The fact is that even the most brilliant and well-prepared managers can struggle to find creative solutions to seemingly simple problems. Therefore, the first step is to understand the conditions of the company and implement a structure that favors creative thinking.
This is where design thinking comes in, an approach to critical and creative thinking. A concept that makes it possible to generate and organize ideas and, thus, find solutions to the problems faced by the company.
Design thinking goes beyond the aesthetics of products or services. In the business world, this concept is related to innovation. Read on to find out what it is, how it works, and the benefits of this approach that is gaining more and more space in the market.
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As its name suggests, design thinking is a form of approach that originated in the area of design and adapted to companies and corporations. The term means "design thinking" or "thinking like a designer."
This approach creates the necessary conditions for the team to have insights and to be able to put them into practice. The proposal is for this creative process to be built collectively and collaboratively, bringing together as many different ideas, perspectives, and visions as possible.
The term was popularized by Tim Brown, CEO of Ideo, an american company that provides design thinking consulting. The entrepreneur made the difference between being a designer and thinking like one. In his view, everyone should feel like a designer to achieve radical innovation in companies and life, even if they are not from the field.
How does Design Thinking work?
Design thinking is seen as a set of practices and processes, a method that proposes a new approach to problems. This is related to obtaining information, analyzing it, and resulting solutions from the generated knowledge.
The focus is on the consumer or target audience experience. The big difference with this method is that it starts from the solution, not the problem, as is typical. Observing the routine generates doubts about what people want or need, leading to the challenge of the design thinking methodology: to respond creatively to such needs and desires.
How to apply Design Thinking?
There are different methods to put it into practice. The approach may solve various problems of different natures and magnitudes in companies. For the team to succeed, it is essential to ensure that creativity is a fuel that is part of the company's culture.
Another way to implement design thinking is by developing new products and services. Having a meeting with people from all areas of the company helps to enrich the project in various details of the product, increasing its value and the chances of success.
To apply the concept in your company, you must design an organizational culture and implement a mindset change. Employees and others involved must develop empathy and create a spirit of collaboration and cooperation.
It's essential to keep in mind that regardless of your goal with implementing this concept, each case is different. That is, each company will conduct the process differently. Therefore, some steps can be followed to guide the process.
Stages of Design Thinking
The first step is to understand the problem that needs to be solved entirely. Then, analyze possible solutions, choose the best alternative, and plan its application. The design thinking process can be divided into four stages: immersion, ideation, prototyping, and development.
The process, as a whole, seeks innovation in a non-linear way, the attribution and discovery of new values and meanings for projects, services, and products, as well as collaborative thinking, to reach solutions based on consumer experience. Check it out below.
1. Immersion
The first step begins with understanding the context and reality of the company. Analyze the whole scenario. In this step, it is recommended to perform a SWOT analysis to understand your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Remember to assess customer feedback, employee performance, the political and economic landscape, and the company's organizational culture.
2. Ideation
With the immersion completed and the points that need solving mapped, it's time to bring the team together in a brainstorming session to produce ideas and generate insights. It is crucial that the team feel free to speak their thoughts without fear of failure or criticism. At this stage, it is attractive to aggregate big data data, increasing the chances of success.
3. Prototyping
After collecting a good amount of creative ideas and solutions, it's time to make a little more rigorous selection and choose the alternatives with the most excellent chance of success. Interestingly, the choice is made in a group. In the case of products, this is the time to invest in prototypes in a beta version. It is worth developing graphical representations simulating the actions suggested as a solution for services.
4. Development
The last step of the design thinking process is the moment to take the idea off the paper and put it into practice. At this moment, the communication, marketing, and commercial teams come into action. It's time to sell the solution created and check if it meets your audience's needs. At this stage, it is essential to closely and constantly analyze this development to identify possible improvement points and act quickly in this polishing.
The difference and advantages of design thinking
The first significant benefit of this approach is its cost. Implementation is almost cost-free, while the competitive advantage is enormous, and the return potential is even more powerful.
The second point is that this can be the significant differential that your company needs to stand out among the competitors. Creative thinking can help your business capture a larger share of the market and further boost profits.
As it is a process that involves several employees and their points of view, Design Thinking will add value in all areas of the company. The result is motivated and valued employees by the company.
For the company, this feeling of appreciation and motivation of the employees is excellent, as they contribute to increasing the team's productivity. More than valued, employees will feel part of a great team, stimulating a feeling of empathy and collaboration among members.
Finally, design thinking biggest differentiator is its efficiency in finding solutions to the company's most important issues, which is fundamental for its long-term development and excellence.
Adopting design thinking as an approach in your company is an action that can make a difference in the future of your business. From there, it is possible to find creative, efficient, and cheap solutions to various problems, from internal matters to the launch of new products and services.
Conclusion
Design thinking has been used by companies for years in order to improve their customer’s experience. The design professional’s way of thinking, creative potential, and empathy can be leveraged throughout the business in order to create a unique and user-friendly website for your customers. If you are looking for help creating or redesigning your website, our team of experts is more than happy to assist you. We will work with you to understand your customer’s real needs and wants so that you can provide them with an exceptional online experience.