Because of design’s subjective value, and DT’s abstract characteristics and the fact that DT operates across different platforms, with different sets of rules and value systems, with many players in the field, without defining the Rules of Engagement, there is absolutely no way to assign or associate any value to the deliverables to subsequently validate the profession itself.

The Rules of Engagement, ROE, is a project-tailored agreement, a spec-sheet that features DT’s detailed involvement, its specific obligation and its deliverables. ROEs are imperative in order to give the profession credibility, identify its unique and proprietary assets, and ultimately confirm DT’s undisputed value. This can be achieved only through a well-defined check and balance mechanism that has been adopted and critically enforced within DT’s profession.

• ROE’s main focus is to define and execute the deliverables that are proprietary to DT and furthermore ensure that they are allocated to the Design Thinking Intelligence.
  
• ROE defines the framework, levels and footprint of DT.
  
• ROE is responsible for Value Clarification, Value Allocation and Value Evaluation.
  
• ROE sets benchmarks of its deliverables.
  
• ROE defines the territories and systems where it operates (aesthetic-service-strategy).
  
• ROE defines and executes the projects based on DT principles, while DT Forensics examines, quantifies, and qualifies the results, calibrates deliverables against ROE’s framework and judges the mastery of the execution.
  

DT Forensics acts as the counterpart to ROE (Rules of Engagement).

“Creativity and Innovation result from a system comprised of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts that recognizes and validates the innovation ” M. Csikszentmihalyi

Since DT operates across interdisciplinary platforms it is in constant competition with the deliverables from other disciplines, many of which have a great “pedigree.” DT needs to develop its own “proof of value” if it wants to have a prominent seat in the commercial sector. Because it is active in a variety of domains, it is very easy to attribute, detach, or embellish value parameters resulting from DT.

DT Forensics asks simple questions: Where can one find evidence of DT applications? How can one track this evidence? How can one prove this evidence? How can one document its finding and store the evidence? How can one determine the level of involvement, the quality of the execution? What benchmarks and metrics should reflect the new value systems?

In short:

• Traces and identifies footprints of DT.
  
• Defines the quality of the deliverables.
  
• Determines the depths of DT application.
  
• Calibrates the level of Mastery of DT.
  
• Develops metrics to new value systems.

The rigid process of DT Forensics validates the results that are behind the intelligence and logic of the design mind and adds credibility to the profession. Furthermore it filters and eliminates the noise, clarifies ambiguities, and gradually contributes to the common understanding of Design Thinking.

DT Forensics forces the discipline to evaluate itself according the standards it sets for itself. It forces the discipline to develop experts in this field, who can eventually become critics, specialists or ambassadors to Design Thinking.

2. It uses its inherent process of thinking and solving as a conscious tool to teach how to innovate.

3. Induces and elicits cross-pollination of creativities from different disciplines with different objectives.

4. Interprets and displays data, information and knowledge generated through Integrative Thinking.

5. Designs platforms that allow for the creation of contextual clarity between left and right-brain thinking. The results generate communal sense making.

6. It calibrates the level of understanding between participants from similar or opposing disciplines.

7. It manages the creative capital of ALL disciplines under one governing intelligence.

As more and more consultancies want to take advantage of the media attention dedicated to DT, it is likely that unless a common definition is adopted soon, the term will be polluted permanently. I, for one, belong to what I would call the “Mau-ist School of Thought,” inspired by Bruce Mau, whom I consider the father of modern Design Thinking. Even though he did not coin, nor use, the term “Design Thinking,” I believe David Kelly did, he is the person whose work liberated design from its borders and pre-conceived constrains and exposed its total power and potential without insulting the intellect by overestimating its capabilities. His book and subsequent exhibition “Massive Change” convinced the minds of key visionary leaders to embrace a new design perspective and permanently weave it into their business models.

In my opinion the design mind consists of two modules: one tangible, Design Doing, and one intangible, Design Thinking.

Design Thinking is the intuitive thought process of the design logic, whose key assets rely on critical thinking and creative solving.

Design Thinking is the intelligence, belonging mostly to the design domain, that produces tangible products, services, experiences…and now, as a new design field, methodologies, processes and strategies.

What does it mean?

When design is stripped from forming, shaping and styling, there is a process of critical thinking and creative solving at the very core of the profession. By consciously understanding and documenting this process, a new field within the design domain emerges that deals with the creativity DNA of the design mind. When properly understood and harvested, one can transfer the creative DNA from design into virtually any discipline regardless of brain direction. This process has been recognized by thought leaders as an extremely valuable tool for fostering creativity and driving innovation.

Design Doing is the physical manifestation of Design Thinking. In addition to communication, product and service, it creates the physical settings and the conditions that induce creativity. Design Doing constructs tangible models and maps scenarios and creates visualization to complex needs that deliver value for virtually every imaginable field or domain.

The symbiotic interplay between of Thinking and Doing with its huge arsenal of proprietary  tools, creates the potential for a new design domain that can be further specialized according to its pairing with other systems and sub-systems: business, social, scientific,  political systems, etc. DT is the active enzyme that facilitates, inspires, activates communication among different disciplines.

Why do we need a definition?

Without a mental model and a conceptual scheme that encompasses the essence of the discipline, it is extremely difficult to communicate and document the norms of the discipline. It makes it impossible to exhibit the cumulative knowledge in an organized way and allow new ideas to be absorbed, edited, filtered and placed in context with existing data. Without a description, rules of engagement, boundaries, a structure, there is no discipline; there are only opinions. Without these parameters, there is absolutely NO WAY to determine, attribute and allocate value, since no one knows where DT exists, where it stops or where it begins.

“You can change the definition of “everyone” and customize it for your industry or passion, but the fact is, we need to read what everyone else is reading in order to have a sense of being in sync.” (Seth Godin)

Design Thinking, the Intelligence:
Design Thinking is governed by the logic of the design mind.
DT operates ONLY in context with the principles of CREATIVITY.
DT induces, manages, and pollinates the creative capital of artistic, economic and technological creativity.
DT is designed to take into consideration all five senses.
DT without Design Doing is operating at below average capacity.
DT can be optimized only through interdisciplinary collaboration from related or opposite domains.
DT has infinite applications, business being just one of them.
DT interacts and connects complex nested networks with constant references to a holistic system.
In DT sometimes it is more important to ask the right questions vs having the right answers.
DT is in a constant interplay and dialogue between “consumer centric innovation ” and “design driven innovation.”
In Design Thinking the word “Rules” has a different meaning.

Design Thinker, the Practitioner:

One does not need to be a designer to practice Design Thinking but one needs to know, and understand, more about design than most designers do.
The Minimum Requirement to practice Design Thinking is to understand the design domain in its entirety, (graphics, product, architecture, fashion, etc.)
Not every designer is a Design Thinker. And not every Design Thinker is a designer.
D-Thinkers design systems that help to make sense of unstructured data.
D-Thinkers develop protocols that help facilitate the distribution of data, information and knowledge.
D-Thinkers manage to induce and distribute artistic economic and technological creative capital.
D-Thinkers curate and choreograph creativity.