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Do you want to develop products or services that are enthusiastically received by the market? Do you want to take your company to a whole new level? Do you and your employees want to become more agile and fit for the future?
Then go ahead! Design Thinking makes it possble.
You’ve probably heard or read a lot about design thinking. But have you already used it? Do you use it as a manager, as an entrepreneur, as a consultant to make your own company or one you advise fit for the future?
Who “invented” it?
The term Design Thinking was coined at Stanford University’s d.school by Professor David Kelley and his colleagues Terry Winograd and Larry Leifer. David Kelley was also the founder of the design agency ideo, which was instrumental in helping Apple develop the iPhone.
In 2007, SAP founder Hasso Plattner brought Design Thinking to Germany, where it is applied, taught and further developed at the HPI School of Design Thinking in Potsdam. I also completed my training as a Design Thinking Coach there in 2015.
Understanding customer needs
In essence, Design Thinking is a process that aims to get closer to the customer; to better understand what they need and to recognize their “pain points”. The first step in Design Thinking is to explore the customer’s problem and needs in depth. This is done by observing and interviewing the customer in relevant everyday situations. However, under no circumstances (!) are they asked for a possible solution. This is because the customers usually think in terms of what they already know.
Henry Ford already recognized this back in his day: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said: faster horses.” Nor would we have been able to say that we wanted a smartphone 15 years ago, when we took it for granted that we could make phone calls, listen to music and take photos with a variety of devices, some of which were complicated to use.
Developing tangible solutions
Once customer’s needs are clear, solutions are developed and prototypes are built and tested. The principle of prototyping is to gain early insights into whether the new product or service meets the customer’s actual needs.
The idea behind Design Thinking is therefore very simple: present the solution to the customer before it is perfect and ready. Only then you can take their comments, wishes and ideas into account and ultimately develop exactly what the customer needs.
At the end of the Design Thinking process, new business models, creative products or more user-friendly applications emerge.
Sounds logical, but in reality it is often very difficult and far from what we are used to in organizations. Therefore Design Thinking requires fundamental changes in the attitudes and behaviors of employees and managers.
New mindset required
A culture of failure:
Most of us have already been taught a zero-error culture in the past. And many organizations, structures and processes are designed to avoid mistakes wherever possible. In Design Thinking, on the other hand, mistakes are welcomed as an important part in the knowledge and learning process. The motto is not only fail forward, but also fail often and early.
Feedback culture:
Constructive discussions are possible when people are prepared to listen carefully to each other, develop an understanding of the other person’s perspectives and accept feedback openly. The “Yes, but …” so established in German-speaking countries is replaced by “Yes, and …” in Design Thinking, for example.
Decision-making culture:
Design Thinking is about bringing those who provide the service and those who use it closer together. It is no longer management that validates the service, but the customer; it is no longer management that decides what the next appropriate step is, but the team. At this point, Design Thinking literally turns hierarchies and thus many basic principles in organizations upside down.
Hirarchies are hindering or even redundant
As a consequence, Design Thinking leads to the dissolution of leadership as we all know it and still practice it in many places. As a result, 40 % of managers will no longer exist in the future. The classic “Alpha wolf” has had its day.
Whereas in traditional companies, market-relevant decisions are made at the top, in Design Thinking they are made by the employees who are closest to the customer. As already mentioned, Design Thinking is about bringing together those who provide the service and those who use it. The role of management is therefore to support its employees in providing the best possible service to the customers – this is what I refere to as servant leadership.
A servant leader models the culture described above and creates the conditions necessary for creative work processes. Leaders must first change themselves. This is not easy for many, as it requires them to relinquish decision-making power, give employees unaccustomed freedom, leeway and, above all, rely on trust rather than control.
The transformation to an agile company therefore requires a high level of willingness to change on the part of management, which in turn requires competent coaches and consultants to help achieve the necessary mindset shift.
Traceable improvements
On the surface, companies are using Design Thinking to change their offering, but in reality they are changing themselves. This is also confirmed by a study by the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany.
According to this study, “Design Thinking has evolved from a creativity technique to a driver of corporate change”. In particular, it showed positive effects on work culture and innovation processes. The study also demonstrated that corporate processes and customer experiences are improved in a sustainable way.
The success of Design Thinking is primarily attributed to the fact that it offers new approaches to solving complex problems. According to the authors of the study, it is essential to understand Design Thinking as a holistic process in which one´s own mindset and corporate culture play a crucial role. I can only confirm this from my own experience.
Reaching the next level
I could go on and on about Design Thinking: about the approach, about the attitude behind it, about the many positive effects. I myself have been working with Design Thinking for five years now. While still an employed consultant, I used Design Thinking to set up a coaching company that generated a turnover of 0.5 million € after just six months. As an independent consultant, I use Design Thinking to drive my own company STO Consulting forward. And as a Design Thinking coach, I can observe the impact Design Thinking has on my clients on an almost daily basis.
But, whatever I say here: Ultimately, you have to experience Design Thinking for yourself.
My Design Thinking workshop gives you the opportunity to do just that, concretely, in relation to a question that concerns you as a consultant, manager or entrepreneur. Experience the power of Design Thinking and take yourself, your products and your business to the next level.
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