Design Thinking

Marco Eisenberg & Klaus Heine

www.upmarkit.com Introduction
Short Introduction
to Design Thinking 1
 What is Design Thinking?

Design Thinking is a user-centered and creative approach that can

resolve any strategic question a company is facing.

It is typically used for the...

Creation of business ideas & product innovations

Development of process & organizational innovations

Remodeling of the customer journey

Resolution of any tricky strategic decision

Some question to start with

How to improve user experience? How to attract Millenials? How to enter a

new market? How to reduce employee turnover? How to reorganize a company?
How to redesign the sales process? How to improve conversation rates? How to
redesign the sales incentives? How to attract talents? How to regain customers?
How to excel with a new business unit? How to adapt to future scenarios?
How to remodel the brand-consumer interactions? How to design an effective
loyalty program? How to increase consumer satisfaction?

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 The Design Thinking Process
At least twelve people from the same company, but from different departments.
Working in groups of six people. Each group is led by a moderator.

Start with a general topic. A key challenge of a Design

Thinking workshop is to shape a relevant and specific
Understand
problem. Desk research helps to gain background
knowledge.

Conduct market research to develop a sound under-

standing of your users and their needs and desires.
Observe Visit relevant sites, oberserve real-life users and how
they interact with each other, talk to users. Find out
their pain points and difficulties.

Interpret the empirical findings. Put yourself in the

Point of situation of your users. Feel how your users feel.
View Create user personas, use cases, empathy and
consumer journey maps, day-in-a-life scenarios, etc.

Generate a big variety of outside-the-box ideas. No

Ideate idea is too far-fetched. No idea is judged. Focus on
solving consumer needs and desires.

Build a simple representation of your ideas: models,

Prototype sketches or cardboards.

Return to your users for feedback. Find out what

works and what does not work. Then refine your
Test design.

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References and typical Applications of Design Thinking
Mario Eisenberg led a big variety of Design Thinking workshops.
Below, you can find a description of some selected workshops.
They provide an idea of typical applications of Design Thinking.

Modelling the Autonomous Driving Experience

for a European Automobile Manufacturer
Autonomous driving experience is the hot topic in the automobile
industry. The technological challenge is accomanied with the
necessity to make autonomous driving a great experience for the
user. Driving a car is fun for most people, but it may be lost by
automatic driving. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the
target groups for autonomous driving (teenagers, elderly citizens,
etc.) and their specific requirements. Design Thining was used in this
workshop to develop an autonomous driving experience.

Reorganization of the Sales Process

for a South African Investment Firm
The corporte investment firm, owned by one of the biggest banks
in South Affrica, advises clients selling or buying companies in
Africa and brings together potential investors to organize
financing. The company made use of Design Thinking to redesign
the sales process of equity shares. First of all, we had to develop
an understanding of how the sales process is working today. All
types of stakeholders involved in the M&A process had to be
identified and many of them were interviewed to understand
their problems, needs and preferences. It turned out that a key
problem was that potential investors are virtually flooded with
investment opportunities and ithat is hard for the bank to get
through to the investors. During the workshop, possible solutions
(prototypes) were developed and tested.

Redesigning the Sales Process

for a German Compressor Producer
As part of the selling processo of their compressors, the German
company is using a software to measure the performance and
energy consumption of existing compressors in the factories of
their clients. Based on this analysis, they offer their clients new
products. The analysis software is a central element of the selling
process, but became outdated. Objective of the Design Thining
workshop: How can we reorganize the selling experience of
compressors?

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References and typical Applications of Design Thinking

Developing a new Business Unit

for a German Engine Manufacturer
A manufacturer of electric motors and gear mechanisms was
looking to expand into a new business segment, which would still
allow using their existing manufacturing tools and machines. The
company was wondering what other type of products they could
manufacture with their existing resources. Objectives of the
Design Thining workshop: To come up with new business ideas, to
evaluate business plans and to design a business strategy for the
new business unit.

Developping a Future Strategy

for a European Insurance Company
The insurer wanted to use Design Thinking for the development
of a future strategy for the company: How does the business area
of our company look like in 2030 and which steps do we need to
take today, to be on the right track and to withstand rising
competition? The challenge for the developement of future
scenarios with Design Thinking lays in a fundamental shift of
consumers living conditions and preferences: There is a strong
increase in mobility and individuality in life concepts and a
growing demand for individual configurability of insurance
services, which none of the insureres can provide today.

Remodelling Brand-Consumer Interactions

for a Belgian Bank
One of the biggest Belgian banks wanted to redesign and
completely automate their brand-consumer interactions along
the entire consumer journey. This requires a fundamental
strategic reorientation and organizational transformation, based
on the selection and development of suitable technologies and
digtial tools. During the Design Thinking workshop, possible
solutions (prototypes) were tested with empathetic interviews
with more than 250 potential clients. Results suggest, for
instance, that consumers prefer chatbots to reemble their own
style of speaking (from easy-going to formal). This is possible with
an analysis of consumers communication behavior on Facebook
and other social media platforms, with the help of machine
learning / artifical intelligence.

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 Design Thinking Workshops
We offer workshops that combine
two powerful drivers of business success:
Design Thinking & Branding.

Marco Eisenberg is teaching since 2010 at the D-

School of Hasso-Plattner-Institute (HPI) in Potsdam
and was a major contributor in the creation of the HPI
D-School in Cape Town. He conducted over 500 Design
Thinking workshops worldwide for clients such as
Bosch, Daimler, SAP, Siemens, Eon, and Kion Group.

Design Thinking

Branding

Dr. Klaus Heine works as luxury marketing professor at

Emlyon Business School in Lyon and Shanghai, and as
consultant specializing in high-end brand-building. He
has worked on projects for many luxury & high-end
brands including, for instance, Chaumet, Dior, Jaeger-
LeCoultre, Gaggenau, KPM Berlin, Loewe, Kering
Group, Panerai, and Richemont.

For any inquiries, please send an email to

[email protected].

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 More information...

Publisher: Upmarkit O, Tallinn

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2017, Upmarkit O, www.upmarkit.com
www.upmarkit.com
Picture: Taigi/Shutterstock

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