The Little Booklet on Design Thinking: An Introduction

THE LITTLE BOOKLET ON:

An Introduction

2nd Edition

MONIKA HESTAD – ANDERS GROENLI - SILVIA RIGONI

For Viktor

The Little Booklet on Design Thinking: An Introduction

2nd Edition 2017

1st Edition 2013

This book is part of the series ‘The Little Booklet on…’

Published by Brand Valley Publications

© Brand Valley Design Ltd, London 2017

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

Monika Hestad, Anders Groenli and Silvia Rigoni have asserted their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work.

Layout: Marianne Hollum Lydersen

Illustrations: Silvia Rigoni

Brand Valley Design Ltd

34B York Way

London, N1 9AB

United Kingdom

Brand Valley AS

[email protected]

www.brandvalley.uk

ISBN 978-1-912220-01-4

ISBN 978-1-912220-02-1 (e-book)

CONTENTS

Foreword by Dr Bettina von Stamm

Why this booklet?

Learn about design thinking through a creative and engaging development process.

A learning process

How to use the booklet.

Getting started

A few tips to kick off the process.

The step-by-step process

The process is presented as a series of verbal and visual tasks.

Thoughts on the process

How the step-by-step process relates to a general design process.

What is design thinking?

An academic reflection on the concept of design thinking.

Helpdesk

Reference list, recommended additional resources and tools.

The team behind this booklet

Too often we are charging ahead to find answers and solutions without checking that finding the answer would actually make a difference.*

* Dr Bettina von Stamm

FOREWORD

By Dr Bettina von Stamm, founder and Director of the Innovation Leadership Forum

I am absolutely delighted to have been asked to write the foreword to this second edition of The Little Booklet on Design Thinking. Why? We are living in times that are faster-moving and more complex than ever before. The constant change is a consequence of the possibilities to make connections, to combine different bits of knowledge, and do so with a speed that was never possible before. According to Cisco (2016), global Internet traffic has risen from 100 GB per day in 1992 to 100 GB per second in 2002 to 20,235 GB per second in 2015.

The constant change, connectivity and convergence are responsible for the increasing complexity we have to face – a complexity that arises from a large number of factors interacting in non-linear, non-predictable ways. So, as the systems of which we are part are changing constantly around us, we ourselves also need to adapt, constantly re-learning how to negotiate our world, how to find our way. And that is where design thinking comes in.

For me, four aspects are key to design thinking:

1.It is human-centred. It puts users or customers at the centre of attention, trying to understand them and their needs. This is done in a particular context and through observation and investigation of all facets that are relevant to the challenge in question.