It has a captivating name and it generates a considerable appeal even in the companies that are more reluctant to innovation. Its trajectory of diffusion in business processes began in the nineties (although the genesis of the term is much older), but the Design Thinking is experiencing the peak of its notoriety only now. The hype produced around this method can be felt based on the exponential increase in the articles, courses, and events dedicated to it. The analysis of the research of this term on Google shows an uninterrupted growth trend over the last ten years.
Beyond the enthusiasm and appreciation generated by the techniques used to involve stakeholders, Design Thinking has had the merit of making companies understand that designing products and services is something different from designing something “nice”: it is a design process based on the understanding of users and their needs (but also of the constraints of the company itself and of the market in which it operates), with a view aimed at problem-solving and the multidisciplinary approach.
The Design thinking is a process of iterative design and it is structured in several phases that lead to understanding the user, questioning the assumptions and redefining the problems with the aim of identifying strategies and alternative solutions. It applies to the design of products and services and makes it possible to evaluate, through the involvement of professionals and different components within the process (or of the company), the constraints existing within the organization or the market itself.
There are different formulations of the phases of Design thinking, but the most widespread is certainly the one proposed by d.school, the design institute of Stanford University.
The founder of the institute, David Kelley, then continued this approach through another creature of him, the IDEO company, which has made a real paradigm of Design Thinking.
In recent years, “Design thinking” has become a sort of buzzword that has thrilled many and allowed its supporters to multiply. But if its worst detractors reduce it to “playing with post-it”, this approach has certainly allowed designers to break into many companies that have decided to open up to business innovation.
