Reviews
‘Pavan Soni’s thought-provoking book reminds us of the critical importance of design thinking to deliver on strategy. A great read for both start-up entrepreneurs and corporate leadership teams’
- Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon
‘Design Thinking has become a mainstream topic for businesses over the last few years. While digital natives have embraced design thinking as a way of life, traditional companies have lagged behind. This book is a very useful guide, as most companies will benefit from the transformation that design thinking can bring’
- G.V. Prasad, Managing Director, Dr. Reddy’s
‘I have known Dr Pavan Soni as an innovative thinker, and he brings this capability to the fore in this book. He combines real-world examples along with theory behind various phases of design thinking to facilitate learning and to transform you into a design thinker’
- Ashok Soota, Co-founder, Happiest Minds
‘Pavan demystifies design thinking and shows how any individual and organization can systematically practice it and unleash creativity and innovation, turning problems into opportunities’
- Dr Manish Gupta, Director, Google Research India
‘Dr Soni’s book brings the design-thinking method and mindsets into action, supported by experience, evidence and examples. This book emphasizes the importance of starting with empathy and finding problems worth solving. These mindsets, skill sets and tools could be key to our individual and collective success in solving the most important business and social problems of the future’
- Dr Vishal Sikka, Founder and CEO, Vianai Systems
‘As technology becomes an integral part of every industry, human-centric solutions that are inspired by empathy will become increasingly important. Innovation will need a design-thinking mindset. This book is an excellent primer to build your mental muscle for creative problem-solving’
- Dr Rohini Srivathsa, National Technology Officer, Microsoft India
‘Industries must graduate from solving problems to identifying and framing the problems worth solving, and this is a skill that doesn’t come organically. More than brilliant ideas, we need genuine customer insights and disciplined execution. In Design Your Thinking, Dr Soni offers a framework based on design thinking and shows us how one can become a more disciplined problem-solver’
- Soumitra Bhattacharya, President, Bosch Group in India
‘A fascinating and insightful book, about something that has not yet been simplified to the extent of driving innovation. There have been many purists and theorists explaining divergent and convergent thinking, design methodology and the need to humanize work, but not many have translated the concepts into something tangible and meaningful for organizations. Design Your Thinking does that. Worth reading several times’
- Kalyan Ram Madabhushi, CEO, Global Chemicals, Aditya Birla Group
‘As Dr Pavan Soni says, design thinking is to innovation what Six Sigma is to quality. This book will show you how to become a master design thinker and therefore an expert innovator. It provides a clear framework, plenty of techniques and tools, and lots of relevant examples. A must-read: an excellent and timely book on an important topic’
- Jaideep Prabhu, Co-author of Jugaad Innovation
‘From samvedana to srijansheelta, as I often put it, summarizes the design zig-zag that Pavan so lucidly describes in this book. It helps in situating an unmet need of people, potential customers and, in some cases, co-creators in the centre of the problem-solving process. I hope this book helps many readers to recognize the need for developing sensitivity and not just the skills for designing affordable solutions’
- Prof Anil K. Gupta, Founder, Honey Bee Network
‘Dr Soni’s book adds two unique stages of inspiration and scale to the product-development process of design thinking. It also provides practical wisdom from around the world. Design Your Thinking is a much-needed book for aspiring product developers and business leaders alike’
- Dr Gopichand Katragadda, Former Group CTO, Tata Sons
‘Pavan Soni does an incredible job of framing design thinking (DT) as a mindset rather than merely as a toolkit. He demolishes the myth that DT is all about empathy and customer service. Empathy needs to blend with expertise in order to yield sustainable business. If you need to understand what DT is all about and how you can fire up innovation at your work, you came to the right place’
- Charles Dhanaraj, University of Denver
‘Dr Pavan Soni, in his book Design Your Thinking, urges you to think innovatively and adopt a human-centric approach towards modern-day problem-solving. This book is set to be an essential read for the new-age leaders of tomorrow’
- Kulmeet Bawa, Managing Director, SAP Indian Subcontinent
‘Design Thinking is more about thinking than just designing, and in Design Your Thinking, Dr Pavan Soni offers a research-backed and practically relevant primer on how to foster a systematic approach of thinking and problem-solving’
- Dr Rajendra Srivastava, Dean, Indian School of Business
‘India needs innovation at scale. Design Your Thinking endeavours to offer the proven tools and methods to unearth problems, develop ingenious ideas and solve the problems effectively, so that you create impact at scale. A much-needed and timely treatise on how to bring discipline into our otherwise chaotic approach towards creativity’
- Major General Anil Khosla, Former Military Secretary to the President of India
‘Pavan’s book couldn’t be more timely, given the challenges the corporate world is facing. Being part of one of the world’s most innovative companies, I can fully relate to the fact that innovation is not a one-off eureka moment or a one-time event but a structured, repeatable process that must be embedded into an organization’s DNA. Design Your Thinking would help you do the same, systematically’
‘Extremely well-written book. Highly readable, lucid and with relevant Indian examples having the right connect to the global context. Introduces design thinking to every lay person and professional! Loved it!’
‘In Design Your Thinking, Dr Pavan Soni, has brought alive the fact that a journey towards breakthrough must be conceptualized, strategized and embarked upon in a structured manner. A must read for leaders, entrepreneurs and executives who aim to nurture a culture of innovation, by design’
- Ajay Nanavati, Former MD, 3M India
- Girish Paranjpe, Former Joint-CEO, Wipro
- Deepak Chopra, Group CEO, ANAND
‘As Bill Gates famously said: “Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time.” Design thinking is that approach to innovation. Through Design Your Thinking, Pavan offers key insights on practicing design thinking and fostering an innovation culture at scale’
‘Are you a student? A teacher? An entrepreneur? A manager? A thinker? Does the question “Can thinking be patterned?” interest you? Go and read Pavan’s book. You will be convinced that the answer is “Yes”'
‘As we move from efficiency-centric world to experience-centric world, the design paradigm shifts from system-centric to customer-centric model. This book offers the framework to ideate, evaluate and converge on our creative efforts to reframe the problem and build a solution which is desirable, deployable and scalable’
- Rajiv Bhalla, Managing Director, Barco India
- Prof S. Sadagopan, Director, IIIT Bangalore
- Vijaya Kumar Ivaturi, Former CTO, Wipro
‘The terms design and design thinking are mistakenly used interchangeably. In this book, Pavan has very lucidly explained, with a lot of examples, how and why design thinking is a disciplined approach to solving problems—the outcome of which may lead to innovations!’
- Ravi Arora, Author of Igniting Innovation
‘In this book, Dr Pavan Soni has quoted numerous real-life business scenarios which provide the reader with an opportunity not just to understand the concepts but also to practice those. Design Your Thinking is a must-read for anyone who is interested in questioning the status quo’
- Sreenath Narayanaiah, Director, Shared Business Services, Merck
‘Design thinking can be viewed as an analytic and creative process that engages a person in opportunities to experiment, create and prototype models, and to gather feedback and redesign. Dr Pavan Soni’s book is an excellent working example of this philosophy and pedagogy of learning. A must-read for all involved in design and learning in all spheres’
- Prof Parameshwar P. Iyer, Principal Research Scientist, Indian Institute of Science
‘Design Your Thinking is a rare blend of academic depth and business practicality, written in a way that would appeal to broader audiences. It amplifies the power and impact of earlier design-thinking frameworks and shows how individuals can embrace the design-thinking mindset of “clear head, deep heart, thick skin”. This book is a must-read for all those who want to “perceive, pivot or persist” in this new age’
- Dr Madanmohan Rao, Charter Member, TiE Bangalore
‘Design Your Thinking provides a great inside look at creative problem-solving. It is a must-read for designers, entrepreneurs and managers involved in innovation’
- Prof Klaus Lang, University of Applied Sciences Neu-Ulm, Germany
‘Design Your Thinking provides practitioners with insights into how design thinking can be utilized, as well as a philosophical base on which design thinking stands. A great gift from the country of wonderful frugal innovations’
- Prof Norio Tokumaru, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan
‘Leading brands worldwide have made design thinking a part of their organizational DNA, and for good reason. Design thinking enables you to zoom out and view the big picture, which could be the magic ingredient behind breakthrough ideas. This book will enable novices to explore the world of design thinking and help readers get a deeper understanding of the subject’
- Vikas Gupta, Managing Director, Talent, Deloitte
‘Dr Pavan Soni’s book on design thinking couldn’t be more timely and relevant. Replete with wonderful case studies and best practices from across a range of companies, Design Your Thinking will not only make you think but inspire you to act’
- Sripada Chandrasekhar, Clinical Professor, Organisational Behaviour, Indian School of Business
‘Time has come that design thinking be applied beyond products, beyond customers and beyond specific functions. We at Bigbasket try that every single day, and I wish you do the same. This book would serve as a definitive guide in your journey to embrace design thinking in totality’
- Hari Menon, Co-founder and CEO, Bigbasket.com