Welcome. In this lesson, we're going to talk about situations best suited for design thinking. During this session, we're going to discuss how to identify appropriate situations for using design thinking, how to apply design thinking in human-centered solutions settings, and how to apply design thinking to grapple wicked problems. We'll also see that we can use design thinking to synthesize collective expertise. Design thinking is a methodology that provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It's useful in tackling ill-defined complex problems by understanding human needs, human-centric problem framing, creative brainstorming, and hands-on prototyping and testing. Design thinking is unique compared with other forms of problem solving in that it's a non-linear process focused on outcome delivery, rather than being focused on a precise problem definition. Design thinking uses two main modes of thinking: divergent and convergent. Divergent thinking refers to producing as many possible solutions to a given problem. It's best demonstrated in the ideation phase, where a wide variety of solutions are sought to solve the broad problem or issue. Convergent thinking, which is the opposite to divergent thinking, is all about coming up with the single best solution to a given problem. Combining these two styles of thinking may seem contradictory and challenging, but it lies at the power center of design thinking. Design thinking has a strong focus on human-centered solutions, on understanding customer motivators, and on empathy. At its core, it's all about people. So if you were attempting to develop a solution to a problem your customers may be experiencing, then design thinking is for you. Another attractive characteristic of design thinking is that it minimizes uncertainty and the risk of failure. It does this by engaging potential customers early on in the process to help validate, or not, your initial assumptions. You were able to rapidly gain feedback, iterate, and repeat until you get a solution that really meets the customers' needs. This can be ideal for business or commercial environments because it means you can effectively derisk certain situations, initiatives, or activities that you're working through employing design thinking. For example, do you want to create a new piece of technology that doesn't even exist in your industry yet, but don't want to invest all of your company's R and D budget on that one project? Perhaps, you want to find ways to improve staff motivation, but don't want to go through a stressful change management process only to find out that motivation is worse. Due to the human-centered focus of design thinking, this framework is incredibly effective for developing solutions that are highly emotive complex needs. A wicked problem is a highly complex and ambiguous issue. The problem is hard to define, and the solution impossible to consider. Generally, wicked problems are a series of interrelated problems with a series of interrelated possible solutions. With a wicked problem, a solution that is working today in this market may not be suitable tomorrow in this market, or even today in another market. Climate change is a great example of a wicked problem. On balance, there is consensus that there is a problem, but there is not consensus on the cause of the problem, or indeed, the solution. When thinking about developing a business solution in response to climate change, it would be prudent to use design thinking principles. This will enable the business to build consensus around clarifying the problem and solution, and ensure that this makes an actual customer need. While possibly not as significant as climate change, wicked problems are relatively common in business environments. They can seem completely overwhelming and impossible to solve, but design thinking can be an incredibly effective way to start tackling such problems. These can be the perfect situations in which to apply design thinking. Design thinking is also a great framework for synthesizing collective expertise and to develop a robust and realistic solution for whatever the problem may be that you're trying to solve. One of the ways that this does this is that it promotes the use of multidisciplinary teams by bringing many stakeholders to the process. This means that we break out of our own silos to leverage the wisdom, experience, and expertise of others. This is even more apparent during the prototype testing and iteration phases of design thinking where we bring consumers into the mix. Design thinking can also be applied in other settings where synthesizing collective expertise with a focus on end user engagement is required. For example, during strategic planning, corporate policy design, or general brainstorming sessions, it doesn't necessarily have to be applied to a product or customer solution. Well, thanks for joining me for this brief lesson on just a few of the situations where you can use design thinking. You should now be able to identify some appropriate situations for using design thinking, understand how to apply design thinking in human-centered solutions settings, as well as how design thinking can be used to grapple wicked problems, and finally, to use design thinking to synthesize collective expertise. While you have a moment, if you haven't already, why don't you stop and identify some areas in your business that you could apply design thinking principles to?
