Designing for Growth

A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers

Columbia UP, 2011

15 min read

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This hands-on manual for corporate innovation says to combine the best of analytical thinking and creative design.

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What happens if you put analytical thinkers on the same teams as creative designers? Actually, this combination of opposites can become much greater than the sum of its parts. For fast, cost-effective, replicable product innovation, designers need analytical thinkers as much as analysts need designers. Innovation experts Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie set up four questions as the framework for implementing a systematic process for achieving innovative concepts. Their graphically interesting manual lays out steps and tools you can use to achieve great internal operating efficiencies, to generate true innovation or even to disrupt entire industries. The authors temper pure creativity with discipline, risk management and strict boundaries, while leaving open the possibility of breakthrough innovation. Their methods demystify the often opaque world of design in a way any analytics manager can grasp. getAbstract recommends this intelligent presentation to managers and leaders at all levels, and to designers who seek ways to apply their creativity in a results-oriented, structured manner.

Summary

Demystifying the Creative Process

Despite the vagueness around “design,” the “creative process” and “design thinking,” they are neither abstract terms nor mysterious methods best left to artists and bohemians. As is true of most other business processes, you can reduce the design approach to a predictable and repeatable operation involving steps and tools – a system. Moreover, practically anyone willing to learn and use this system can apply it. Indeed, even your company’s most analytical, risk-averse managers can become “design thinkers.”

Like most knowledge workers, you may find that adding a design mind-set to your deep-seated business mind-set (made up of data, spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations) is challenging. If you’re an analytical thinker who wants to learn design thinking, first come to terms with the gap between the two. Then embrace the belief that design and analytical processes can complement each other and become a powerful competitive advantage, especially during uncertain times.

Design thinking requires welcoming viewpoints that most corporate managers may find unfamiliar. For instance, you must be able to place yourself in your customers...

About the Authors

Innovation and design expert Jeanne Liedtka served as Chief Learning Officer for United Technologies Corporation. Tim Ogilvie leads Peer Insight, an innovation strategy firm. He has worked on “service innovation” with governments worldwide.

Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie

Designing for Growth

A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers

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Demystifying the Creative Process

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