Implementing Design Thinking

Abstract

Business is becoming increasingly competitive as companies aim to deliver superior product experiences to their customers. To establish innovative results and compete with smaller, more flexible companies, corporates look for new ways to organize themselves. In the light of these developments, design is moving beyond approach to improve aesthetics, towards a more strategic role in new product development.

The way designers think and act forms the basis of Design Thinking (DT). DT has been introduced in a range of organizations as a problem solving approach that helps teams deliver more innovative outcomes. The concept is represented through cognitive principles, practices, and process steps supported by specific design methods.

Many companies claim to have successfully implemented DT in their organization. Increased innovation is most frequently mentioned as benefit of using DT. Other effects range from reduced investment risk in product development, to increased employee engagement. Anecdotal reports on the value of DT are plentiful but lack detail, for example on the type of innovation output that can be expected. There is still little empirical evidence on the value of DT.

Organizational change, specifically in the innovation domain, clashes with current business processes. Hurdles to implement new management concepts can be expected, but there are no studies that specify how challenges to implementing DT can be overcome.

This thesis describes a case study on implementing DT in project teams at Exact. Exact is a Dutch company with about 1500 employees that delivers business software, with a focus on financial processes, The firm recently founded a new team of internal designers, dedicated to spread DT in project teams. The graduation project is a collaboration between the Delft University of Technology and Exact with the aim to measure design practices and impact and propose focus points to improve DT at Exact.

The study compares projects at Exact that ran during the DT program, with a group of benchmark projects, to track the effects of the DT program on project processes and outcomes. An internal survey was conducted with 43 respondents, evaluating the maturity of the design principles: user centricity, collaboration, tangibility, ideation and an experimental and optimistic mindset.
The survey also included measures for project outcomes. Context specific benefits of design practices were explored through correlation analysis of the design principles and project outcomes.
To determine triggers and barriers for project teams to apply DT, qualitative data was collected in eight employee interviews. Common challenges to using DT were prioritized with employees in four sessions.

Most activities in the DT program focused on enhancing user centricity or improving ideation practices. This led to a significant increase in the perceived user centricity in project teams compared to projects before the DT program, Also users indicated more unique benefits in products that resulted from recent projects. Besides user centricity, other strong design practices are collaboration and an experimental an optimistic mindset.
On the other hand, ideation measures scored relatively low and did not improve over time. Organizational barriers, such as subjective scoping and pressured time frames, pose barriers to creating multiple solution options. Also lower scores were found for tangibility, which includes visual thinking and prototyping activities.

Multiple positive correlations occurred between design practices and project outcomes. Practices related to ideation showed most positive correlations. Multidisciplinary teamwork and tolerance to failure also showed many correlations, indicating a high impact on project outcomes. The main value of DT in the context of Exact is improved the quality of products and enhanced teamwork. No significant negative correlations were found, underlining that DT does not block planning and budget goals.

Research results are used to design a strategy to improve design practices and their effect on project outcomes at Exact.

Focus points for the short and long term are identifies based on the survey results. Ideation is a focus point on the short term. Due to the low maturity level and high potential value, quick wins are expected in this area. A next step is to invest in increasing impact of prototyping and finally to invest in design as a strategic deriver by creating dedicated spaces and hiring design leaders. These last recommendations are based on an analysis of DT implementation strategies at other corporate firms.

To improve ideation, more detailed recommendations are made on organizational and team level. On organizational level, it is suggested to balance a portfolio of validation and exploration projects. Also, by a-synchronizing research and conceptualization activities with the technical development, more time can be dedicated to DT. For teams, a new standard ideation process is proposed with four steps: prepare, ideate, concertize and select. Complementary tools are provided to support each process step.

Tho conclude, this thesis work provides insights into the maturity and value of DT in the context of an established software firm. A step-wise approach strengthen DT in the organization is proposed.
Other companies can use the measurement tools used in this thesis to identify context specific strengths and weaknesses in design practices and create their own strategy to improve the impact of DT.
The ideation process and tools that are introduced in this project are generally applicable for firms that wish to enhance diverging and converging abilities in new product development.