Interdisciplinary approach: products and services from the customer’s point of view
Added value & time horizon
Added value: solution of complex products & services with customer-centric view
Time horizon: short to medium term
“Design thinking is a system that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business can convert into consumer value and market opportunity”
Tim Brown
Founder of IDEO
Team – Space – Process
Team – space – processes are the success factors of Design Thinking. An interdisciplinary team ensures that different perspectives are taken and formulated in Design Thinking. The interdisciplinary team develops together the question of what will be the subject of the process. Thereafter, the needs and motivations of people or customers are worked out. For these ways of thinking one develops concepts, which go through a multiple examination process (from the point of view of the target group). The combination of the different phases of the Design Thinking process (understanding, observation, defining perspectives, finding ideas, developing and testing prototypes) is supported by visual and haptic impressions. Not only the solution, but also the customer requirements are often unknown. Design Thinking focuses on user desires and needs, as well as user-driven innovations. In order to implement Design Thinking, an appropriate space is required in which teams can work creatively in parallel or separately with different materials such as Lego bricks, whiteboards, and so on.
The Design Thinking process consists of six phases:
- Understand: The team removes the observation frame / problem area
- Observing: The participants take in the view and thinking of the users
- Defining perspectives: The findings gained are compiled and the perspectives are defined
- Idea Generation: A variety of solutions are collected to focus on one or a few
- Prototypes: prototypes are created for the target groups
- Test: Successful test of the prototypes at the target groups
Focussing on specific target groups and feeling into these target groups leads to innovative products and services that are attractively attractive to customers and target groups as well as technically feasible for the company.