The document discusses the importance of design thinking in business, arguing that designers must engage in the conversation to maintain the discipline's integrity. It highlights how design thinking, characterized by a human-centered approach to innovation, contrasts with traditional business values and emphasizes the need for a balance between analytical and intuitive methods. Furthermore, it explores the impact of design-led practices on business performance, suggesting that corporations must embrace design thinking as a new management methodology to succeed.

1. Design Thinking
Is this our ticket to the big table?
Iain Barker
Principal, Meld Studios

2. WTF
…design
thinking…
Business Design
community community

15. “Design is not art; it
is about pragmatic
compromise rather
than perfection.”
Bill Buxton,
Principal Scientist at Microsoft Research

17. “There's something odd
going on when business
and political leaders flatter
design with potentially
holding the key to such big
and pressing problems,
and the design community
looks the other way.”
Kevin McCullagh
http://www.core77.com/blog/featured_items/
design_thinkingeverywhere_and_nowhere_reflections_on_the_big_re-think__16277.asp

18. “For now, the business community seems
to have the ball, and it's running with it.
But designers can't afford not to be a part
of this conversation. If you opt out, the
purpose and value of the wider discipline
of design is going to get twisted and
subverted by well-meaning individuals
who don't know what they're talking
about. Designers, surely, need to be at the
heart of the design thinking discussion.”
Helen Walters
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next/archives/2010/04/design_week_van.html

19. “Design thinking is an
approach that uses the
designer’s sensibility and
methods for problem solving
to meet people’s needs in a
technologically feasible and
commercially viable way. In
other words, design thinking
is human-centered
innovation.”
Tim Brown
http://www.ideo.com/thinking/approach/

20. “[Design thinking] means stepping
back from the immediate issue and
taking a broader look. It requires…
 …systems thinking…
 …deep immersion into the topic…
 …tests and frequent revisions…
 …done in groups…
Perhaps the most important point is
to move away from the problem
description and take a new, broader
approach.”
Don Norman
http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/design_thinking_a_useful_myth_16790.asp

21. Familiar
 Empathy
 Collaboration
 Prototyping
 Iteration
 Broader context

22. It isn’t all so familiar
 Innovation not optimisation
 Solving problems, not designing
interactions
 Advocated by businesses, not designers
 They use terms like “abductive
reasoning” and “synthesis”

23. “The most successful
businesses in the years to
come will balance analytical
mastery and intuitive
originality in a dynamic
interplay that I call design
thinking. Design thinking is
the form of thought that
enables forward movement
of knowledge, and the firms
that master it will gain a
nearly inexhaustible, long-
term business advantage.”
Roger Martin:
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/
oct2009/id20091014_072850_page_2.htm

24. “…the prescription is not to
embrace abduction to the
exclusion of deduction or
induction, nor is it to bet the
farm on loose abductive
inferences. Rather, it is to strive
for balance. Proponents of
design thinking in business
recognise that abduction is
almost entirely marginalised in
the modern corporation and
take it upon themselves to
make their companies
hospitable to it.”
Roger Martin
From The Design of Business

25. Analytical
Intuitive

26. Intuitive
Analytical

27. Analytical Intuitive

28. “I now believe that CEOs and
managers must know Design
Thinking to do their jobs.
CEOs must be designers and
use their methodologies to
actually run companies. Let
me be even more precise.
Design Thinking is the new
Management Methodology.”
Bruce Nussbaum,
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/
2007/06/ceos_must_be_de.html

29. Designer Researcher

30. “I now believe that CEOs and
managers must know Design
Thinking to do their jobs.
CEOs must be designers
and use their methodologies
to actually run companies.
Let me be even more precise.
Design Thinking is the new
Management Methodology.”
Bruce Nussbaum,
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/
2007/06/ceos_must_be_de.html

32. “…long live the phrase "design thinking."
It will help in the transformation of
design from the world of form and style
to that of function and structure. It will
help spread the word that designers can
add value to almost any problem,
from healthcare to pollution,
business strategy and company
organization...”
Don Norman
http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/design_thinking_a_useful_myth_16790.asp

33. “…When this transformation takes place,
the term can be put
away to die a natural death.
Meanwhile exploit the myth. Act as if
you believe it. Just don't actually
do so.”
Don Norman
http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/design_thinking_a_useful_myth_16790.asp

34. Are businesses
really interested in
design thinking?

35. The figures are compelling

36. Shares in design-led businesses
outperform key stock market indices by
200%
Where design is integral, less than half
of businesses compete mainly on price,
compared to two thirds of those who
don’t use design
On average, design alert businesses
increase their market share by 6.3%
through using design
More at http://www.designfactfinder.co.uk/

37. Business
strategy
Product strategy
Channels/
Touchpoints

38. Traditional
business
values

39. “What if my manager
sees them? I haven’t
decided they’re right
yet.”
“We don’t know enough
to commit our ideas to
paper yet.”

40. Traditional business values
 Driving e ciencies
 Avoiding risks
 Not looking stupid
 Looking busy at all times
 Short-term success
 Respecting hierarchy
 Following procedure
 Providing full traceability
 Numbers rule

41. Design values
 Empowerment
 Experimentation
 Visualisation
 Subverting hierarchy
 Fail fast
 Reflection
 Collaboration
 Honest critique

42. Business
consultants
Design
thinking
Market
researchers
User
experience
designers

43. Meld
Studios

44. “That
would
make me “That is far too
actively
discourage complicated. It makes
my clients
from using the current solution
it.” look good.”
“That’s the worst thing
you could possibly do!”

45. Design space

46. Meld
Studios

47. Meld
Studios

48. Design
thinking
?
User
experience
designers

49. User
Design
experience
thinking
design

50. Do you…
a) Tell them that you don’t do “design thinking”
b) Tell them that what they’re after isn’t actually
called design thinking and that they should refer
to it as design strategy, or something we’re far
more comfortable with, or else you won’t do the
work
c) Ask them when they want you to start

51. Thoughts or questions?
Iain Barker, Principal, Meld Studios
iain@meldstudios.com.au