There is so much misinformation and divisive noise about the topic of Design Thinking that it becomes necessary to introduce this article with what it is not before delving into what it is. Please check the following illustration 1 that brings five arguments that defy the definition and narrative of Design Thinking on the internet. Fig 1: Destroying the narrative built up to establish the right understanding of Design Thinking How can a Customer / Consumer Aspire about something they have the least idea about? Isn’t it the role of a design thinker to take them immersively on a journey; from Innocence to Excellence for a given Context or Subject?
Design Thinking & Artificial Intelligence
Technology provides us with this wonderful opportunity to understand the realms beyond the established patterns of reality. This is possible when Cognitive Computing is meshed into the transactional systems building upon Machine and Deep Learning that detect as well as record Trends. Design Thinking is a tool that has a similar process to the enablement of Artificial Intelligence; where the intent and purport of both is to free the customer/consumer engagement and experience to an aspirational outcome; thereby improving the quality of life. Please check out the process of Design Thinking in the following Illustration (Fig 2). Fig 2: The Process of Design Thinking with clear outcomes illustrated along the process as a continuum
A Journey in Continuum — From Aspiring to Realization
Design Thinking is not a discrete event as most of the proponents seem to project. It is a lifetime process in Continuum and its point of inflection is the intersection of the lifecycle of Customer / Consumer with the lifecycle of Platform, Product, Process and/or Projects (Services). As the above process illustration indicates, there are three stages of Visualization and three stages of Operationalization. And they happen as life happens; be it in an enterprise or society. Essentially the outcome must be transformation and disruptive growth that takes individuals and societies to a higher threshold of Capability and Quality of Life. Fig 3:
The Scope of Design Thinking
The Scope of Design Thinking As the Illustration (Fig 3) above indicates, the interplay of data across the seven stations of life is the scope of design thinking. Because these are all interconnected to the life on this planet. One must be able to see the connection and then connect the dots accordingly. This cannot be taught in a classroom nor is it a workshop where one can use post its to create the future.
Because we now have the technological capability support that is backed by such wonderful progressions such as Pervasive / Quantum Computing, NanoTech, 3D / 4D Printing, Biotech, Robotics, Machine & Neural Learning supported by enmeshed global networks, we can Visualize a very different and liberated planet that democratizes the Internet Of Everything (IOE) and delivers Realization through Institutionalization of Concepts, Culture, Capabilities and Configuration; delivering not just Products and Process but also the Distribution & Reach delivering to the promise of Human Capital.
It would be a terrible waste of effort and resources given the enablers, to use a powerful tool such as Design Thinking for the conventional ways in which Product and Services have been developed and deployed.
How we could see the Covid — 19 Pandemic differently
Isn’t it tragic that we still don’t see the Covid — 19 Pandemic as a life tragedy with very little or nothing done to prevent the next one? The Principle Points of Failure that has crippled life on our planet are: The disconnection between Public & Private Health did not allow accurate information to be disseminated to the target audience at the right time. The inability to forecast an economic model that could work and not bring productivity to a standstill despite all kinds of econometric and predictive models floating around the globe. The inability to universally adopt the process of Track, Trace, Test and Treat the Viral in a timely manner.
The inability to educate and facilitate ownership and Institutionalization of the narrative to deal with the pandemic globally. We still have governments and institutions floundering to cope with the misinformation and mischief. Continuing to look at Vaccine as the Solution to Viral Infections since its first discovery in 1796. Isn’t it ridiculous to talk about Vaccines and Precision Medicine in the same breath? The failure of technology to not intelligently facilitate Patients, the medical community, the frontline workers, hospitals and others to operate in unison despite all the Retailization of Systems and the claims of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence around us globally?
The ineffective methods of governments bailing citizens out and thereby causing huge national and international debts that are bound to contribute to an economic slowdown and inflation due to future funds inadequacy. Does one need more proof than the handling of the Covid Pandemic to understand that Design Thinking could have helped not only save lives but also brought in a better way of handling such pandemics in the future with more effective solutions in the present? Can you see the connection of each of the seven-station of life in the above seven questions? Fig 4: The Sliding Scale for Mediocrity or Excellence
We need more Design Thinkers
The above Illustration