Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Design Thinking vs. Design Action

I recently read an interesting blog post by Idris Mootee, the CEO of idea couture, an innovation and design consultancy based in Toronto.  "What is design thinking?" Mootee asks in the post.  "Design thinking is not about design. It is about helping companies and individuals to think differently about strategic options and system impact." 

Mootee worries that companies won't reap the benefits of design thinking if it's viewed simply as a buzzword and is "over-theorized" (his word) and under-acted (my word).

To avoid this over-theorization of design thinking (at a time when, it can be argued, companies need it more than ever) Mootee recommends three design techniques -- observational research or ethnography, visual sense-making, and rapid prototyping -- that he says are "most powerful if you combine them with strategic context..."

These, he says are "where D-school meets B-school" -- and how we can keep our hands busy creating and our heads out of the over-theorized clouds.

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