Design Thinking for Business: Think Like a Designer Portfolio

This portfolio discusses the importance of design thinking for businesses and how it can be applied to identify innovation and resolve problems. It focuses on Nespresso UK and its sustainability issue with the use of aluminium capsules. The report identifies the need for innovation, applies the 5 stages of design thinking process, and proposes a solution through the use of recyclable cardboard containers and a recycling program. The report concludes that design thinking is crucial for businesses to tackle wicked problems and provide innovative solutions.

Design Thinking for
Business Think Like a
Designer- Portfolio

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Identify Design Need or Innovation.......................................................................................1
Application of Design thinking process.................................................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
References:.......................................................................................................................................7
Books and Journals 7

INTRODUCTION
New ways of organising the workplace leads to extraordinary improvements into the business.
Sometimes in the businesses there are the real business problems in regards of operational
challenges, sustainability issues, human resource conflicts etc. with the changing technology and
increasing trend of globalisation businesses are needing regular improvement or innovation to
business in order to have effective business practice. For this, businesses and their stakeholders
are involved into the design thinking process (Albay & Eisma, 2021). It is the non linear process
that the business use to increase their understanding of users, challenge assumptions, refines
problems and most importantly to articulate the innovative solutions to prototype and test. This
process consists of 5 stages and all are most important to handle the problems that are unknown
and ill-defined. The present report is based on the Nespresso, UK - The Company is an
operating unit of the Nestlé Group and was established in 1986. Nespresso coffee machines are
famous and unique for brewing espresso and coffee from coffee capsules, also known as pods in
home or professional machines. The company serve their coffee into the aluminium sealed
capsules which are becoming huge business problem for the company in terms of sustainability
and CSR. The present portfolio will identify the innovation or design needs in the workplace and
then apply the 5 stages of design thinking process to resolve the problem with innovative
solution.
MAIN BODY
Identify Design Need or Innovation
Design need refers to the requirement of new innovation and technology at a work place to
achieve success in current dynamic market. In Nestle Nespresso UK, there are various problems
like pollution, outdated product designs, mislabelling and many more which harm the
environment as well as the profitability of company. There is urgent requirement to make
modification their product packing, designing and labelling (He & Ortiz, 2021). They sold their
beverages product in the aluminium and plastic containers which are harmful to the people or
environment. The level of wastage is quite high while producing these containers which lead to
increase in pollution. There are various disadvantage of aluminium packaging food liked it affect
the health of a person also it is non degradable which increase the pollution level in a country.
The food contained in plastic and aluminium containers are dangerous because sometime it can
1

react with elements of aluminium which leads generate hazardous impact on human health. Also,
it cannot be fully recycled and reused which pollute environment badly. There are also need to
change the design and labelling of containers because is outdate and old. To survive in
competitive world as well as to attract large number of customers they need to change their
labelling of products. Time to time they have to modified their product packaging according to
the recent market and customer trends to attract large number of target audience. In recent, the
customers taste and preferences are dynamic also their demands or expectation is high which is
quite difficult to satisfied with outdated product design. The managers of Nespresso UK have to
change their strategies to make innovative product and packaging design to attract more
customers globally.
In today world, the customers and government are more health and quality conscious as
well as they prefers to buy attractive product which are beneficial for their health and
environment. So, the company have to change their beverages product packaging because it is
unsustainable for the environment. As soon as, the managers have to develop new design of their
product which increase their customer base and brand value.
For modifying their product packaging and make it effective or healthy, they can choose paper,
recyclable cardboards for the packaging of their beverages foods also it reduce cost of their
production because it is available easily at low cost. They can packed their beverages food
product in the cardboards containers as well as change their labelling which create a sense of
awareness among customers. Also, the customers will attract more by seeing the different and
unique packaging which are also beneficial for their health (Wolcott and et., 2021). By
producing recyclable cardboard containers the company can contribute in the protection of
environment which reduce pollution and enhance the quality of air for the healthy life cycle. The
cardboard container is easily recycled and reusable for many times as well as it made with less
cost and time. It is most effective innovation packaging design which the managers of Nespresso
UK can adopt to spread awareness about health and environment which increase their
productivity, image, profitability and customer base.
Application of Design thinking process
Design thinking is one of the most specific an approach that is adopted by the large
organization that you need standardization in their Innovation or new design of products, process
2

or packaging. It is the ideology that is supported through a company process that requires the
understanding of both design and thinking. Design thinking is a user centric approach to solve
the problems that could lead to innovation and that innovation has a capability to create
differentiation and competitive advantage. The process follows and overall flow of i.e.
understand, explore and materialize. This flow comprises of 6 stages i.e. empathize, define,
ideate, prototype, test and implement. The five stages of the design thinking process are
discussed below in context of Nesspresso:
Empathise: this is a stage where the researcher researches the user’s needs by gaining in
empathetic understanding of the issue or the problem that a company is trying to solve through
the user research. It is believed that for the human-centered design process empathy is crucial for
example design thinking because it permits a person to set aside own assumptions about the
world and gain real insight into the user's needs and problems (Parizi and et., (2022). In context
of Nespresso, In this phase of the design thinking process the company through the internal
research and SWOT analysis will develop knowledge about what they do say to their consumers
and think and feel regarding the operations of the business. The company has a unique
proposition and a competitive advantage to remain differentiable with the capsules package for
their coffees in order to onboard good experience for the consumers. But uses of the capsules a
founding it as a issue of sustainability and corporate social responsibility as the thousands of
capsules of Nespresso are dumped without getting recycled and as the capsule are made of
aluminum they are highly problematic for the environment. Nespresso digitalized in technology
advanced organization in terms of developing the coffee machines different types of coffee and
other accessories. The company is highly concerned for capsule being an issue of sustainability
as the product is the major advantage and a factor of positioning in the market. Therefore this
problem is huge for the Nespresso in terms of quitting the concept of capsule in order to regain
sustainability and CSR is major frustration element for the Nespresso. Last many years the
company has been highly motivated and increased with the popularity of the capsules and the
other machinery products of the company in terms of becoming the leading organisation for
developing the most explicit original coffee all across the world (Monarch, 2021). But with the
increasing complaints related to the sustainability Issues Company is highly discouraged to
continue with the same and even to stop production of it. All the information related to the
connectivity of capsule with the brand image awareness positioning and the profitability of the
3

Nespresso it is very important to develop design thinking by effectively analyzing the needs of
the organization for the design or innovation without failure of profitability.
Define: the effective observation and gathering of needs of user the next phase is all about the
time to accumulate the information gathered during the first phase. In this phase it is to analyze
the observation and synthesize them to define the core problem that has been identified as a team
is basically means it is a stage for the definition of problem statements. In context of nespresso
the company will combine all the research and observation in order to understand where problem
exist thereby pinpointing the user's needs which will highlight the opportunities for the
innovation to the company (Kim & Park, 2021). In this stage the Nespresso to pool diverse
variety of ideas and perspectives that could lead to innovation for which company will increase
the employees to collaborate between heterogeneous and multi-disciplinary teams which may not
work together but in order to resolve the problem of capsule as a sustainability issue but on the
other hand it fulfills the needs of the consumers and of the company the company must they
arrive and idea of innovation that could resolve the issue of sustainability and maintain the
effectiveness of the positioning of the company in the market through these capsules.
Ideate: the third phase where the team of the Nespresso will challenges assumptions and create
ideas. In the space the company and their team of design thinking and innovation is ready to
generate ideas. Nespresso at this stage will have a solid background of knowledge collected from
the first two phases of design thinking process which means now the company is able to start
think outside the box in order to collect alternative ways to view the actual problem and to
identify the innovative solutions to the problem statement the company has created in the second
phase. During this phase the company will be using the brainstorming technique in order to filter
and challenge the assumptions to resolve the problem and in order to generate the valid and
realistic Idea as a solution to the problem. Nespresso will develop such packaging of the coffee
or replace the aluminum material of the capsule that could address the unmet needs of the users
and also can resolve the issue of sustainability (Foster, 2021). At this face company must provide
a freedom, quality to their team so that team members together can sketch different ideas. Adjust
face there are multiple ideas to be shared to one another and mixing and remixing in order to
generate one single individual idea which the ideal solution to the problem of sustainability due
to the over usage of capsules.
4

Prototype: this is the experimental phase where the company aims to identify the best possible
solution for the identified problem (Vechakul & Agogino, 2021). Team of Nespresso should
produce a structural realistic inexpensive in a scaled down version of the ideal solution that
contains all the specific features to meet the needs of the users as well as of the company without
hindering the growth and profitability. In order to investigate the valid idea of the espresso it
must be involved into a simple paper prototyping. The idea of Nespresso to resolve the problem
of sustainability caused due to the capsule is to recycle the capsules infinity times as the material
company will be using for the coffee grounds in order to separate the aluminum from the capsule
will be the new articulated aluminum the only material that can be recycled for infinity this will
help the coffee grounds to be used in the production of high quality compost. The capsules of the
coffee pods of the Nespresso has always remained the core growth and remain the major growth
factor for the coffee market of Nespresso therefore the company has come up with the
recyclables pods which will be biodegradable and also they will maintain the same aroma of
coffee for long time period as the earlier capsules. The solution is highly useful and innovative as
to recycle the capsules is very easy by using the technology of Nespresso in which the person has
to collect the used Nespresso capsule and ensure the bag is very well sealed and place that back
into the regular recycling bin then the bags deliver to the recycling facility of Nespresso hue the
coffee grounds are separated from the aluminum and then they are composted on the Aluminum
is again recycled. The bag company has design is the paper bag which will be automatically
recycled on the next capsule purchase whether it is an online phone purchase the recycling bag
will be included with the product also in case of misplaced of recycling back the company has
the recycling bags available on the Nespresso boutiques as well.
Test: this is the stage where the new innovation idea for the new innovation has been prototype
and now it's time to return to the users feedback in order to evaluate does the solution was able to
meet the user's needs and also was that both the of resolving the problem statement identified in
the early stages (Tham, 2021). As per the perspective of Nespresso the idea of recycling the
capsules through the recycling bag has been highly effective in resolving the issue of
sustainability and also this has led to the innovation in the nest press for which company is
highly famous and positioned into the market. Recycling bag of the Nespresso which is provided
with the products whether it is shopped from website mobile app the company is able to
communicate with their customers in the other stakeholders regarding their values at home for
5

the environment and the community sustainability. After putting the prototype among the real
consumers the company was able to verify that the company and effectively achieve the goals of
recycling the multiple amount of capsules and getting it back to the customers on their next
order. From this it was effectively analyses that the support of customers with the recycling
program of the Nespresso through the recycling bag was highly successful as the project was
able to recycle the capsule through comfort of the home. Green bags that contain a capsules to be
recycled are recyclable and biodegradable which means the bags allowed the capsules as well as
the whole solution of recycling is correctly sorted to ensure that everything in the Nespresso is
sustainable recyclable reusable and reduced (Wakkary, 2021). This might increase the cost for
the expressive but the vision of executing the sustainability through recycling Inc the capsule
into a recycling bin was highly commendable.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that for the organisation design thinking is very crucial
and important process. Design and design thinking have been identified as making valuable
contributions to business and management as this helps the business to tackle the wicked
problems. Also, this is useful to company in providing the innovative solutions for their
problems which is major advantage and differentiation of the company in the market. The whole
process of design thinking is highly important and properly structured. The ideology of the
design thinking states that, in order to come up with innovative solutions, one must adopt a
designer’s mindset and approach the problem from the user’s perspective.
6

References:
Books and Journals
Albay, E. M., & Eisma, D. V. (2021). Performance task assessment supported by the design
thinking process: Results from a true experimental research. Social Sciences &
Humanities Open, 3(1), 100116.
Foster, M. K. (2021). Design thinking: A creative approach to problem solving. Management
Teaching Review, 6(2), 123-140.
He, J., & Ortiz, J. (2021). Sustainable business modeling: The need for innovative design
thinking. Journal of Cleaner Production, 298, 126751.
Kim, Y. S., & Park, J. A. (2021). Design Thinking in the Framework of Visual Thinking and
Characterization of Service Design Ideation Methods Using Visual Reasoning
Model. The Design Journal, 24(6), 931-953.
Monarch, R. M. (2021). Human-in-the-Loop Machine Learning: Active learning and annotation
for human-centered AI. Simon and Schuster.
Parizi, R and et., (2022). How has design thinking being used and integrated into software
development activities? A systematic mapping. Journal of Systems and Software,
111217.
Tham, J. C. K. (2021). Engaging design thinking and making in technical and professional
communication pedagogy. Technical Communication Quarterly, 30(4), 392-409.
Vechakul, J., & Agogino, A. (2021). A comparison of two transdisciplinary human-centered
design approaches for poverty alleviation. In The Future of Transdisciplinary Design (pp.
179-192). Springer, Cham.
Wakkary, R. (2021). Things we could design: For more than human-centered worlds. MIT press.
Wolcott, M. D and et., (2021). Twelve tips to stimulate creative problem-solving with design
thinking. Medical Teacher, 43(5), 501-508.
7