One of the hottest approaches to creativity and innovation in business right now is the design approach. In the United States, D-schools (design schools) such as the Stanford Design School are springing up in competion with (or complementing) traditional B-schools (business schools).
The basic idea of the design approach is to
(i) understand the client and the “design problem” – to thoroughly understand the context in and the constraints under which a design solution must be produced
(ii) use a variety of creative design techniques (everything from brainstorming through to visualisation through to exploring scenarios) to develop ideas for good designs
(iii) build and refine prototypes with a series of quick iterations, to test the ideas against the customer ina real world context
(iv) implement the concept in commercial context
These steps are detailed further in pages 6-7 of the excellent book “” by IDEO design guru Tom Kelley.
There are many layers to the design approach, but some of the factors that appeal are:
- The design approach is not just analytical, it recongises the creative element that goes into good design without taking away from the value of good research and analysis
- The design approach is client centric – it locates design in the reality of the markets and customers the business operates with
- The design approach is experimental – it deliberately generates a number of design hypotheses and tries out the prototypes
- The design approach is iterative – it gets client input on an ongoing basis from an early stage