Articles
Design thinking is not a tool for every season and every reason. There are certain contexts and attributes that suit this approach better than others. Read more
Design thinking is not just about designing clever technology or a piece of beautiful furniture. It also is not about the end-user, or a domain limited to a handful of experts. It’s much more. Read more
One of the unique and pragmatic aspects of design thinking is its simultaneous focus on human desirability, technical feasibility, and business viability. Read more
There is a certain class of problem that is best dealt with by embracing a design thinking approach. Here are three conditions that qualify. Read more
The author dwells on the features, advantages and benefits that separate a great product from one not-so-good. Sometimes a surfeit of features can be a turn-off; instead, the focus should be on ease-of-use, relevance and benefits. Read more
If you consider the problem space as being known or unknown, and the solution(s) being know or unknown (yet), we have four quadrants. Design Thinking is at its best when confronted with a thorny problem with no apparent solution. Read more
A look at reasons behind why this is the right time for a radical shift in your thinking by adopting a design thinking approach. Read more
While customer centricity is essential for a business, knowing who really the customer is, knowing the desire to be addressed, and where to focus will take time to come by. Read more
Creativity, which is the act of generating ideas that are novel and useful, is of growing importance, and yet it is mostly considered as the preserve of experts and specialists and that most common people must settle for mere improvisation or common sense. Read more
To create a hit product, an innovator can either create a need or build an ecosystem for it. Both creating the necessity and meeting one with creation of an ecosystem calls for planning, investment, and, of course, risk taking. Read more
The next time you demand creativity from your team, ask them for 50 ideas and not two good ideas. It's your task to select the best or fuse the ordinary and let them go for the volume. Read more
The most fundamental distinction between strategic thinking and design thinking is that strategy is all about OR, whereas design thinking is mostly about AND. Read more
Thinking can be the starting point of the fuzzy front end of the innovation process and Six Sigma can take over from there on once most of the uncertainties are resolved. Read more
Thomas Edison, "The Wizard of Menlo Park", exemplifies the five attributes of design thinkers: Holistic, Uninhibited, Collaborative, Iterative, and Visual. These characteristics that can be honed systematically and effortfully. But this takes courage -- a commodity in increasingly short supply. Read more
The idea is to not necessarily look at the word ‘design thinking’ but to learn the essence of what it takes to hone the skill sets, learn the tool sets, and, more importantly, embrace the mindsets of expert problem solvers. Read more
Design Thinking has certain domains and contexts where it beings about transformative results, whereas in other realms, the method could be useless, if not counterproductive. Read more
One of the favourite approaches to ideation is brainstorming, where a bunch of employees get together and think of solutions for a problem. It’s a go-to approach for most corporates, except that the approach isn’t nearly as effective as its adoption. Read more
It all boils down to our inability to think under ambiguous situations, thinking of others first, with a strong need for order and hierarchy, and unwillingness of getting our hands dirty. Read more
Slacking may seem like an unusual way to boost productivity and creativity, but several companies have experimented with backing employees’ risky ideas and have gained. Read more
Improvisation has a place in problem-solving but making it the default is problematic. That’s what I think Indians are guilty of. Improvisation makes sense as long as it emerges from a genuine scarcity of resources, as demonstrated by the ISRO’s Mangalyaan team. Read more
The four most prominent explanations of why group brainstorming session are often wasteful are: idea blocking, evaluation apprehension, groupthink, and freeriding behaviour. Read more
Compartmentalizing the thinking when problem solving will help you to slowdown the thinking, devote adequate time to understanding the problem, looking at various possibilities, and objectively picking the best bet. Read more
If creativity would be our definitive feature going forward, there might be some counterintuitive and uneasy realizations that would pave the path, and one such insight is on the importance of boredom. Read more
Innovators actively look for ‘irrelevant’ work experience; people who could bring more than what meets the eye and what the resume suggests. Read more
A look at how human resources professionals can adopt the tenets of design thinking to craft differentiated and enduring employee experiences, and why the truest pursuit of customer obsession is always routed through employee obsessions. Read more
An idea can spread like an epidemic, provided it is made sticky, is set in the right context, and has the appropriate profile of people rallying around it, which Malcolm calls 'Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen'. Read more
Whether it's giving time for employees to work on their own or encouraging internal competition, companies that are at the forefront of innovation are doing things differently. Here are a few practices you can adopt. Read more
When it comes to innovation and change, often playing the 'enabler' role is far more important than being a symbol of change, or being in front and center (real) leaders don't innovate but protect those who innovate. Read more
If mutation is the secret of human survival, the case is no different for other species or even organizations. Mutation can be made possible and must be, in a systematic manner to see a firm living longer and that's where leaders contribute the most. Read more
Much against the widely held belief that innovations start with great ideas, they, in fact, start with well identified problems. With such problem campaigns ran periodically, very soon the organization would have helped surface real issues, across business, talent, and technology. Read more
Hackathons might, after all, be activities for the sake of activities, without any desirable outcome, and at best to improve one’s skills and feel happy about it. The organization or sponsor might not gain much, unless its designed in the very charter and proceedings. Read more
If you put the power of incentives and the irrational ways in which humans behave (predictably so), we can come up with a power recipe of motivating employees to experiment. Read more
Routines to an organization are like habits to an individual. They are highly sticky and time-saving. With a focus on setting up few but robust routines, the leader can build an organization that outlasts her tenure. Read more
Like any other skill, the abilities of being creative and empathetic can be enhanced. It calls for being mindful, disciplined and honest to the larger purpose. Read more
What if there is a silver bullet, one question that can tell you a lot about how creative somebody is? Would you be interested in knowing that question? Read more
How do leaders think? Are their cognitive capacities superior to others, or do they have different ways of thinking? The real trick is to have a mental makeup that, firstly, attempts to reduce the wrong decisions, and, secondly, avoids feeling guilty on a decision gone bad. Read more
Manufacturing is in need for relooking at its functional silos, its value chain and efficiently devised labour distribution to bring in a customer centric view and be innovative in turn. Read more
How do you maintain your sanity, empathy, compassion, and good business sense such that you not only retain your vision but also are able to inspire others along the way. Read more
While customer centricity is essential for a business, knowing who really the customer is, knowing the desire to be addressed, and where to focus will take time to come by. Read more
To create a hit product, an innovator can either create a need or build an ecosystem for it. Both creating the necessity and meeting one with creation of an ecosystem calls for planning, investment, and, of course, risk taking. Read more
If you can find five colleagues who think your idea rocks, chances are your boss won’t dismiss it. Innovation is a landmine leading to a gold mine. Learn to be politically astute. Read more
Creative teams not only need to be able to share their ideas verbally but also visually and physically, and a well-designed space can enable multiple forms of expression, quintessential for design thinking. Read more
It must also be stressed that thorny problems can’t be solved by solitary genius and that teams need to work repeatedly to develop a rhythm of problem-solving, especially in stressful situations. Read more
The greatest contributions of CEOs and founders is often in creating routines that shape behaviour for a long time to come. Hence, between great talent and robust routines, I will clearly side with the latter. Read more
A genuine sense of creativity requires you to put yourself in another person’s shoes, and look for solutions. You ought to be sensitive towards what other feel (read a deep heart), but not too sensitive about what other feel about you (read a thick skin). Read more