Design Thinking Resources
Design thinking is a process for creative problem solving that starts with people and their needs. Anyone can use it to tap into their creative potential and grow relevant skills for the modern workplace. Explore tips from experts, real-world case studies, and quick activities to help you apply the skills and mindsets of design thinking to your work.
Design Thinking Activities
- Activity
Make Your Ideas Tangible Through Prototypes
Sketching is an easy way to start prototyping—use it to communicate your ideas and get help and feedback from others.
- Activity
Warm-up To Get Into the Creative Headspace
A simple activity in imagination play to elevate the energy of the team and insert more creativity into a meeting.
- Activity
Use Customer Journey Maps To Uncover Innovation Opportunities
Develop more empathy with, and gain new insights about, your customers through this journey map activity.
- Activity
An Activity to Help You Find Inspiration Outside Your Context
One of the best ways to get inspired is to look outside your context. IDEO designers often use analogous inspiration to gain fresh perspective.
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Design Thinking Frameworks
Desirability, Feasibility, Viability
Design thinking brings together what is desirable from a human point of view with what is technologically feasible and economically viable.
- Desirability—What makes sense to people and for people?
- Feasibility—What is functionally possible within the foreseeable future?
- Viability—What is likely to become part of a sustainable business model?
The Creative Process
The Creative Process contains multiple cycles of iteration—with each phase, you move closer to a refined solution.
- In Divergence—teams go wide to find insights and generate new ideas.
- In Convergence—teams narrow their focus by refining ideas and synthesizing information.
Empathy Maps
Empathy mapping can help you take what you learn from observing human behavior and come away with actionable insights.
- Place observations about what people DO in the lower-left quadrant. (Use one post-it per idea.)
- Add observations of what people SAY in the upper-left quadrant.
- When you run out of observations on the left side, fill in the right side by inferring what people THINK and what they FEEL.
- Try to draw some insights or conclusions from what you have written down and shared.
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Case Studies: The Impact of Design Thinking
- Financial Services
A New Employment Venture to Increase Customer Engagement and Financial Security
Designing a digital platform that matches workers who need extra money with employers who need to fill extra shifts.
- Food
Designing Waste Out of the Food System
Equipping food industry players with the design principles and support to cut waste further.
- Automotive
Beyond Cars: Designing Smarter Mobility
Prototyping experiments that reframe a car company’s place in a rapidly changing world of mobility.
- Technology
Helping a Technology Brand Connect with China’s Young Consumer
Creating a concept store centered around interactive experiences for consumers.
- Healthcare
This Startup Revolutionized an Industry Through Design
Launching a nationwide venture that redefines and simplifies how customers engage with their pharmacy.
- Education
Designing a School System from the Ground Up
Scaling an entire network of schools for the growing Peruvian middle class.
- Public Sector
A New Way to Vote for the People of Los Angeles
Designing an intuitive, accessible voting experience and ballot machine for every type of voter.
- Service Design
Transforming the Banking Experience
Creating a satisfying banking experience for Peru’s bank-wary population.
- Business Design
How a Legacy Phone Book Company Reinvented Itself
Transitioning from makers of the first phone book to digital services and beyond.
- User Experience Design
Creating an Out-of-This-World STEM Learning Experience
Helping Verizon expand access to STEM by designing an experience that students love and has educational rigor.
- Experience Design
Empowering Women to Prevent HIV
Redesign the HIV prevention experience to increase uptake and adherence among young women in South Africa and beyond.
- Product Design
Designing the First All-in-One, Wearable Breast Pump
Collaborating with the startup team at Willow that reimagined the breast pumping experience.
- Organizational Change
Preparing an Industrial Leader for the Digital Future
Building a customer-centered culture of innovation and lay the groundwork for a new generation of digital products and services.
- Culture
Invigorating a Company Culture from Within
Helping a global pharmaceutical company home in on a core purpose that unifies employees and aligns their passion with a corporate strategy.
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