Design Thinking: Learn a New Way to Think

If you are an entrepreneur or working on an initiative or a project in any field, you should know the term design thinking. The concept of "design thinking" does not refer to graphic design. It refers to a particular thinking methodology that helps you better examine the situation to identify the problems and develop appropriate solutions. So design thinking is not a solution; it is just a way of finding a solution.

The concept of design thinking emerged over 70 years ago and it is the result of an accumulation of academic research and practice with continuous development, based on science, architecture, engineering, humanities and business administration.

Design thinking can transform the way in which institutions, services, products, and strategies are built and developed. As design thinking combines what is desired from the user's point of view, what is technically feasible and what is economically viable.

One of the most important speakers in this field Tim Brown, whose name is often associated with design thinking. Tim Brown is the CEO of the design agency IDEO, one of the most famous design agencies in the world, which is not limited to the design of a product, but beyond, such as setting the strategies, business design, and service design.

Steps of design thinking

1. Empathy

Understand the problem of the user you’re targeting, or put yourself in their shoes and try to imagine their point of view.

2. Define the problem

Determine the problems that the user is facing then decide which problem you will solve. Make sure you choose a problem that concerns a wide range of users.

3. Ideate

Generate many ideas to solve the problem you identified from the previous step.

4. Prototype

You should now have a solution from the previous step, so begin to implement a prototype for it.

5. Test

Now it is the role of the user to test and evaluate the results of the product or service, then you will know whether the product or service satisfies the user or needs to be modified.

To learn more, I recommend visiting the IDEO website. You can also learn how design thinking saved Airbnb from failure, I hope you find their story inspires you to learn a new way of thinking. There is also a list of the most famous books on design thinking from Amazon, and I recommend watching this video.