Let’s address the elephant in the room. There is just one Steve Jobs and only a few are a member of his tribe. But there is a larger group of billionaires. So, there must be something that works without the need for the spark of genius that saw the vision of Apple.

Design Thinking tries to capture many such ideas that have a great return on investment and works like a clockwork. It needs the flash of genius but it is not a long wait on an island but a continuous pursuit. So, that brings us to the question: what is the idea? Design Thinking is a solution-driven approach to solve problems in hand by focussing on what will work for the customer and test the philosophy by real-world experimentation, rather than historical data which usually post hoc ergo propter hoc assessment of the solution from the past.

The key is to bring the developer on the same page as the end user and then make an assessment how the solution has to be developed – from a technical perspective and from a sales or business perspective. It involves close collaboration between developers and customers and involves the end users in the entire process.

As per  Jeanne Liedtka, faculty Darden School of Business, the four basic ideas in problem-solving by Design Thinking are –

1. User-driven design
2. Possibility-driven
3. Option-focussed
4. Iterative approach

More in next post.

~S