Design Thinking

How Entrepreneurs can use Design

Thinking
• As an entrepreneur, it is crucial to understand the
market and learn whether your product or
service will be helpful to the customers or not. As
someone who is starting a new business venture,
you must consider the customer’s needs and
design your brand accordingly. Innovation is the
driving force of entrepreneurship.
• “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like.
Design is how it works” – Steve Jobs
 The five primary steps that an
entrepreneur must remember are:
• Empathizing – with the customers.
• Defining – the challenges, needs, and wants.
• Forming Ideas – different approaches are taken
to come up with solutions for the problem.
• Prototyping – products are made based on the
different approaches
• Testing – here the prototypes are tested and the
faults plus benefits of the products are carefully
studied
 Why do entrepreneurs need design
thinking?
1. Long-term strategy planning
• As an entrepreneur, it is important as part of your
long term planning and business strategy to
consider these aspects as well. In the design
thinking process, we often ask questions about
how one might be able to solve these problems in
the future. It encourages innovation and helps in
the ideation session. Taking out time to set goals
and how to overcome any shortcomings is key to
becoming a successful entrepreneur.
 Why do entrepreneurs need design
thinking?
2. Allows divergent thinking
• Design thinking allows you, as an
entrepreneur, to follow different thinking
styles and explore open-ended options to
come up with an actionable solution. Design
thinking tools such as empathy are great for
this. Prototyping also plays an integral role in
this aspect.
Why do entrepreneurs need design
thinking?
3. Incorporate a process model
• Incorporating a design thinking process can help
you track and measure your progress and
outcomes. It also allows you to evaluate feedback
from various entrepreneurial activities.
• Empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
Following this process as an entrepreneur can
help with creating a framework and timeline to
be followed.
 Why do entrepreneurs need design
thinking?
4. Be curious and observe
• Design thinking is all about observation. Being
curious as to how things are, why they are a
certain way, and trying to come up with
solutions to this curiosity is what makes you as
an entrepreneur very unique. It will eventually
build empathy in you and that is one of the
key aspects of design thinking.
 Future of Design Thinking
• With room for innovation, entrepreneurs can
achieve success by adopting design thinking
practices. Thinking out of the box and coming up
with new ideas requires focus, investment, and
more importantly, methodology
• Design thinking will help you achieve just that.
Your risk factors will also be calculated under
design thinking. It is a surely assured path to
success and can assist any entrepreneur to stay
connected and relevant to the changing market.