{"id":13451,"date":"2017-11-09T11:25:45","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T11:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marvel7077.wpengine.com\/?p=13451"},"modified":"2020-09-03T12:42:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T11:42:11","slug":"shh-dont-tell-theres-no-magic-design-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marvelapp.com\/blog\/shh-dont-tell-theres-no-magic-design-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Shh! Don\u2019t Tell Them There\u2019s No Magic In Design\u00a0Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the term 'Design Thinking'<\/em> first emerged on the scene, I found it completely puzzling. People were treating it as if it was a revolutionary new methodology to produce better products and services. They were talking about how entire companies were adopting this new approach, and those companies were becoming more competitive in the marketplace and seeing huge increases in customer satisfaction.<\/p>\n

Now, every few years, someone touts some new approach or method that\u2019s going to change the world. It\u2019s part of how consultants make money. Brand an idea and sell it. Make a ton of money until the next big thing comes around. So, I\u2019m used to these cycles by now.<\/p>\n

Yet, Design Thinking was in my own backyard. It\u2019s supposed to be a shift in how companies think about design, and that\u2019s where I\u2019ve been working for the last 37 years. I needed to find out more about what it was.<\/p>\n

Did We Need a New\u00a0Term?<\/h2>\n

It wasn\u2019t hard to find people excited about Design Thinking. They were popping up in lots of organizations.<\/p>\n

Yet, when I asked them what they thought it meant, their answer puzzled me. They told me it was a new approach to design, focusing on problem solving with multidisciplinary teams, producing competitive end-to-end solutions that delight customers, users, and employees.<\/p>\n

\"Problem solving? Multidisciplinary teams? End-to-end solutions? Delighting users? <\/em>I\u2019d been researching and writing about integrating these elements for decades. What\u2019s new here?\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, our senior managers are really excited about design thinking. Much more than any time before. That\u2019s what\u2019s new!\u201d<\/em> they\u2019d tell me.<\/p>\n

For the longest time, I didn\u2019t get it. It seemed like we just added a new name to an old thing. Nothing was different. I thought it wouldn\u2019t last.<\/p>\n

But it did. Everywhere I\u2019d go, there would be presentations where folks would talk about how they\u2019ve introduced design thinking into their organization. (My wife and I would play this game. If we hear someone say \u201cdesign thinking\u201d in a presentation, we\u2019d each try to be the first to say \u201cI\u2019M DESIGNING WITH MY THOUGHTS!\u201d)<\/p>\n

\"Why did we need another term? Design worked perfectly fine, I thought. You could take any sentence that had design thinking<\/em> in it and substitute only the word design <\/em>and get the same meaning. Hell, you could just use thinking <\/em>most of the time and it still worked.\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Fighting the \u201cDesign Means Make It Pretty\u201d\u00a0Meme<\/h2>\n

For decades, I\u2019ve needed to do what every seasoned design professional has found themselves doing: explaining why design is more than just making something pretty. When I\u2019ve worked with other designers, they get it.<\/p>\n

But once someone who isn\u2019t a designer \u2014 someone who is a layperson \u2014 is introduced into the mix, I\u2019ve found I need to convince them that design isn\u2019t only about making the thing pretty. That\u2019s it\u2019s about solving problems. That\u2019s it\u2019s about end-to-end solutions.<\/p>\n

Some of the make-it-pretty meme comes from the way design is framed inside our society. TV shows, like Project Runway or This Old House, talk about design as the end stage, where the colors and decorations are added in. Go into a Home Depot or a Lowe\u2019s and you\u2019ll find a section of the store called the Design Center, where they sell paint and decorative knickknacks to complete your rooms. There\u2019s no discussion of problem solving or end-to-end solutions in that world of design.<\/p>\n

\"It\u2019s important to bring design into a project early, before the team settles on a solution, so they can truly explore the needs of the users. Yet, when we would propose this, we\u2019d get these funny looks. Why should we care about the design that early? We haven\u2019t even figured out what we\u2019re doing yet? <\/em>They\u2019d always push back and tell us to come back later, when it was time for design to clean things up.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s been the fight for decades. We\u2019ve spent so much time trying to get the laypeople to try to think about design in a bigger definition. Yet, they always come back to the notion that design is only about making it pretty.<\/p>\n

Design Thinking is a Reframing of\u00a0Design<\/h2>\n

The phrase design thinking <\/em>changed all that. To a layperson, it was completely new. While it was made up of words they thought they knew, the combination was novel. \u201cDesign thinking? What\u2019s that?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Adding the word \u2018thinking\u2019 to \u2018design\u2019 was a brilliant move. David Kelley and Tim Brown, the founders of IDEO who popularized the term, were smart to take advantage of the unfamiliarity of the phrase.<\/p>\n

<\/div>
<\/svg><\/div>

\"To those of us who\u2019ve been doing this for a long time, design thinking doesn\u2019t mean anything new.\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

To those of us who\u2019ve been doing this for a long time, design thinking doesn\u2019t mean anything new. But it also doesn\u2019t mean \u2018make it pretty.\u2019 And that\u2019s why it works.<\/p>\n

It changes the conversation. When you add \u2018thinking\u2019 to the word \u2018design, it\u2019s no longer about color or decoration. It\u2019s now about process. It\u2019s about getting to a more intentional outcome. It\u2019s about thinking about the experience of the customer, user, and employee.<\/p>\n

<\/div>
<\/svg><\/div>

\"Design Thinking is a shortcut for a new way for non-designers to approach design.\" <\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

It says:<\/p>\n