What Is Design Thinking?
At this point it is a losing battle trying to find a unified voice about what Design Thinking does, or means. Most definitions are confusing, cumbersome, incomplete, make little sense, or have purely and simply nothing to do with Design Thinking. There is a big disconnect between the way the design community feels and interprets DT and the way business strategists define it.
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)