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How Consultants Use Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a collaborative and creative approach to problem solving built on empathy for the customer.  We use a variety of tools, techniques, and methods to apply design thinking in innovation processes.  It is successful in new product development (NPD) because design thinking focuses on the customers’ needs and understanding from their perspective – of issues or challenges. 

Traditionally, design was an afterthought in product development.  Designers were called at the final stages to make a product or its package “look pretty”.  Today, however, design thinking integrates aesthetics, functionality, and production throughout the innovation process – from ideation to commercialization. 

I was recently asked, since design thinking is so successful in helping innovators meet goals, can it be applied in other situations?  The answer is a definitive YES!  Design thinking helps teachers and trainers, consultants, and small business owners. 

Design Thinking and Teaching

As any teacher knows, students are all different.  Trainers and facilitators base learners with different needs and capabilities.  Students and participants learn differently too.  Some gain knowledge from listening to a lecture, others by viewing content visually, and many learn by experience. 

Design thinking offers several tools that are specially geared toward the various modes of learning.  The design thinking tools and techniques engage multiple senses so participants can hear, see, touch, and engagd in the learning process. 

For example, an affinity diagram is a simple tool for categorizing ideas and innovation.  But you can use the same concept for learners to categorize vocabulary words, engineering processes, or biological concepts. 

Design Thinking and Consultants

Business and management consultants can use design thinking tools to help frame problems and to guide teams to optimize solutions.  For example, senior marketing experts in a firm often consult with individual NPD project teams.  Understanding the customer’s journey can frame the development process as well as the marketing campaign.  A customer journey map shows how various personas become aware of a product need, make a selection, buy and use the product,  and dispose or service it after use. 

External business consultants can also use the customer journey map to describe engagement with the team, senior management, and other key stakeholders.  For projects involving product or quality improvements (like Six Sigma), design thinking tools complement the quantitative data with qualitative evaluations.  Understanding how people feel about certain solutions builds rapport and support for total quality management. 

Design Thinking and Small Business

Owning and operating a small business is both rewarding and challenging.  Small business owners must maintain a pipeline of new products and new customers, all while managing day-to-day operations.  In many ways, the small business owner has more challenges than an innovation team seeking disruptive technology!

In order to understand and meet customer needs, small business owners use surveys and CRM systems to understand traffic to their shops.  Yet, data alone cannot predict transit attitudes that impact business conditions.  Small business owners can apply design thinking tools to better understand their customers and to grow their reach. 

One tool that helps identify customer needs and builds understanding is the customer empathy map.  Here, you put yourself into the shoes of your customer and gain perspective on what problems they face, how it makes them feel, what messages they see and hear, and what are the pain points and benefits of existing products and services.  Repeating the exercise for each of your target market segments helps the small business owner to identify the best way to help their customers have better lives. 

Using Design Thinking

Design thinking offers a great set of tools and techniques that help product development practitioners, teachers, trainers, consultants, and small business owners to better understand customers, clients, and end-users.  Empathy is at the heart of design thinking so that you deliver products and services that truly meet customer needs and make them happy. 

Many of the design thinking tools utilize all our senses to hear, see, and touch artifacts that bring data to life.  Design thinking draws on collaborative problem-solving, recognizing that the best ideas are nurtured by a group of people with different experiences and viewpoints.  Finally, design thinking is it creative process, often starting with a blank sheet of paper and no preconceived notions of products or customer behaviors. 

Learn More

If you are a management consultant or small business owner struggling to identify customers and solutions, you need to join the Life Design Master Mind group.  In Life Design Master Mind, we use design thinking applied to life and investigate how to achieve our best purpose, what steps to take in the next phase of life, and how to help those around us.  Join me on 21 October 2019 at noon CDT (1 pm EDT/10 am PDT) for a Q&A webinar and Life Design Master Mind pilot.  Register now!

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Think Tanks and Advisory Boards

I am still super excited about the publication of PDMA Essentials Volume 3.   My chapter on virtual teams (Chapter 6) describes a model of five elements and 16 practices.  The virtual team model (VTM) helps new product development (NPD) teams improve communication and effectiveness when team members are geographically dispersed.  You can learn more about the VTM here or by taking an online course that helps NPD project teams and leaders apply each element to their real-world situation. 

It is also really exciting to read and learn from the other authors who contributed to PDMA Essentials 3.  The book offers descriptions of common innovation constraints (like dispersed teams) and offers practical solutions to overcome these barriers to productive NPD deployment.  Part 1 describes individual and consumer constraints in NPD.  You can read a related blog post that shares information from Chapter 1 of PDMA Essentials 3 (Increasing Creativity by Creating Boundaries).  Part 2 covers organizational constraints, like virtual teams, and Chapter 4 offers advice on using a think tank to overcome internal NPD barriers.  Finally, Part 3 describes market constraints that inhibit acceptance of new products and services. 

Organizational Constraints to Innovation

Innovators often face barriers to creativity and acceptance of failure within their organizations due to limited processes, structures, and resources.  For example, an organizational constraint to innovation within an organization includes limited training and the lack of enabling processes for NPD.  Successful firms and NPD project leaders embrace the inherently risky nature of innovation while simultaneously allowing teams to determine success criteria. 

Symptoms of Innovation Barriers

in Chapter 4 of PDMA Essentials 3, the authors describe five symptoms of innovation constraints within organizations.  These symptoms can be observed by project sponsors, executives, and even the team members themselves.  As an innovation process improvement consultant, I have noted these observable behaviors at client companies that are struggling to convert ideas into successful commercial products.  Symptoms of innovation constraints within or organization are (Chapter 2, PDMA Essentials 3, pg. 64):  

  1. Lack of internal cooperation,
  2. Lack of external cooperation,
  3. Shortcomings in goal-setting,
  4. Lack of adequate infrastructure, and
  5. Restriction of innovation action.

Think Tanks

In their research, the authors found that innovation constraint symptoms were driven by four primary causes.  These include lack of skills or motivation, and operational or strategic limitations within the organization.  As a solution, the authors describe a think tank to open the organization to creative problem-solving.  

An innovation think tank involves several elements.  First, a neutral, reserved space must be provided for the team members to practice their craft.  The space should provide appropriate resources, such as literature references and materials for experimentation, as well as individual desks for “heads-down” quiet time.  Often with today’s focus on collaboration, open office plans neglect the opportunity for quiet time that technical experts need to study and analyze complex problems.  A think tank can provide both reserved and collaborative spaces for expert team members working on an innovation project. 

Collaboration is a crucial element of success for any NPD endeavor.  However, while open office spaces encourage trust-building and social interactions, a project focus can be lacking.  The think tank model instead encourages facilitated networking to “foster communication and exchange” (Chapter 4, PDMA Essentials 3, pg. 72).  Networking and collaboration in the think tank are focused on problem-solving more than just establishing new relationships. 

In their extensive in practical research, the authors found that the think tank was a valuable tool for managing challenging innovation work, especially in the early stages of NPD projects.

Advisory Boards

An advisory board is a little different than a think tank.  The think tank is focused on internal processes and expanding the idea set of staff solving specific innovation challenges.  Advisory boards, on the other hand, look externally to identify customer needs and to seek collaboration for individual problems. 

In a customer advisory board, a panel of lead users convene on a regular basis to offer feedback to a company regarding its products and services.  The lead users and customers who either purchase large volumes or who use the products in unique ways.  The key to a successful customer advisory board is trust among the users and the firm.  NPD teams expect to gain insights on customer needs and to gain understanding of feature improvements through the dialogue of a customer advisory board. 

Professional advisory boards convene to help individuals advance their own goals.  There are a lot of examples of industry advisory boards and small business development advisory boards.  An industry advisory board is typically composed of company executives who lead and manage firms that manufacture or service products within the given category.  For example, a housing advisory board might meet regularly to discuss future needs based on the current labor market, and environmental issues.  Companies participate in industry advisory boards to learn what the future might hold, and to share common industry concerns.  Sometimes these industry advisory boards endorse or lobby for government regulations to benefit their industry. 

Small business advisory boards are usually run by a trained facilitator who guides the members through the formation and growth steps for a business.  The benefit of the facilitator of the facilitation is that the participants, who are newbies, can utilize the facilitator’s experience and guidance to frame their own decisions.  Another advantage of the small business advisory board is that all of the members are facing similar challenges at the same time, so they can share and learn from one another.  Knowing where to find an affordable web designer and which local financial institutions are friendly to small businesses is invaluable to these participants. 

Master Mind  

A master mind group is another category of think tanks or advisory boards and is founded for similar reasons:  to share industry knowledge, to brainstorm solutions to specific challenges, and to grow a business.  The key difference between a master mind group and a general advisory board is that each member of the master mind group is expected to actively participate in each session.  Master mind group members will be in the so-called “hot seat” for about 10 to 15 minutes during each meeting to share their challenges, much like a customer advisory board.  However, in the master mind group, the other members will immediately share ideas from their own experiences to address the issue, like is done in an industry or small business advisory board.  Thus, master mind groups have the benefit of members both giving and receiving help to achieve goals. 

Using a Think Tank or Advisory Board

Both think tanks and advisory boards offer a lot of advantages and benefits for innovation professionals.  Increased collaboration is a key outcome of the shared knowledge and experiences that group members bring.  Support and accountability to achieve goals is another important result.  And, finally, enhanced customer interactions to understand needs and challenges drive success. 

If you plan to implement a think tank or advisory board, be prepared to spend significant time planning the structure and necessary participation of group members.  If not, a single failure can doom the effort for all time.  You may want to hire a trained facilitator that can coach and support team members on their journey.  Be you sure that everyone involved treats this space and time for innovation as sacred without disruption of day-to-day activities. 

Learn More

To learn more about a specific think take example, please read Chapter 4 of PDMA Essentials 3.  There is a lot of information on the internet (of course) about industry advisory boards and small business development groups as well.  And if you are interested in accelerating your innovation success please join our open master mind group utilizing Design Thinking tools to tackle life’s biggest challenges.  You can learn more about the Life Design Master Mind in a free webinar held on 16 or 18 April 2019.  Register here for the webinar and click here to learn more about the Life Design Master Mind group.

For other questions about building successful teams for product development, I can be reached at [email protected] or area code 281, 280-8717.  I love helping individuals, teams, and organizations achieve their highest innovation goals!

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A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

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Design Thinking is NOT Creativity

The new cell phone is a sleek, thin device with a beautiful metallic case.  The new car has sexy lines and a wide, open grill.  The new kitchen appliance is smooth with only one start/stop button to preserve its modern look.

We often consider design as the element that brings form to product function.  In times past, designers were called into projects after all the technical specifications were completed.  Designers were told to make the product “pretty”, maybe put it into a nicer box or color it according to current fashion trends.

Design thinking, however, is not the same as design.  Design has largely been the purvey of graphic artists and specialists who create shells to surround products so that the ugly, functional guts are concealed from the user.  In contrast, design thinking is a human-centered activity that translates customer needs into product or service offerings within business constraints.  In other words, design thinking is more than just creative design.

What is Creativity?

Creativity is defined by dictionary.com as “the state or quality of being creative,” and “the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns…”  We view an artist’s interpretation of a landscape in an oil painting at “creative”.  When kids act out stories and make up games, we say they are “creative”.  My family and friends love my handmade greeting cards and tell me that I am “creative”.

In innovation, we seek creativity to generate alternative problem solutions.  We intentionally practice divergent thinking exercises for creativity these include things like brainstorming, brainwriting, and role-playing.  Our goal is to generate a lot of ideas, quickly.

In divergent thinking, we accept crazy ideas, even ones that defy known scientific boundaries and constraints.  It is possible to convert a nugget of a wild idea into a true product solution.  For example, most of us know the famous story of how a worker at 3M tested a not-so-sticky adhesive on slips of paper in his Sunday hymnal.  Form a nugget of an idea (a not-so-sticky adhesive) was born a billion-dollar brand for a mining firm.

Yet, the problem with divergent thinking is that it limits innovators to only making lists of creative ideas.  Brainstorming sessions end with flip chart paper covering the walls, hundreds of ideas written down, and the new product development (NPD) team feeling pretty darn good about the quantity of ideas generated.

Unfortunately, many, many firms stop at this point.

Convergent Thinking

Divergent thinking must be followed with a convergent thinking exercise.  Long lists of ideas are useless to an innovation team unless they know which ones to develop further.  Convergent thinking draws together similar ideas and concepts so that the NPD team can test assumptions.  Methods used in convergent thinking include mind-mapping, multi-voting, and affinity diagramming.

Results of convergent thinking provide a set of new product or service concepts that can be developed and tested.

Design Thinking

Both divergent and convergent thinking are subsets of design thinking.  Yet, design thinking is more collaborative and human-centered than simply generating prioritized lists of good ideas.  Design thinking is based on customer empathy and seeks first to understand a customer’s need.

Successful innovators use design thinking tools throughout the product development process.  First to identify customer needs, then to generate potential solutions, and finally to prototype and test functionality.  Companies embracing design thinking bring customers into the product development process by observing them and questioning their emotional engagement with a given problem and existing solutions.  As Clayton Christensen says, people don’t buy drills because they want a drill; they buy drills because they need a hole.

Innovators use design thinking tools to dig beyond the surface of a problem and then continue the conversation with a customer well beyond the idea generation stage.  The product functionality is tested with prototypes and customers validate the form of the packaging as well.  Usability tests dictate the inclusion of only a minimum number of functions so that the product is simple and attractive.

Design Thinking is More than Creativity

Successful innovators recognize the need to generate lots and lots of creative ideas during the product development process.  However, creativity often ends when a team brainstorms a bunch of potential solution ideas.

Design thinking goes deeper through creativity with customer empathy to understand the true problem.  Then, we use design thinking tools to test and validate solutions with those same customers.  Following a customer’s needs and emotional engagement with a potential solution leads to faster time-to-market and better long-term profitability.  You can’t afford to ignore your customers!

To Learn More

To learn how to apply design thinking to enrich innovation, please join us in Life Design Master Mind (LDMM), Innovation Master Mind (IMM), or New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification.  LDMM is designed for your personal growth by applying design thinking tools to finding the next step in life.  IMM is a 6-month peer coaching group that allows you to extend your NPD knowledge beyond NPDP certification and to collaborate with other CIOs and innovation managers.  You will realize improved efficiency and growth from LDMM, IMM, or through NPDP certification which entails a deep dive into strategy and NPD processes, including design thinking.  Feel free to contact me at [email protected] or 281-280-8717.  At Simple-PDH.com where we want to help you gain and maintain your professional certifications.  You can study, learn, and earn – it’s simple!

Speaking on Design Thinking

  • 7 September 2018 at Texas Association of Change Management Professionals Conference

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