Design Mindset and Innovation: A Guide to Applying Design Thinking Techniques

DESIGN MINDSET AND
INNOVATION
Design Thinking can be described as the use of various
tools and methodology which will assist the decision
maker to solve problems arising in the course of business
(Gray, 2016). Applying the different design thinking
techniques shall assist a business in achieving an
innovative solution for the problem (Brenner,
Uebernickel & Abrell, 2016). Under design thinking, the
design mindset helps to set the perception required for
design thinking. In a design mindset, the decision maker
is required to have an imagination along with a
resonating approach (Johansson Sköldberg et al., 2013)‐ .
The Design mindset application procedure
Innovation can be described as the procedure of designing
and coming out with something new (Leinonen & Durall-
Gazulla, 2014). Hence, design and innovation have a deep
relationship whereby a proper mindset applied under a
team with a right environment can result in an innovative
business solution which can go a long way in assisting the
organization to perform considerably well and achieve a
competitive advantage (Vaajakallio & Mattelmäki, 2014).
References
Brenner, W., Uebernickel, F., & Abrell, T. (2016). Design thinking as mindset, process, and toolbox. In Design
Thinking for Innovation (pp. 3-21). Springer, Cham.
Curedale, R. (2018). Design Thinking: Process & Methods Guide. Design Community College Incorporated.
Gray, C. M. (2016, May). It's more of a mindset than a method: UX practitioners' conception of design methods.
In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 4044-4055). ACM.
Johansson Sköldberg, U., Woodilla, J., & Çetinkaya, M. (2013). Design thinking: past, present and possible‐
futures. Creativity and innovation management, 22(2), 121-146.
Kolko, J. (2015). Design thinking comes of age.
Leinonen, T., & Durall-Gazulla, E. (2014). Design thinking and collaborative learning. Comunicar, 21(42).
O'Keefe, A., & Rottenberg, S. (2017). Integrated Design Innovation: A Mindset for Designers of Tomorrow. Design
Management Review, 28(3), 10-16.
Vaajakallio, K., & Mattelmäki, T. (2014). Design games in codesign: as a tool, a mindset and a
structure. CoDesign, 10(1), 63-77.
Van Der Pijl, P., Lokitz, J., & Solomon, L. K. (2016). Design a better business: New tools, skills, and mindset for
strategy and innovation. John Wiley & Sons.
Steps Meaning
Empathize The decision maker needs to
empathize with the scenario (Van
Der Pijl, Lokitz & Solomon, 2016).
Define The problem has to be defined
Ideate The ideas need to be looked out
for (O'Keefe & Rottenberg, 2017).
Prototype Coming up with alternate
solutions
Test Testing and application of the
solution (Curedale, 2018).
(Source: Kolko, 2015).