Design thinking ‘for business’

You can read it everywhere, business should use design thinking, but what do they mean by this. What is design thinking and how is it used?

It all starts with Creativity. This is not something you can only learn in Art College, it is something people have. It is a manager who deals with his department in such a way that there is a spirit among his employees. It is someone that comes up with a new system to dry the dishes or a child who builds dens at the bottom of the garden. Creativity is about making connections, relations and associations that are new, not yet thought of, and having the courage to speak these ideas out loud. It is about not being afraid to make mistakes, but to learn from them and realize that something important may lie in each seemingly crazy idea.

Design thinking is the applying of this creativity in the set frame of your business and its market. It helps you to become aware that the product or service you are offering is part of a system and that you can decide on where, how and when to take part in this. It is the system around your product or service is what needs to be designed. How do others look at your company, what do they find important, and many more questions need being asked to become aware of who you are and what you sell. You will design not the product but the experience around your product.

This leads to the question; What do you sell?

The scenario of a design thinking case is set in a situation where the experience of buying and using takes a central position in the questions to who, how, where, and why you sell your product or service. The product becomes part of a system that supports the product and represent your company.

How to start working on this is simply by asking yourself questions. What is really being bought is it the object or service or is it the experience, and what is this experience, what experience do people, interested in your product or service, want and why do they want this? The client takes a central position in

Creating value
Our world is more and more ruled by corporations and therefor the responsibility and power to make change formerly of governments is shifting to business. Governments are providing the framework and guidelines but it is the business that has to innovate. Taking responsibility over the effects of their action, local and global. Increasingly, consumers are becoming aware of what they buy, especially today where you have to be carbon conscience and have faire triad bio lunches. The aspect of the social and environmental responsibility of companies is a growing part of the buying experience or your clients.

The same questions remains; What do you sell?