MGMT20140 - Understanding Reflection in Design Thinking for Managers

This essay discusses the significance of personal reflection within the design thinking framework, emphasizing its role in enhancing problem-solving and innovation. It highlights the steps of design thinking—empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test—and underscores that these stages are iterative and non-sequential. The essay also explores the relationship between reflection and design thinking, noting that reflection fosters empathy and smart design. It argues that businesses that neglect reflection risk failure in innovation. Ultimately, the essay concludes that reflection is a fundamental element of both life and design, essential for effective learning systems and successful design projects. Desklib offers a variety of resources, including solved assignments and past papers, to aid students in understanding these concepts.

UNDERSTANDING PERSONAL REFLECTION
AND ITS IMPORTANCE FOR DESIGN
THINKING
Introduction:
Personal reflection is a reaction towards a
specific stimulus documented by individuals for
exploring events with personal experiences
(Ewin et al. 2017). Design-thinking encourages
business to concentrate on its people for better
internal processes service and products
understanding.
Reflective questions to ask for design-thinking:
Strengths
Determination of the design-thinking is well
organized.
Weaknesses
Identification of the design-thinking can induce
distraction.
Skills
Design-thinking skills implementation according to
the organization is to be determined
Problems
Underpinning the distractions and responsibilities for
design-thinking.
Achievements
Achievements through design-thinking is to be found
out.
Happiness
Next, happiness for organizational success is to be
analyzed.
Solutions
To improve the areas of design-thinking.
The steps of design-thinking include the
following:
 Empathize
 Defining problem
 Ideate
 Prototyping
 Testing
The design-thinking framework can be
considered as an ideal tool human-centered
solution development.
Relation between reflection and design-
thinking:
Daily transactional tasks and reimagining the
possibilities by creating empathy begins
reflections (Mahmoud-Jouini, Midler &
Silberzahn, 2016). It can take numerous days
for incubation as well (Liedtka, 2015). It is also
required for smart design and creative
competence and practice (Carlgren, Rauth &
Elmquist, 2016).
Requirement of thinking modes and
necessity of time for reflection:
The practices allow reforming of the
informed. Logic-deductive thinking is
permitted for dominating personal minds,
without creativity (Buchanan, 2015).
Business ignoring reflection and time can fail
while attempting innovations (Ryman &
Roach, 2018). Any good design is seen to co-
evolve by the learning systems efficiently
but it is unachievable without reflection
(Liedtka, 2017). Hence, the reflection is the
underpinning theme for life and design itself.
Conclusion:
The stages of design-thinking are never sequential. They never follow any particular order, occurs in parallel
or repeated in an iterative manner. The steps can be analysed as distinct modes contributing to the project
instead of sequential steps. Nevertheless, it can be expected to carry out for a design project and any
innovative problem-solving project.
References:
Buchanan, R. (2015). Worlds in the making: design,
management, and the reform of organizational culture. She
Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 1(1), 5-
21.
Carlgren, L., Rauth, I., & Elmquist, M. (2016). Framing design
thinking: The concept in idea and enactment. Creativity and
Innovation Management, 25(1), 38-57.
Ewin, N., Luck, J., Chugh, R., & Jarvis, J. (2017). Rethinking
project management education: a humanistic approach
based on design thinking. Procedia Computer Science, 121,
503-510.
Liedtka, J. (2015). Perspective: Linking design thinking with
innovation outcomes through cognitive bias reduction.
Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(6), 925-938.
Liedtka, J. (2017). Evaluating the impact of design thinking in
action. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2017,
No. 1, p. 10264). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of
Management.
Mahmoud-Jouini, S. B., Midler, C., & Silberzahn, P. (2016).
Contributions of design thinking to project management in an
innovation context. Project Management Journal, 47(2), 144-
156.
Ryman, J., & Roach, D. C. (2018, July). Innovation and Design
Thinking in SMEs: An Effectual Innovation Model. In Academy
of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2018, No. 1, p. 14434).
Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.