Learning about Design Thinking in Management

I have always dreamt of being a businessman from when I was a kid. I took the management class since my heart lies in entrepreneurship, business technology, innovations, and design thinking. To be an entrepreneur, I had to learn what it involves and to my happiness, I have come to an end with the module on design thinking. I have really loved the course and am sure I will miss the steps I have gone through in my coursework. In my report on my reflection, I want to critically describe the journey I have taken since I started the course. I have had a great journey with my tutor, team members and other colleagues who have been part of this journey. I have really had a lot to learn from them and I have also been privileged to associate with them.

I did not have a lot of Knowledge on design thinking in management before but now, I have a lot to offer on the same. As Brown argues, to be a designer, you have to be able to think like a designer in terms of practicing empathy, engagement, acceptance for failure, participation and being ready to take risks (Brown, 2009). Design thinking is also not a linear process as David Kelly terms it. He emphasizes that design thinking is an iterative approach through the phases are taught in a linear way (IDEO, 2018).

Other than learning skills on the content of the course, I have also been able to learn about timekeeping, teamwork, and also organization skills from the different activities we had to undertake in the course of the week. Technical skills were also part of my learning where I have been able to use blogs to do my reflective summaries on each topic tackled.

Lindberg et al. argue that design thinking is a framework for people from different disciplines to pass information and organize activities (Lindberg et al.,2010). From the knowledge I have gained in the course of my study, design thinking can be referred to an innovation that is user-centered with an aim of integrating people needs to the solution being offered by the innovation. The concept of design thinking also allows people to organize ideas in a way that improves situations and build on the knowledge base (Georgi, 2012). Melles argues that the term design thinking can be defined in two ways, first it can be defined as the study of the operations or the behavior of a designer. It can also be defined as the human-centered process of solving problems used by decision makers (Melles, 2010).

Impact of Design Thinking on Entrepreneurship, marketing and management in Today’s Business World

The thing I have realized in the course of my study is that today’s dynamic business world requires that entrepreneurs, marketers, and managers have a range of skills other than those taught at school or build on the already existing ones. The high level of accessibility to information and consumer education have really changed how business is conducted and due to a change in consumer behavior. Therefore, companies need to be flexible and quick in their operations in order to fit into the already changing business environment and this is where design thinking chip in as the solution.

In Liedtka’s work, Roger Martin refers to design thinking as the act of redesigning a business through insights from the involvement of customers (Liedtka, 2011). This means that the needs of the consumer are put at the forefront during the design process. At first, the concept of design thinking did not motivate me and I did not like the module due to the fact that I did not know the impact it had on my career. I later came to like the course after I realized the different approaches and activities that were involved in the course. I also liked it because of the open-minded thinking required in the course and the opportunities it offered in terms of collaboration, brainstorming and learning opportunities which created a new experience. Currently, am still thinking and reflecting on some concepts which I learnt in the module and their applicability in the real world.

I believe I have the ability to change the world in one way or the other. Creativity and innovativeness are important concepts for business minded people who would like to change the world. We have different people I may call them legends who have changed the world by innovating in different fields. For instance, Steve Jobs who founded founder of Apple, Bill Gates(Microsoft), Jeff Bezos(Amazon) and Larry Page & Sergey Brin founders of the largest search engine, Google are all creative and innovative people who practiced design thinking at some point to come up with the revolution in technology.

Having a beginner’s mind has helped me in my coursework since it reminds me to take a fresh view of every situation and that opens my mind to different ways of seeing things. The fact that innovation is a process makes me believe that am learning something different every day and am improving my way of thinking since an innovation never ends. Innovators also need to have a designer mind.

The Concept of Design Thinking

Learning about the different theories that try to explain the concept of design thinking had its ups and downs. There were too many theories to cover and this made me feel like it was too much and there was no need to use so many theories to explain one concept. I did not understand most of the theories though I tried to analyze each and relate it to the topic. For instance, Philosophical worldview theory as explained by Swann did not get in my mind. The issues of subjectivism, objectivism was difficult to comprehend. The other theory I had problems understanding was the theory on the Logic of reasoning. This theory made me question my ability to understand concepts. The design logics like inductive, abductive and deductive reasoning were not easy to comprehend.

However, there are those theories that I had quite an easy time mastering. For instance, the theory on Action research was well developed and easy for me to understand. It consisted of a problem-solving research for a course of action. From my understanding, the theory was more relevant in a social setting where problems are solved by inducing change. The design of the process must be structured in a way that adheres to a set of rules involving the collection of data by the participants, participation by others and sharing of power in decision making, learning throughout through making of mistakes (Swann, 2002) among others.

As we went through the different theories, I found out that the theory on the left-right brain was more interesting than the others (evident from my blog in week 3). My first thought about the theory was that of the internal organ in the human head. I came to realize later how the theory applied to the concept of design thinking when the lecturer explained. The concept on the left brain-right brain was that both the right and the left brain are very important when it comes to business. This is because both brain concepts are needed when designing the mindset of an entrepreneur. In this theory, I learnt humans are either right brained or left brained.

The left brain deals with logical decisions that require calculations and analysis while the right brain deals with visual, and creativity (arts and rhythm) (Weatherspoon, 2017). The main idea in this theory was that when you have the right plan and imagination on making a product, both the left and the right brain thinking is needed for success.

Importance of Creativity and Innovativeness for Business-minded People

Personally, I have learnt and acknowledged that the best way to handle design thinking is by doing it. Having an understanding of what it encompasses, I feel that I need some practical experience on the same after the skeleton guidelines I have had. Designing does not come without rules. The first rule is the human rule which puts human at the center of the design as a social dimension. The ambiguity rule in design thinking welcomes unclear ideas that create room for more thinking and more ideas, the rule on redesigning takes past or existing ideas as those that can be improved and enhanced, the tangibility rule which emphasizes on prototyping. The IDEO model breaks the process of design thinking into five parts including understand, observe, visualize, evaluate and implement. In my understanding, I gained interest from the lecturer’s explanation on journey mapping (evident in week 5 blog) and empathy which are all aimed at evaluating customer experience.

I have a feeling that designers need to spend most of their time and resources focusing on the human aspect or the consumer. With a journey map for your customers, the solutions that a team in your company come up with (ideate) including the prototypes and testing will be much informed saving the cost of redoing. I learnt that the more you understand the customer’s experience, story, and needs, the greater opportunities the company can identify and improve on them.

The empathy tool is also used to understand the user or person affected by the problem you are trying to solve. I thought about how empathy works for a design thinker and after a wide research, I was able to discover that empathy is an important aspect of human-centered design. It is important that you understand how people do things and why. The emotional and physical needs of the people are important while designing a solution since you are not solving your personal problem. Empathy is as a result of understanding the needs of the stakeholders (Kelley, 2005). I learnt that by observing people, you get to know what they do and how they relate to their environment.

It is fascinating and at the same time amazing when you are able to make inferences about people you do not know just by observing them. I was able to apply this strategy on my own and I really had a lot of thoughts about how one can empathize with strangers. You also get to know what is important to them which helps the designer in creating innovative solutions that are inclusive of people’s needs. According to my view, Empathizing helps in seeing things that our minds often filter when we are not in the field.

The Beginner’s Mind and its Importance in Learning

I liked the activity on drawing something from the 30 circles. The activity was great but first, I did not know how the circles were supposed to help us. I later realized that it was aimed at helping us to understand brainstorming. Brainstorming is a divergent tool that is aimed at involving a group of people to generate as many ideas as possible (Rouse, 2017). I am very comfortable with brainstorming since it allows every member of a group to contribute creative ideas. I learnt that during the process, group members should avoid praising or criticizing people’s ideas so that the members can analyze and note the best idea.  I was able to make quite a number of objects from the circles which were all different ideas.

My feelings on the research methods were mixed. I did not like the topic and this affected my understanding of the topic. My attitude was to blame as I had not had such attitude on other topics we covered in the module. From what I learnt, research as Saunders puts it is the collection and interpretation of data with the main aim of finding out things (Saunders et al. 2009). We carried out different activities in the workshop on research including ethical research, assumption testing, observation among other activities (as described on week 7 blog). I changed my attitudes towards different concepts in research since some of the concepts were interesting.

 I was not aware of the types of approaches or methods of research but I came to learn them. There were the qualitative methods, quantitative methods and mixed methods (Yin, 2003). I was not aware there are so many primary methods of data collection and this interested me. From my knowledge, I knew three primary methods including the use of questionnaires, interviews, and observations. I learnt other methods with the one that attracted my attention is the Delphi method (refer to my week 7 blog). The other issue that really caught my eyes on research was the issue of ethics. Our workshop tutor emphasized the importance of ethics in research.

The lesson was that when carrying out an ethical research, an approval from an ethics committee in the university was a requirement unless the research was restricted to secondary sources. From a video activity where we were supposed to observe the video closely, I realized the importance of observation as I could not point out a single change in the video. I was later able to see the changes after focusing on the problem that I needed to research about.

Understanding the Different Theories of Design Thinking

Prototyping involved a set of activities in the workshop. From the concept, the prototype helps in generating facts about the design to help in making improvements and get closer to the solution. A prototype ensures the user interacts with the product or the solution so that user experience and response can be taken. In my understanding, a prototype creates a platform for more communication and problem-solving. It would be better to commit a few resources to ideas will ensure more improvements are made and time is saved as compared to failing with a launched product.

I was able to understand the importance of assumption testing, concept development, rapid prototyping, and early prototyping (refer to my blog at week 8) which are important tools in design thinking. Prototyping helped me to generate different ideas on how users can be engaged in the designing process. This is because the goal of design thinking is to raise a feeling which is an emotional need.

There was this one thing I enjoyed doing in the course of my coursework, blogging. I had never blogged before in my life and the activities in this module required me to blog. I feel happy that I have learnt how to blog. I can now express myself to not only my friends but also other people that live in the virtual world in different parts of the world. I am thankful to my tutor for the additional skills I have gained through the course.

Action Plan
Weaknesses	Activities
I had a problem understanding co-creation and co-design theory and philosophical worldview theory	I will search for books and other academic materials from the library and internet for more reading. One of the books I will have to read is Sanders and staappers articles/books on co-creation and new landscapes of design.
Bad attitudes on certain topics	I will have to familiarize myself with the topics I have a problem with and most importantly, I will start by learning on factors influencing my attitude and start an attitude change journey.
I am not a fast learner	I need to take my time to learn different concepts on my own after the lecturer has taught them. I will also follow up the tutor for more explanations.
I had a problem in contributing in my group work since I am not able to compete with other students.	I will solve this by ensuring I engage in more group discussions in order to build my confidence. I will also try to present to the class our group work.

References

Brown, T. (2009). Change by Design. How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation. New York: New York: Harper Business.

Georgi, V.G. (2012). Design Thinking: An Overview. Special Issue of Japanese Society for the Science of Design, 20(1), 77-88

 Kelley, T. (2005). The ten faces of innovation: Ideo’s strategies for beating the devil’s advocate & driving creativity throughout your organization. New York, NY: Currency/Doubleday.

Liedtka J. (2011). Case Study: Learning to use design thinking tools for successful innovation, Strategy & Leadership. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Lindberg, T., Noweski, C., & Meinel, C. (2010). Evolving discourses on design thinking: how design cognition inspires meta-disciplinary creative collaboration. Technoetic Arts, 8 (1), 31–37.

Melles, G., (2010). Curriculum Design Thinking: A New Name for Old Ways of Thinking and Practice? Ed. by Dorst, K., Stewart, S., Staudinger,

Rouse, M. (2017) Brainstorming. 

Swann, C. (2002). Action Research and the Practice of Design. Design Issues, Vol. 18(1), 49-61.

Weatherspoon, D. (2017). Left Brain vs Right Brain: What does this mean for me

IDEO. (2019). Design Thinking. Design thinking is a process for creative problem-solving. 

Yin, R.K. (2003). Case Study Research: Design and Methods (3rd edn). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.