Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium marcel

Design Thinking is getting traction. The term has been around for over 30 years now and it seems that the last three years, it has become the term to use if you wanna talk innovation. Design thinking is human centered, is about an interactive process and about prototyping.

The Design Thinking hype has even come to a point where there are people starting to wave red flags. I might be one of them. Sometimes. However: I’ve told myself to be optimistic about it all. In true designers fashion we need to look for the opportunities, the added value. Not debating who’s right, and who isn’t.

“Design thinking is nothing more than the term under which we discuss the values of design.”

I just did a google image search on design thinking workshop. The header photo of this article was the result. I’m convinced that this is how most design thinking workshops look like. Windowless rooms, round tables and many fluorescent 3M sticky notes to brighten up the day. But! This isn’t design.

So if design thinking is about how designers work, why are we creating these workshop this way?

I thought I’d offer some insight into what it actually means to use design thinking for a design innovation consultancy like ours. Your design thinking training will provide you with hands on knowledge and a little experience in the main aspects of design. Human centricity, thinking in journeys and the qualities of learning by doing, to name a few. Your design thinking training will also provide you with some experience on how to get new ideas, answering the ‘what if?’ question.

Unfortunately in reality, there are many difficult challenges that you will have to deal with when you decide to put your money on design thinking. I’ve selected the three most valuable lessons we’ve learned over the last 10 years.

Dealing with uncertainty

I remember a design thinking training we designed and hosted for 28 country CEO’s of a large French company. The participants were on a learning expedition in Amsterdam and we provided them with a track on design thinking and service design. After the initial introduction in the (incomplete) history of design, we got our hands dirty. Round tables, sticky notes and Lego, I must confess.

The second most striking reflection after the workshops was by one of the visibly uncomfortable CEO’s: ‘Why is it that we again are faced with uncertainty. This is the second workshop in which we are asked to come up with new ideas. Ideas of which we have no idea they will work. So what is the use of this?’

Many companies create their value by either trade and following processes. The highest rewards are going to people for trading value, not creating it. No wonder these CEO’s are uncomfortable not knowing what the future result will be.

The most interesting reflection was by one of the CEO’s. I remember him explaining the essence of design for innovation; ‘You guys start with the needs of people, of our clients. Only then do you work on solutions.’ he couldn’t be more accurate.

If you want to create real change by design, you do need the support (the faith?) by the ‘CEO’. She or he then needs the vocabulary and tools to translate this support into actions and then deal with management to avoid falling into old patterns.

Designing projects within these parameters, is a challenge. In many instances you might even need to design new parameters. This takes time and often require a slow and steady transition. A two hour sticky-note session might be the starting point. If you are able to get that right…

The problem space versus the solution space

In order to walk through the design (thinking) process in a design thinking workshop, you most likely end with a great idea, a solution. I even know of courses that invite a Dragons’ Den of experts that decide which idea will be the winner. In reality, finding and framing the right problem is far more difficult. And far more fun, rewarding and valuable.

A few years back we worked on a project for a group of Utrecht Musea. They wanted to grow the visitor numbers by 20%.( I’d say; who wouldn’t… ) Financial support through subsidies were under pressure, so we were asked to come up with solutions to help people find their way to what the musea. We were also told that the newly opened train station nearby would be the answer. The only thing we needed to do, is making sure people wouldn’t get lost between the station and the Museum Quarter.

Our research however, told us a different story.

A summer long we followed people around town. First we watched them leave the museum to see where they would be going. Later on our researchers were able to identify potential museum visitors strolling through Utrecht.

What we found was that few people walk straight to a museum. Most of the people we followed and later interviewed had a full agenda of activities. They planned on doing things together, on introducing their kids to the work of Dick Bruna, on visiting Utrecht for the weekend.

I believe that we used at least 80 percent of our project budget in what we call the Problem Space. Solutions presented themselves, from the strategic, to the simple and obvious ones. (More on this project soon!)

There is a general idea that designers excel in the second half of (innovation) projects. They are the ones that translate business ideas into tangible products and make them shine. The solution space. Sometimes this is the case, no doubt about it. But design (thinking) is far more than that. The true value is most often created in the problem space! For 31Volts this means we followed people around town, we talked to elevator mechanics on top of the elevator, we had an electrician explain to us what his life is like in Cairo (on a sunny day 35°C), we experienced the experience by role playing in a train station and we build a Design Studio at Schiphol Airport, dedicated to learning from travelers.

This is how design (thinking) in real life looks like.

Design within well structured organisations

I’ve heard it often as an excuse: People have a hard time dealing with change. Over the years I’ve given this some thought, and I don’t believe this to be true. It is not people that find it hard to adapt to new situation or opportunities but companies and organisations. And in some sense this is a good thing. Reliability and predictability, operational excellence and efficiency are important when you, as a company, want to be able to offer products and services to a certain standard for a appropriate price and profit. Over and over again.

In order to maximise results, you need structure. The most effective tool to make this work is management. Once these structures are in place and everything is managed well, innovation however, is becoming very difficult. The problems start when the world around you is starting to change. What will you do then? Stick to the old or are you going to explore alternative strategies?

These questions are never answered on a sunny afternoon. Not even a design thinking workshop will help you out here.

The way we work is mainly through projects. They might take from a few months to over a year. And sometimes we organise a chain of short sprints. While I think that projects are the best thing we can offer for most of our clients, design (thinking) shouldn’t be a project.

“Just like management (to maintain structure), design (for change) should be just as important for a company’s culture.”

Over the last few years many has been written already on the value of ambidextrous organisations. These are organisations that are efficient in its management of today’s business and at the same time adaptable for coping with tomorrow’s changing demand.

For design consultancies including most service design studio’s like 31Volts, the shift towards ambidexterity is a good thing. But again, if it is fluorescent sticky-notes that represents design, there is still a lot of work to be done.

To wrap up

I consider it our responsibility as one of the first service design studio’s in the Netherlands to express the true potential of design for our current society, and to grow the business (not just for ourselves). It is our believe that this needs to be done by helping (large) organisations. They are the ones that serve people. Our role, as designers, is to help them achieve their full potential. (Yes, that’s why the name 31Volts. Volt is the derived unit for electric potential.)

One of our latest efforts is the development of courses on how to deal with these topics. There will be a course for designers on how to design true design thinking, service design or any other kind of design driven innovation projects. The second one will be for clients that are interested in starting with design for innovation. These are the people that will benefit the most by any successful project, so knowing what to expect from real design (thinking) will increase the return on investment.

If you are interested in following one of these courses, give me a call. A website will be online soon. Until then: +31 624691116 and marcel@31Volts.com

What they don’t tell you at your Design Thinking training. was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What they don’t tell you at your Design Thinking training.

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