DESIGN THINKING FOR MANAGERS

Vasudha Ssharma
 Design thinking - Education Sector
Unlike the traditional approach to teaching and learning, design thinking
encourages learners to take an inquiry stance and think divergently. In
contrast to a purely analytical approach, this involves more structured steps
like identifying and understanding the challenges, collecting information,
generating potential solutions, experimenting and refining ideas, testing
solutions and improving the same through feedbacks. It is an iterative
process, circular in nature. When applied in pedagogy, such a method
stimulates idea generation, enhances creativity and leads to ‘out of the box’
thinking and innovation in students.

The design process is quite impactful and can be implemented while

designing a curriculum or course framework. Teachers can create teaching
learning aids and material based on the principles of design thinking. This
may help them plan innovative tasks that would develop problem-solving
skills in student.
 Design thinking - Education Sector
Since design thinking is a social process and involves interactions and discussions
among peers, it can enable highly collaborative activities in and outside the
classroom. Design-based projects allow students to work in groups and enhance
team working, communication and presentation skills. Students learn to express
their opinions and listen to other’s opinions, be receptive to untraditional ideas
thereby welcoming innovation. Such an approach equips students for life thereby
making them solve their everyday problems in a creative and innovative manner.

The field of education has to be modernized at every level and design thinking can
be proved as a very useful tool to develop the right skills in students as needed in
the twenty first century. It affirms experimentation, processing information by
taking into consideration the real world, people’s experiences and feedback and
applying creativity, critical thinking and communication. Such an approach
encourages curiosity, constructiveness and reflexivity in learners
 Design Thinking in Healthcare
Applying Design Thinking to health care could enhance innovation, efficiency, and effectiveness by
increasing focus on patient and provider needs. The objective of this review is to determine how
Design Thinking has been used in health care and whether it is effective.

Design Thinking is being used in varied health care settings and conditions, although application
varies. Design Thinking may result in usable, acceptable, and effective interventions, although there
are methodological and quality limitations. More research is needed, including studies to isolate
critical components of Design Thinking and compare Design Thinking–based interventions with
traditionally developed interventions.

Health care systems require continuous innovation to meet the needs of patients and provider .
However, these stakeholders are not always considered when new interventions or system processes
are designed, which results in products that remain unused because they do not account for human
context, need, or fallibility. This approach also likely contributes to the decades-long gaps between
intervention development and implementation. Design Thinking offers a way to close that gap by
helping investigators incorporate user needs and feedback throughout the development process.
 Design Thinking in Healthcare
There is much enthusiasm for the use of Design Thinking in health care, from
intervention development to large-scale organizational and systems changes.
However, health care settings present different challenges than do other
domains, so it is important to consider these challenges in assessing whether
Design Thinking provides added benefit over traditional approaches.

Design Thinking is being used in varied health care settings and health
conditions, and more studies are forthcoming. Design Thinking may result in
more usable, acceptable, and effective interventions compared with
traditional expert-driven methods. However, there is inconsistent use of the
methodology and significant limitations inherent in the studies, which limits
our ability to draw conclusions about this approach. Future studies may
benefit from focusing on comparing interventions developed using Design
Thinking methods with traditionally developed interventions.
Design Thinking in Banking Sector
This is the reverse of how banks and credit unions traditionally
design products and services. Instead of focusing on the consumer
experience, financial institutions tend to develop products to meet
their own internal processes and operational efficiencies. They
then tend to put a pretty wrapper on the product and call it a day.

Financial institutions then wonder then why so many consumers get

frustrated — e.g., they abandon the online account opening half-
way through the process. The online account opening doesn’t meet
the user’s need or address their problem; they want to open an
account without having to go to a branch. Design thinking, in
theory, has solved that problem.
 Design thinking in Infrastructure
Design thinking, first used to make unique products, is now being applied to complex,
intangible issues, such as how a customer experiences a service and in company strategy.

A company-wide focus on it offers good opportunities for humanizing technology and for
developing emotionally resonant services. Collaborative design thinking may solve several
supply chain problems such compatibility of components, right information and good
communication. The paper employees several cases from the construction industry.

The aim of the design is to reduce the everyday complexities. People need help making sense
of them. People need their interactions with technologies and other complex systems to be
simple, intuitive, and pleasurable. Design thinking’s principles -empathy with users, a
discipline of prototyping, and tolerance for failure for instance – are the best tools for
creating simple, intuitive and neat interactions and for developing a responsive, flexible
organizational culture. A focus on design thinking offers unique chances for humanizing
technology and for developing emotionally resonant products and services.
 Design thinking in Infrastructure
The design thinking approach offers many tools to design creative solutions to
solve the most pressing problems affecting complex ecosystems such as
cities. That’s why it is important that policy makers are properly trained.

A conscious and coherent urban development is based on a “systemic” vision, not

focused on individual parts of the city system, but on the processes that are part
of the system itself. Design thinking can contribute to a paradigm shift that
allows cities to be viewed from a different point of view and to design solutions
for complex systems such as current urban contexts.

A training course for public decision-makers aims to raise awareness of the

principles of design thinking, which are still little known but fundamental for the
effective and efficient management of cities.
 Design thinking & Management Studies
Design thinking in Business is a way of implementing or designing new
products based on human-centered philosophy. It is a way of designing
that focuses more on the solutions and accordingly reflects upon the
problem.

Today, leading international brands are to employ the approach of design

thinking in business to develop the best products in the world.
Ergonomic designs and low-cost options with maximum features are
possible because of this approach.

Design thinking is also being taught in top educational institutions all

over the world. Students need to take over problems with the stress of
having to contemplate it from different angles.
 Design thinking & Management Studies
Customers at the head of all decisions.Design thinking’s most important aspect, which is at the center of
this principle, is the customer. All decisions should be taken such that it benefits the customer’s needs.
Doing this can automatically decrease the chances of making a product that is not at all popular or
profitable in the market.

Sometimes individual groups of the industry may support alternative easy ways to a task. These tasks
together may prepare a product that is easier to manufacture or a service that is easier to provide. The
problem is that customer needs are not a priority when such decisions are taken. 

Adding different perspectives for solving a problem is a great way to harbor design thinking. Teams of
individuals from an organization when thinking from the customers’ perspectives and empathizing
with them can come up with innovative ideas for a product or even improvements for a service. Then
with rapid prototyping, the products made can be tested before moving on to the better or final
iteration. 

Businesses should find individuals in the organization who strive to provide customers with the best
service and products. Such employees are the ones who harbor design thinking potential and can be
valuable in further product and process developments.
 Giving a Direction to the Solutions Available
An important aspect of design thinking in business is that it gives opportunities to individuals in an organization to
come up with ways to solve the problem. This, in turn, increases the participation among the team members and
increases a team spirit within the group. Also, it helps people brainstorm. 

Coming up with different ideas with a common goal of helping customers by solving the problem is a good way to
increase creativity in the house. Brainstorming different ideas can help the organization find some of the common
solutions people come up with. It may also lead to finding some out-of-the-box answers. 

At the outset of this task, no solution is over-analyzed or discarded. Ideas are discussed by the members and
shortlisted. Everyone is tasked with further refining the solution. It also involves a lot of discussion within members
on why a particular solution outweighs the other.

This streamlines the ideas and forms cohesive conclusions. Several rounds of the process might be repeated to
ultimately get the few most practical and helpful solutions for the customers.

The last step is to take those solutions and form a pathway by allocating resources to achieve goals. Prototyping is an
integral step in this process. When a solution has been executed, a prototype of the product can be tested to find the
uses and shortcomings.

Accordingly, the data can be used to refine the development process and move on to the next prototype for further
testing until the best version is made.
 conclusive Thoughts

Design thinking engages the company to think critically and out of the way. Instead of
just taking a problem and using machines to solve it, it allows companies to come up
with different solutions and approaches. These are then factored in to decide on an
ideal solution for a problem.

Such approaches might seem impractical at times. However, if you still focus on the
human need of the product, they may be relevant. At the end of the day, profits
should always come second for a company or industry; the first should be customer
needs and their satisfaction.