The result of extensive international research with multinationals, governments, and non-profits, Design Thinking at Work explores the challenges organizations face when developing creative strategies to innovate and solve problems.
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What’s Inside:
Design thinking isn't easy. Many organizations have embraced design thinking as a fresh approach to tackle a fundamental problem: how to innovate in the face of rapid and disruptive change. But design thinkers constantly run headlong into challenges in bureaucratic and hostile cultures, and the promises of design thinking are left unrealized.
The result of extensive international research with multinationals, governments, and non-profits, Design Thinking at Work explores the challenges and tensions organizations face when developing creative strategies to solve problems. Through compelling examples and stories from the field, David Dunne explains how the best organizations, including Procter & Gamble and Pfizer, are dealing with these challenges, and what lessons can be drawn from their experiences. Essential reading for anyone interested in how design works in the real world, Design Thinking at Work challenges many of the wild claims that have been made for design thinking while offering a way forward.
Hoogendoorn's Umbrella
Storytelling is central to design. Stories bring context to otherwise disconnected facts and help us empathize with users. They provide insight and understanding. They transport us to the decisive moments when choices are made. Throughout my experiences studying design thinking, I have encountered many stories that shaped my understanding. One such story, is that of the Senz.
In a single week in March 2004, Gerwin Hoogendoorn lost three umbrellas to the elements. Frustrated by the experience, the Industrial Design student at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) set out to improve a product that had been essentially unchanged for 3,400 years. The ultimate result was Senz, a storm-proof umbrella designed to withstand whatever nature could throw at the hapless Dutch pedestrian.
Hoogendoorn explored everything about umbrellas: their tendency to flip inside out, to block visibility, to poke people in the eye. Umbrellas were a boring utilitarian product that didn’t fulfill their function well. So boring, in fact, that Hoogendoorn had to endure the ridicule of his fellow design students, Gerard Kool and Philip Hess, for even working on such a product.
His early ideas included a magnetic field to repel the rain and a helicopter-like device attached to the user’s head. Eventually, however, he focused on the aerodynamics of umbrellas; with no background in aerodynamics, he sought out the help of university contacts with expertise in the field. To build prototypes, he bought a couple of umbrellas, tore them apart and rebuilt them. He tested his ideas through computer simulation, wind tunnels and ‘in-use’ tests (taking them out in the Dutch rain).
With Kool and Hess – who, by now, had begun to come around to the idea – Hoogendoorn founded Senz in 2005. The first Senz umbrella was launched in November 2006; its original, quirky design captured the public imagination and the initial stock of 10,000 units sold out in nine days. In its first year, Senz won almost every major design award and went global in 2007.
A few years ago, I spent a sabbatical Hoogendoorn’s design school. TU Delft, is a venerated institution in the design world. During my time there, I experienced the Dutch rain on more than one occasion and my Senz Umbrella has proved equally effective home on the wet and windy coast of British Columbia. But I came back with more than just an umbrella.
Design thinkers are consummate storytellers, and throughout my journey they told me fascinating stories of the challenges they had faced, their wins and their losses. Life must be lived forwards, but it can only be understood backwards, and hindsight is needed to interpret experience. Working backwards, prototyping and user experiences are all concepts that work not only for designers and people like Hoogendoorn, but also for large organizations that seek to rebuild from within. Design thinking can be a way for people to look back at their own purpose and role within the organization, and their strategies for thriving in what was frequently a hostile environment.
Although through hindsight we can interpret our experiences, we must also look forwards. Look at the critical strategic decisions needed to get a program going, and operational decisions that could have long-term implications. Design Thinking at Work unpacks stories like this and what makes certain design operations successful.
Praise for Design Thinking at Work:
“Drawing on a wealth of research and real-world examples, David Dunne lays bare the tensions that face organizations when they try to shift to a more human-centric, design-driven way of working – and he provides insight into how to navigate those tensions to get results.
A must-read for any leader determined to challenge the status quo within their organization.”
“In Design Thinking at Work, David Dunne makes a notable contribution to the theory and practice of design thinking by identifying the three fundamental tensions – inclusion, disruption, and perspective – that every design thinker must constructively negotiate in order to produce great outcomes.”
“David Dunne tells remarkable stories of how leaders of innovation use design to plan their products, services, and even their organizations.
Furthermore, he explains the principles that others can use to surprise and delight users, and simply surprise their competitors.”
“Design Thinking at Work is a welcome contribution to our knowledge about how to actually make design thinking work and very valuable for those leading the way in organizations!”
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My essay appears in the Globe and Mail today! (If you don’t have a subscription you can sign up for a free account)… https://t.co/s0Lghfg1PJ