Design-thinking isn’t dead, the conditions have just changed
I’m jumping on the bandwagon to discuss the perceived “death of design-thinking,” brought on by the recent IDEO layoffs. A changed industry perhaps, but dead– no.
This mirrors a similarly pessimistic conversation about whether innovation is dead. In both cases, it seems to me that we are mistakenly blaming a process and damning an industry, rather than thinking about their application to a new business environment. When We Work imploded no one said it was the end of start-up culture or venture capital or even of real estate. And though Sam Bankman Fried got convicted last week, people are still investing in cryptocurrency (and tall young white men). Layoffs in the tech industry have reached hundreds of thousands this year alone, but it hasn’t changed our belief in disruptive startups.
Indeed the conditions for business have changed. The pandemic shifted customer spending and supply across most consumer goods. As a result, many businesses have become more conservative in spending, and perhaps more risk averse overall. Those companies reeled in their innovation budgets, focusing less on pie-in-the-sky future vision projects and more on surer bets, with more obvious value. But they have not abandoned innovation all together, which is the backbone of progress and growth for companies and society. They simply cannot.
So perhaps we can say RIP to IDEO’s days of million dollar research and strategic visioning resulting in a presentation and a deck on the client’s drive. But truth be told, it’s been a minute since any of us have done that type of work, if at all. What design-thinking and innovation consulting offers still is an approach –one that successfully delivers customer-centric problem solving and creative ideas that move the world forward. Design-thinking is an evolving methodology that combines left and right brain, and is ultimately solution focus. As long as we think about it in these terms, practitioners, like myself, can and should be nimble and adaptive.
Now, it’s about making sure we apply those skills and considerations to reflect what businesses need today:
Fewer but more valuable innovations, sometimes incremental
Real data from early experimentation and quick iteration (easier in the digital context)
Actionable solutions that align with the business and market
Innovations that consider the entire ecosystem and include sustainability
A holistic journey for the customer, not stand alone offerings
Long-live the thoughtful application of design-thinking for companies who want to drive innovation and change.
Thank you to Gordon Cameron, a brilliant innovation and design leader who inspired this thought-pieced and helped inform some of these views.