Design Thinking Assessment: Business Innovation Case Study Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Team Rubicon case study, focusing on the application and impact of design thinking principles in the context of disaster relief and business innovation. The paper examines the organization's evolution from a small group of veterans to a global network, emphasizing the importance of empathizing with target users, defining needs, and employing iterative processes like prototyping and testing. The study highlights how design thinking facilitated problem-solving, innovation, and organizational growth, especially during critical events like the Nepal earthquake. The report also discusses the key findings from the initial research and the potential for further evolution within the organization. The conclusion summarizes the importance of design thinking methodology and its impact on Team Rubicon's framework enhancement on a global scale.

Running head: DESIGN THINKING ASSESSMENT
Design Thinking Assessment
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Executive Summary
The particular paper analyses the case study of Team Rubicon for understanding the importance
of design thinking, taking into account a real world problem. It establishes a thinking model that
is required by any organization to reach its full potential. A thorough in-depth research has been
done on the case study in order to properly understand the value of design thinking in the field of
innovation for the purpose of evolution.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
Discussion............................................................................................................................3
Empathising the target users............................................................................................3
Determining the needs of target users.............................................................................4
Initial research key findings.............................................................................................4
How was the problem statement defined?.......................................................................4
Potential Evolution..........................................................................................................5
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................5
References............................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The following case study takes into account Team Rubicon that was formed in the year
2010 in Haiti. Team Rubicon comprised of former military veterans and was formed in order to
respond and deal with the disaster occurrences (Kranke et al., 2017). This paper thoroughly
analyses the stages involved in design thinking process which were implemented in order to
enhance the business venture in terms of global efforts. Earlier, the organization comprised of 6
vets which has now grown into 28,000 proactive volunteers across the whole world.
Discussion
Empathising the target users
Team Rubicon was initially formed in order to provide a thorough support to the victims
of natural disasters. It was a small organization with an employee base of 6. In order to gain
more vets and be able to help more disaster victims, the team approached IDEO for potential
support in the field. The team was provided an eleven week of support by the government. Many
other veteran as well as military groups also provided helping hands for the case which helped
the company to steadily emerge on the global scale. Currently there are 28,000 people
volunteering and supporting the employee base of the organization which can be stated as a huge
achievement for the whole team. They are providing a steady support to all the needy people
who have been victimised by the occurrences of natural disasters in terms of food and
medications. The first global deployment of team Rubicon was in the year 2015 (Goda et al.,
2015). During an earthquake which shook the whole of Nepal, the UK and US teams were
appointed and deployed to provide a rescue support to the victims.

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Determining the needs of target users
Forming a completely new organizational framework for the purpose of meeting certain
expectations and needs of the common people is not an easy task to be accomplished. A set of
design thinking processes were implemented to support this cause by the whole team itself
(Liedtka, 2015). In order to determine the needs of the target users it is very important to gather
down all the information in the empathising phase and have a clear knowledge of the existing
challenges. Since Team Rubicon had a clear goal from the very beginning, identifying the
potential challenges was not a tough job. However, in order to point out the specific
requirements of the disaster victims several government organizations including IDEO served a
helping hand.
Initial research key findings
By implementing all the gathered information, also taking into account the calculated
observations, team Rubicon had its first deployment in the year 2015. During the Nepal
earthquake that deceased more than 7000 people, team Rubicon served as the prime helping
hand. While serving the victims on a global scale for the first time, the team also continued its
research regarding the needs of the victims. The team found that the most effective form of help
that can be served to the disaster victims is medications and first-aids. A firm design thinking
process comprising of the ideate phase helped a lot in determining the key findings of the
research (Carlgren, Rauth & Elmquist, 2016). In addition to that, deploying a prototype team on
a global scale during the 2015 Nepal earthquake proved to be immensely successful for Team
Rubicon.

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How was the problem statement defined?
It took several processes of the design thinking approach for the purpose of defining the
problem. The prime processes that were implemented were prototyping and testing. The
prototyping helped Team Rubicon to emphasize the complete problematic scenario (Van Aken &
Berends, 2018). Simultaneous deployment of the team for the testing purpose during the Nepal
earthquake proved to be immensely helpful for the problem statement definition as well.
Potential Evolution
From having an initial employee base of 6 veterans to gaining almost 28,000 volunteers
across the whole world, Team Rubicon has seen a subsequent growth in the past years. The
organization is still growing in terms of employees, organizational framework as well as the
acquired good practices (Brenner & Uebernickel, 2016). The vets working under Team Rubicon
are highly professional and experienced in terms of dealing with the concepts of disaster
management. If this steady improvement graph is maintained, the organization will surely reach
further new heights in the near future.
Conclusion
To conclude, this article provides a thorough understanding in identifying the potential
importance of design thinking methodology. For further understanding regarding this approach, a
real world model of Team Rubicon has been taken into account. The paper establishes a firm
baseline incorporated by Team Rubicon and the good practices that were implemented in order
to deal with disaster management. It is evident from the paper that the organization has seen an
immense growth in terms of framework enhancement on a global scale by the use of design
thinking methodology.

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References
Brenner, W., & Uebernickel, F. (2016). Design thinking for innovation. Research and Practice.
Carlgren, L., Rauth, I., & Elmquist, M. (2016). Framing design thinking: The concept in idea and
enactment. Creativity and Innovation Management, 25(1), 38-57.
Goda, K., Kiyota, T., Pokhrel, R. M., Chiaro, G., Katagiri, T., Sharma, K., & Wilkinson, S.
(2015). The 2015 Gorkha Nepal earthquake: insights from earthquake damage survey.
Frontiers in Built Environment, 1, 8.
Kranke, D., Weiss, E. L., Gin, J., Der-Martirosian, C., Constantine Brown, J. L., Saia, R., &
Dobalian, A. (2017). A “culture of compassionate bad asses”: A qualitative study of
combat veterans engaging in peer-led disaster relief and utilizing cognitive restructuring
to mitigate mental health stigma. Best Practices in Mental Health, 13(1), 20-33.
Liedtka, J. (2015). Perspective: Linking design thinking with innovation outcomes through
cognitive bias reduction. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(6), 925-938.
Van Aken, J. E., & Berends, H. (2018). Problem solving in organizations. Cambridge University
Press.