Design Thinking and Innovation

This report explores the importance of design thinking and innovation in professional and knowledge development. It includes personal reflections on knowledge and personal development, as well as an action plan for short and long-term goals.

Running Head: Design thinking and innovation 0
Design thinking and innovation
Report
Student name
6/4/2019

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Executive summary
This is a reflective report in which I will share about my learning and experience during design
thinking workshop. I had enjoyed that workshop and its different modules each week. Every activity is
having a moral to understand the role of design thinking and innovations in professional development
and knowledge development.
This report will include each week and its activity to understand the importance of design
thinking in career development. In this report, an action plan for short terms and long terms will
describe in a later section.

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Table of Contents
Executive summary.....................................................................................................................................1
My Introduction of Report...........................................................................................................................3
Personal Reflection (on knowledge development)......................................................................................3
Personal Reflection (on personal development).........................................................................................5
Action Plan..................................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
References...................................................................................................................................................9

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My Introduction of Report
Design thinking is a process that provides different ideas to understand the problem from a
different point of views to provide a solution to that problem in the desired way (Anderson, 2016).
According to (Brown & Wyatt, 2010), design thinking is a very useful technique to find out the solution
of different problems with the help of mindset, brainstorming, prototypes, and many other approaches.
This report will explain about my learning from different workshops and blog writings. It will explain
about knowledge development and personal development, which will be useful in professionalism.
Personal Reflection (on knowledge development)
During the first week of that design it module, I learnt about innovation, entrepreneurship, and
their interrelated things. In that week, I learnt about expanding the business from small scale to large
scale based on innovation and entrepreneurship. I understand that hard work and knowledge are
helpful to get success and growth in the industry (Tonna, Bjerkholt, & Eimear, 2017). There are many
issues to getting success in the industry. Therefore, an entrepreneur should use innovations for
expanding their business at a high level. Disruptive innovations are highly used to enhance the business
of a company in short terms for high profit. In addition, disruptive innovations are helpful for growth
and success in the market (Thompson & van Vliet, 2018). When we carried out design thinking process
(see photo in blog entry 1, 27th March 2019), I felled that I am creative thinker than previously
thought.”
I learnt that the problem could be easy if we find their different issues from a different point of
view rather than jump on the solutions. To find a proper solution, it is necessary to learn about the
problem from a different point of view then think about the solution. During week fifth, I learnt that
brainstorming is necessary for problem solving. It is the best approach for problem solving, which was
founded by me from that week. In addition, design thinking is helpful in solving different problems using
creative thoughts and innovations. In addition, blog writing is necessary to learn from different activities,
which was held in our past and know about our skills to improve ourselves (Yang, 2009). When we
carried out visualizing persona (see photo in blog entry 4, 4th April 2019), I surprised that I am better in
that work than previously thought.

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On 27 March 2019, I wrote my blog of the first lecture and I mentioned about my learning from
that lecture, such as hard work, knowledge, innovation, entrepreneurship and many others. In addition,
skills are helpful to manage different works properly and it is the best way to manage all the things
properly ( Brown N. , 2018). I learnt from that deep knowledge and mindset are necessary to get success
in career. However, sometimes failure issues are generated but it is necessary to achieve their dreams.
Moreover, design thinking is highly used in development and knowledge sharing process in many
companies (Steh & Saric, 2017).
On 19 April 2019, I wrote my blog based on learning from fifth-week activities of brainstorming. I
also learnt that brainstorming is necessary for eliminating less feasible solutions to a problem. I learnt
about creative thinking and problem solving from that lecture. I have to develop my creativity to achieve
my goals and create innovates ideas and implement them into reality. During the second week lecture, I
learnt about the design process and I had enjoyed an activity, which was based on the video. In that
activity, we are separated in groups of 10-20 people of different fields. In that activity, we have to design
a shopping trolley. We had designed a shopping trolley using papers then have taken a review from a
senior manager about shopping trolley. I learnt that review is necessary before launching a product in
the market to identify the weakness of that product based on the reviews of different people. In the
end, we had designed a prototype for shopping trolley and ask the customer about shopping trolley.
Customers had given a different suggestion, which is useful for that product and based on that
suggestion, we made final trolley.
During this week activity, I learnt that workplace culture is most important and knowledge
sharing is necessary. Workplace culture should be friendly and supportive to work hard. We had enjoyed
that activity and all the people had enjoyed that activity with good communication. There are many
things, which are necessary to understand different things of products and services.
Apart from it, I learnt that designing is a complex thing and it must require deep knowledge. I
learnt that anyway takes feedbacks of clients to redesign the product and make necessary changes to
avoid failure of the product. I learnt that different people have different ideas and it provides a better
way to handle all the issues in products and services. There are many technical and non-technical things
are attached to the designing of products. Therefore, it is necessary to manage all the things properly to
develop new products and services. I learnt from (bradford.ac.uk, 2018), that always think as a viewer
and based on the views of a problem, create different plans to handle projects and implement them

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properly. When we carried out self-reflection (see photo in blog entry 3, 29 May 2019), I really felled
good that I am having good strengths and few weaknesses than previously thought.
During the third week, I learnt about the self-awareness through self-reflection activity. In that
week, we had enjoyed a self-reflective activity in which we described ourselves based on different
criteria. It is necessary to manage our skills based on self-reflection (Thompson & van Vliet, 2018). It was
a good activity from a learning point of view. I learnt about my strengths and weaknesses and it has
provided me with the strength to develop new skills in myself and remove my weaknesses to develop
my professional career. In that activity, it has taken patience; focus on current reality, failure,
attentiveness, visual worker, thinker, experiment, the value of observation, user-centre, comfortable
with chaos, and many others. I had found that I have many weak points in myself based on the ranking
between scales 1-5. There is always a scope for improvement but few things are a necessity to get
success in career. There are many other ways to improve skills, such as motivation, patience, self-
reflection, self-awareness, and many others.
Personal Reflection (on personal development)
On 29 March 2019, I wrote my blog based on my learning from the self-reflective activity and
third-week lecture. I learnt that I am lacking in a few necessary skills, which are necessary to survive in
the market and the development of a professional career. It was beneficial for the identification of the
strengths and weakness of ours. I found that I was weak in comfortable with chaos, think out of the box,
messiness, go beyond paper, and experiment new things. It made me uncomfortable, and I decided to
improve those skills as soon as possible. I learnt that the development of new skills is highly necessary
and it will be helpful in professional and personal life. I have to improve my few skills, which is not up to
the mark, such as patience level (Fook & Gardner, Practising critical reflection: A resource handbook: A
handbook, 2007).
On 4 April 2019, I wrote my fourth blog based on fourth-week lecture and activities. I had
enjoyed two activities that week, which is based on problem solving and visualizing a persona. In
addition, I learnt that both activities are useful for understanding the customer and other people.
I learnt about structured ideation, which is necessary for problem solving. It has provided
different results of solutions for the same problem and it was helpful to found out a proper and feasible

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solution for that particular problem. It was beneficial for the found out solution of a problem, which can
be solved by different methods. However, innovation is good for problem-solving, but less time it faced
failure because of minor mistakes in understanding the problem (Johns, 2017).
On 1 May 2019, I wrote my blog, which is based on value chain analysis and its uses for
analysing the business. I learnt that value chain analysis provides knowledge about products launching in
the market. It provides a brief idea about the benefits of products before launching in the market. Value
chain analysis is used to link different services and factors of production and calculate margin from that
product. According to (business-to-you.com, 2018), value chain analysis provides better outcomes to
launch a product in the market. When we carried out value chain analysis (see photo in blog entry 6, 01
May 2019), I really felled better that I can analysis about a products before launching in the market.
We had an activity in that week, in which COLES is selected as a company and try to figure out
how a company can get profit from their vegetable delivery services. I learnt that customer’s
requirements are highly useful for getting success in the market. Value chain analysis is necessary to
know about expected outcomes. Moreover, innovation is having a huge role in the success and growth
of a company.
On 15 May 2019, I wrote my blog in which I mentioned the interview skill. I had enjoyed that
interview activity in which my friend asked me different questions and I created different questions for
the interview, which was a difficult job for me because it depends on the skills of a person. It was very
difficult to put the question for different skills in a person. I asked a few personal questions from my
friend in that activity, which was not required. In addition, the interview is the most important part of
getting a job.
I got feedback about that activity and my role from my teacher, which was not good because of
my personal questions, and not proper knowledge about different fields. I learnt that questions should
be more relevant, general, ethical, open-ended, and not restricted to each other. I also learnt that
always see the person and watch their behaviour, gestures, emotions, and action to get an idea that is it
telling true or not. In addition, critical reflection is necessary to understand different types of learning
from experiences. In addition, design thinking is necessary for the development of many things using
innovation in all around the world (Ossa, Gutierrez, & Aldana, 2014).
On 22 May 2019, I wrote my blog based on the prototype design, which is very useful for
understanding the advantage and disadvantage of a product. We had an activity in that week, which is

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based on designing a model to solve a problem. We made an application on a cardboard model, which
will be run on a mobile application, as we do not have any person from IT background. Apart from that, I
learnt that I should have knowledge about mobile application development and other things in
information technology, which can be useful for my career development. According to (Pretorious &
Ford, 2016), critical reflection is necessary for deep knowledge and career development. We faced many
challenges in the creation of that cardboard model and it was difficult to understand about the working
model by the customers. Now, I developed that skill in which I can develop mobile application
development through an emulator. It provides me with the confidence to manage mobile app of my
company and develop new features in it. In addition, it is nectary to develop creative thinking in a
manager to manage different types of issues at their workplace (Hobcraft, 2017).
From that activity, I learnt that mobile application development is necessary to understand the
running project and prototype is necessary to understand the outcomes of an application. According to
(Liedtka & Ogilvie, 2011), a manager should design new ideas for the growth of an organization. On 26
May 2019, I wrote my blog in which I share my experiences of presentation activity. I learnt that
presentation skill is so important for a professional career. It is useful to demonstrate a project to
customers or others. It should effective and innovation to increase the attention of viewers.
On the other hand, it was too difficult to understand all the things, but I learnt a lot from that
design-thinking module. It was helpful in my professional and personal development. According to
( Rosenø, 2018), design thinking provides help into the development and creation of new things and
problem-solving. In addition, I learnt that self-reflection and evaluation are necessary to found
weaknesses and improve them. Beside it, reflective practice is necessary for skills development and
many other things (Bolton, 2010). On 29 May 2019, I wrote my blog in which I mentioned about the
whole process of design thinking. I also reflect on a different perspective and career development. In
addition, reflective writing is necessary to understand different things from our experiences (Fook,
Beyond reflective practice: reworking the “critical” in critical reflection, 2010).
Action Plan
Research (Yang, 2009) has shown that blog writing can improve many skills in a person, such as
communication, patience, learning, knowledge development and many others. I will create blogs of my
experiences from different modules and watch the blogs to see if this approach works or not.

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(References: Yang, S. H. (2009). Using blogs to enhance critical reflection and community of practice.
Educational Technology & Society, 12(2), 11-21.)
Goals Activities Timeframe Rationale
Focus on effective
communication
Improve communication
skill using video lectures
and newsletters, and
many others
2-3 months It will provide help into
project management
and teamwork.
Increase patience
level
Identify different issues in
a business problem and
provide a feasible solution
for it
4-5 months It will increase the
patience level to
understand the
problem from a
different perspective.
Maintaining critical
situations
Identification of different
critical situation at various
places, such as the
workplace, classroom, and
event and manages that
critical situation smartly.
4-5 weeks It will improve
leadership, which is
necessary to manage
the different task at the
workplace.
Conclusion
In conclusion, design thinking creates a thinker in a persona, which can solve different types of
problem using different methods, such as rapid prototype, brainstorming, and value chain analysis. This
report has explained about my reflection on design thinking workshop, knowledge development and
personal develop, which is highly require to improve my skills to use in future.
Finally, design thinking is different approach to learn from experiences and development of
skills. It will improve my various skills and it will provide me confidence to enhance my skills.

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References
Brown, N. (2018). Reflective model according to Kolb. Retrieved April 17, 2019, from http://www.nicole-
brown.co.uk/reflective-model-according-to-kolb/
Fanguy, W. (2018, jun 1). Why the world needs more design thinking. Retrieved from
www.invisionapp.com: https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/world-needs-more-design-
thinking
Rosenø, A. (2018, February 12). Design Thinking - More Than Just a Method. Retrieved from Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/design-thinking-more-than-just-method-axel-rosen%C3%B8/
Anderson, B. (2016). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism (10 ed.).
London: Verso Books.
Bolton, G. (2010). Reflective practice: Writing and professional development (1 ed.). London: Sage
publications.
bradford.ac.uk. (2018). Reflection models and frameworks. Retrieved December 22, 2018, from
https://www.bradford.ac.uk/wimba-files/skill-space/Reflective_Writing_HTML/page_04.htm
Brown, T., & Wyatt, J. (2010). Design thinking for social innovation. Development Outreach, 12(1), 29-43.
business-to-you.com. (2018, March 15). Value Chain Analysis: An Internal Assessment of Competitive
Advantage. Retrieved April 6, 2019, from https://www.business-to-you.com/value-chain/
Fook, J. (2010). Beyond reflective practice: reworking the “critical” in critical reflection. Beyond reflective
practice: New approaches to professional lifelong learning, 37-51.
Fook, J., & Gardner, F. (2007). Practising critical reflection: A resource handbook: A handbook (2nd ed.).
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Hobcraft, P. (2017, August 17). An introduction to Design Thinking for Innovation Managers. Retrieved
from blog.hypeinnovation.com: https://blog.hypeinnovation.com/an-introduction-to-design-

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thinking-for-innovation-managers
Johns, C. (2017). Becoming a reflective practitioner (5th ed.). London: John Wiley & Sons.
Liedtka, J., & Ogilvie, T. (2011). Designing for growth: A design thinking tool kit for managers. New York:
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Ossa, M. P., Gutierrez, R., & Aldana, M. F. (2014, August 22). Engaging in critically reflective teaching:
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Yang, S. H. (2009). Using blogs to enhance critical reflection and community of practice. Educational
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