Resources on Design Thinking

Books on design thinking

Design thinking has become a popular topic in business, strategy, leadership, and innovation trade magazines and books, so there are plenty of recent articles related to applications of design thinking (particularly in Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek). The following list includes foundation texts as the concepts developed and began to gain traction and is not intended to be comprehensive.

The Opposable Mind, Roger Martin, $20; Paperback: 224 pages; Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (July 13, 2009)

The Ten Faces of Innovation, Tom Kelley, $32; Hardcover: 288 pages; Publisher: Currency/Doubleday; 1 edition (October 18, 2005)

Change by Design, Tim Brown, $30; Hardcover: 272 pages; Publisher: HarcourtBusiness (September 29, 2009)

User Friendly, How the hidden rules of design are changing the way we live, work, and play, Cliff Kuang with Robert Fabricant, $28; Publisher: MCD Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2019)

Creative Confidence, Tom Kelley and David Kelley, $32; Hardcover: 304 pages; Publisher: Crown Business; 1 edition (October 15, 2013)

A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink, $20; Paperback: 304 pages; Publisher: Riverhead Books (March 7, 2006)

Wired to Care, Dev Patnaik, $35; Hardcover: 272 pages; Publisher: FT Press; 1 edition (January 19, 2009)

The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage, Roger Martin, $30; Hardcover: 208 pages; Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press; Third Edition (October 13, 2009)

Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People, Emily Pilloton, $25; Paperback: 304 pages; Publisher: Metropolis Books; 1 Original edition (October 31, 2009)

The Power of Positive Deviance, Richard Pascale, $30; Hardcover: 256 pages; Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press; unknown edition (June 16, 2010)

Service Innovation Handbook, Lucy Kimbell, $45; Paperback: 240 pages; Publisher: BIS Publishers (January 13, 2015)

Video resources

Design + Thinking, a documentary

Acumen IDEO introduction to design thinking

Stanford Webinar : Design Thinking = Method, Not Magic

Stanford Design Thinking Virtual Crash Course

Stanford Webinar - Apply Design Thinking in Your Work

IBM design thinking: The Loop

Tomorrow’s Strategy: Design Thinking, innovating through your customers’ eyes

Designing Your Life: how to build a well-lived, joyful life by Bill Burnett, Stanford University

Design Thinking at Accenture

Design Thinking at IBM, Designing the Future by Doug Powell

Problem Solving and Design Research at frog design by Turi McKinley

Creating a journey map

Design a sport

How to solve a problem like a designer

Articles

There is no shortage of articles on design thinking and how it is applied to social, business, and governmental activities, seeking more human-centered solutions. New and relevant articles are published every month, particularly in magazines such as Fast Company, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Wired, Harvard Business Review, and Social Innovation Review, as well as their social media channels.

Case studies

Nearly all the consultancies that are active in applying design thinking techniques to solving complex problems provide examples of their work in case studies on their websites. A highly selective list of firms would include Ideo, frog design, Continuum, Fjord Design, gravitytank, Smart Design, tomorrow partners. There are also case studies available on the websites of Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Acumen Foundation, and many international NGOs working on social change.

Toolkits

A number of toolkits are published on the home page; this article reviews an additional number of toolkits focusing on applying design thinking techniques to solving issues of social impact.