"DESIGN" your "THINKING"
Creativity. The drive for all new innovations and bright ideas, right?
Creativity is broad, and I LOVE talking about it. But today, I’ll focus on a creative method for problem solving, known as “Design Thinking.”
Design. Thinking. It sounds expressive. The name gives you an idea about the content of this method.
Design Thinking!
Now you may be wondering: what is design thinking anyway?
It is a creative method to solve complex problems by understanding the needs and coming up with effective solutions to meet those needs. In other words, it is a human-centered method where the problem solvers attempt to fully understand what is required, then through arranged steps work to meet those requirements.
Design thinking is comprised of three main stages: inspiration, ideation, and implementation!
Sometimes it is known to contain five stages: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test!
As part of me being curious about everything, I searched up why this name was chosen, why is “Design Thinking” called so? I found out that this process was first derived from the exact same process that a designer follows to execute an exquisite and creative project. Pretty interesting, eh?
UNIQUENESS!
It’s UNIQUE, but not so many of us know about it!
Design thinking is distinct from other problem-solving methods in a very interesting way. You may know about problem-solving methods that can get you straight to think of solutions for your problem. But hey, design thinking doesn’t make you rush to catch a flying solution. Design thinking is a process that makes you absorb as much information about the problem as you can to produce the best refined and filtered solutions!
Well, in my opinion, thinking about the problem and diving into its aspects is much more EFFECTIVE to achieve the best results that anyone would aim for, don’t you think so? :)
Leaders, innovators, inventors, stakeholders, and change-makers should learn how to use the design thinking method to be able to solve the REAL problems out there in the most efficient and effective way. Well, logically, in order for them to be unique, they need to learn unique concepts. And let me tell you, innovation and uniqueness are not easy, when an innovator starts solving a problem, the outcomes are ambiguous. In order for an innovator to leap and ACTUALLY be an innovator, they need to think and analyze thoroughly, and that is what design thinking is all about!
"Success doesn't necessarily come from breakthrough innovation but from flawless execution. A great strategy alone won't win a game or a battle; the win comes from basic blocking and tackling."
-Naveen Jain-
Globally, you will find a couple of leading organizations that use the design thinking method to fulfill their best outcomes and spread their effect around the globe. Some of these leading companies and organizations are:
Nike, famous athletic footwear and apparel corporation
PepsiCo, soft drinks and snacks corporation
Airbnb, the famous brokerage company
And many more nationally and globally.
Now, one of the simplest but most interesting results of design thinking that I ever came across while researching is the Braun/Oral-B smart brush!
Kim Colin and Sam Hecht were the two responsible innovators that developed upon the idea of a regular toothbrush. They wanted to make a SUPER toothbrush for their clients!
What they did is that they looked at what people needed, which is to use a toothbrush properly and track their usage. They developed upon this idea, and came up with a smart phone-tracked brush that allows clients to observe their brushing techniques.
During the MAX Youth Fellowship workshop about Design Thinking on July 13th, I got to participate and engage in a couple of hands-on activities to solve a certain problem, as an attempt to develop the next year’s round of the fellowship program.
First, we brainstormed ideas by researching and discussing. The research part was through interviews with mentees, mentors, and experts (program coordinators)
Then, we went on with the ideation process by writing down the ideas we had and sorting them out based on their themes
Throughout a series of activities, I got to learn a lot about other mentors and mentees and get to interact with them about the personal values, needs and opinions about various topics. I also learned that design thinking solves complex problems through a complex but organized series of steps. Each step has its unique importance through the bigger process.
Lastly, I observed that the more effort you put in each step, the easier you will find it to get to the following step. Each step gets you to build upon the previous one, then you are left with the first step, which from the leadership workshop we learned that is the most difficult step to fulfill!
As an aspiring researcher, I think design thinking will be super important and beneficial to approach complex problems. In the world of medical and scientific research, there are a lot of questions to be answered, a lot of problems to be solved, and a lot of innovations to be executed!
The next generation of leaders should understand that it is crucial to learn effective problem-solving methods, design thinking is on top of the list!!
As always, enjoy your journey and embrace your failures!
Shahed ~