Design Thinking - New Corporate Culture

What exactly do you mean by design thinking?

Prof. Falk Uebernickel: Design Thinking is a method from the field of Human-Centered Design for solving so-called tricky or poorly defined problems.

The goal is to develop either new products or new services, improve processes and create new business models. Design thinking is not only a method to create products and services, but also to establish a new corporate culture.

How can you imagine the process in a company?

Uebernickel: In purely theoretical terms, it is a structured process with a total of five, sometimes six steps - depending on whose teaching you follow. In practical projects, of course, it doesn't run in quite such a structured way, but the process does provide a guideline.

To make it concrete: If you want to start with Design Thinking, you should first be clear about what such tricky problems are in the company that need to be solved.

At the moment, these are often the typical issues surrounding digitization. As soon as you have discovered such a problem, you put together a team of three to five interdisciplinary people.

It is important that they have sufficient time capacity, as these intricate problems take time to think through and address.

To find the solution, you use design thinking by going through the process in two to three iterations - a single one of which is also called a "design sprint."

In the companies we are privileged to work with, either top management or middle management initiates such project runs, which are explicitly designated as pilot projects.

The important thing with a pilot project is: just start. That way, you don't get caught up in long discussions about content and detailed benefits. Because without having tried it out, you can't know whether it will be of benefit to your own company.

As soon as such a pilot project has been carried out, the results can be used to discuss in concrete terms whether it is suitable for the company and the employees or not. This is probably the typical process: setting up a pilot project and then discussing how to proceed with it on the basis of the results.

So not everything that's tried once ends up being implemented?

Uebernickel: Exactly, this is also happening. We are dealing with an innovative field. The idea that a method would always be successful is, of course, insane. It's like a machine for printing money.

That's why I'm still standing here and not a billionaire in Silicon Valley. You shouldn't overinterpret design thinking and place too much hope in it. It is a method that has been proven to lead to better results than others in a specific context. Nevertheless, not everything works by itself: You have to do a lot, i.e. experiment, try things out and involve people. Otherwise, you won't be happy with it either.

What are the goals of the method?

Uebernickel: Of course, the priority is what comes out in the end - the output: Products and services. But many companies also use it to establish a new kind of corporate culture.

For example, more willingness to experiment and independence. Employees should therefore be put in a position to think more entrepreneurially. That also means taking more risks.

So design thinking is not only a method to create new output, but also to advance the company culturally: to make it more creative, more agile and more full of ideas. Ultimately, this is also important for the work culture that young people enter: that you are not just stuck in strong structures, but can work flexibly.