Design thinking
Design thinking is a human-centred, iterative approach to problem solving that moves from empathy and definition through ideation to prototyping and testing.
Most failed products solved the wrong problem well. Design thinking is a discipline for making sure the problem is right before the solution is built.
Design thinking is a human-centred, iterative approach to problem solving that moves from understanding people's real needs, through defining the problem and generating ideas, to prototyping and testing. Borrowed from how designers work, it has spread into business as a way of tackling ambiguous problems where the right question is not yet clear.
Start with the human, not the solution
The defining commitment is empathy: beginning with a deep, often observational understanding of the people you are designing for, rather than with a technology or a preconceived answer. Much innovation fails because it solves a problem customers do not actually have. Design thinking front-loads the effort of understanding the real need, on the principle that a brilliant solution to the wrong problem is worthless.
Prototype to learn, not to impress
The other defining habit is rapid, cheap prototyping and testing. Rather than perfecting an idea in the abstract and launching it, design thinking builds quick, rough versions to put in front of real users, learns from their reactions, and iterates. The prototype is a question, not a product: a way to discover what is wrong while it is still cheap to be wrong. Failing fast and early is treated as progress, not embarrassment.
Promise and backlash
Design thinking has been enormously influential and, inevitably, overhyped. Reduced to sticky notes and workshops performed as ritual, it can become theatre that produces the feeling of innovation without the substance. The method works only when the empathy is genuine, the prototypes are really tested, and the insights actually change what gets built.
Stripped of the buzzwords, design thinking encodes some durable good sense: understand the real problem before solving it, involve the people you are designing for, and learn by building and testing rather than by arguing. Those habits are valuable precisely because organisations so reliably neglect them.