Innovation at Work: Design Thinking 101

TL;DR: When innovating, focus on the solution and end-users instead of the problem.

The purpose of design thinking is to give innovators a clear, repeatable framework for developing novel and useful solutions. Despite its name, design thinking is not confined to product design. It’s a structured approach that can extend to all areas of problem-solving.

“Whether it be the research and development of a new product or increasing workplace productivity in the office, design thinking provides a well-founded roadmap towards success.”

Design thinking has been incredibly successful over its lifetime because it asks its practitioners to change how they think. It shifts them away from a problem-centric mindset towards a solution- and user-centric mindset. That change may seem subtle, but its effects are far-reaching. It unlocks creativity, fosters empathy, and often leads to higher engagement, satisfaction, and performance.

Design thinking roadmaps are multistep processes and vary widely with the larger maps focusing more on the details than the big picture ideas at the heart of design thinking. To maintain simplicity, the design thinking framework provided here focuses on the three essences of design thinking covering research, prototyping, and implementation. 

Stage 1 - Research

The first step to design thinking is arguably the most important and requires practitioners to begin their problem solving journey not at the start but at the end with ample research into their user-base. This user-first mindset helps teams move from “How do I solve this?” to “How can our solutions help people?” which greatly increases the chance of adoption and, therefore, increases metrics of success (i.e., profits, engagement, morale, etc.).

Proper research at this step necessitates that users are brought into the design process as much as possible. They should be interviewed and observed with empathy to uncover their pain points, both explicit and latent. Explicit pain points are those users can clearly describe. Latent pain points, however, are the underlying frustrations or needs that users may not even realize exist but often hold the key to impactful innovation. Identifying both is what sets apart good solutions from exceptional ones.

Stage 2 - Prototyping

Once the pain points have been identified, design thinkers begin the prototyping process. Here, efforts should be made to brainstorm and ideate before the assemblage of prototyped solutions. The key point of this stage is not to assume any answers beforehand, but to keep an open mind to all possibilities and to always consider the end-user’s role in the process. The top solutions should then be prioritized, assembled, and tested for functionality and feasibility. The goal here should not be perfection, but learning through experimentation as to what works and what does not.

Stage 3 - Implementation

The next stage of design thinking is implementation where the prototyped solutions are deployed to the end-users. This is not, however, the end of the process. Design thinking has no end. Innovation is nonlinear, with frequent looping and backsteps to previous stages, and as such, solutions should be validated by engaging with end-users for feedback to determine the next steps. Remember, it is nearly impossible to get things right the first time around, so don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board and see where your design thinking mindset can take you.

Design thinking teaches us that innovation is not a single moment of inspiration, but a disciplined practice that consistently re-centers around people. By focusing less on the problem itself and more on the humans it affects, design thinking continues to guide teams toward outcomes that are not just creative, but genuinely meaningful.