design thinking

Design thinking is a popular phrase these days.

Brainstorm sessions?

Mark,

Sorry for entering post-article. I read your article and it is very good in condensing all of the information going on about design thinking.

One thing I try to add when describing design thinking to people is “design thinking as apposed to what?” The What would be scientific thinking which had become prevalent in the last 400 years.

Scientific thinking is about using a set of tools to discover what already exists.

Design thinking is about is about using a set of tools to develop what will exist tomorrow.

Both are short descriptions of each and could be added to.

The point is that there are many areas of business where “what will exist tomorrow” is the question, but scientific thought has been used up until this time to try to find the answer.

One glaring example is the Strategic Plan for a company. In the Financial, Operations and Marketing sections of the plan they are trying to develop “the tomorrow” but when they use their scientific thinking to attempt this, most people throw up their hands and say “this doesn’t work. Lets just make something up for the strategic plan.”.

If design thinking were used to the Strategic Planning of a company then the document might do something more than collect dust in everyone’s cubicle.