. The design thinking process contains 4-5 stages that take a human-centered approach to innovation.

Discovery

Understand what the challenge is. Don’t think of the problem only from your perspective, but also from the perspective of your clients, customers and community members. The best way to do this is to have some of your community members involved in the...

17 Feb 2015

7 Tools for Design Thinking

What's in your toolkit? Photo by: Pleuntje https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleuntje/

We’ve had a makeover. If you’re using the WE THINQ interface you’ll notice we’ve added a little pizzazz to our tool for the new year. Not only is the social innovation process laid out more clearly, we’ve also given you the option to work on your project using the design thinking process. The design thinking process differs from traditional forms of open innovation. But as that is a definition that is ever changing we are excited to be giving you the options to choose the best method for the project at hand.

Design Thinking Tools:

1. Innovation Flowchart - The perfect place to start your project. Perfect for design thinking or open innovation. This chart allows you to map out your process before you begin. Set the stages, skills, and risks that are relevant to your project...

25 Nov 2014

10 Examples of Design Thinking

Workshop to design healthy places. Photo by: Ted Eytan https://www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/

A couple weeks ago we discussed the differences between design thinking and innovation. This week we are going to show you what design thinking looks like in practice with these 9 examples of design thinking! We love hearing about new projects and your experiments with design thinking. So if you’re working on something leave it in the comments, and we will happily add it to our list!

Happy reading!

Design Thinking Examples:

Proximity Designs - Proximity Designs is an award-winning, social enterprise based in Yangon, Myanmar. They design and deliver affordable, income-boosting products and services that complement the entrepreneurial spirit of rural families. Great example of design thinking at work!

Design Thinking for Mobility - Examples of design thinking projects that mobilized communities and groups for the greater good. Mostly US based, these projects are making...

28 Oct 2014

Open Innovation vs. Design Thinking

Photo by: Juhan Sonin: https://www.flickr.com/photos/juhansonin/

At WE THINQ, We work with a lot of change makers who are always looking for new and better ways to achieve results. Open innovation is our go-to process to see change, but there are other methods used to inspire creative problem solving. Design thinking is a widely used process based on the premise that everyone can be part of creating a more desirable future. Both design thinking and open innovation are used to create positive changes in organisations and communities. So what is the difference between these two methods and how can you choose which is right for your project or organisation?

Design Thinking: The People Focused Approach

Design thinking outlines a 5 step strategy to innovation:

1. Empathy: Get to know your audience. The core of design thinking involves focusing on the customer. Many ideas fail because...