Early indictors of an unfolding future (Chris Coldewey's blog archive – 2007-2013)
Why is it that when we try to solve immediate problems around technology (“we need to fix social media,” “people can’t find stuff on our website”), inevitably we find they are symptoms of larger systemic challenges? Jonathan Kahn of web firm Together London articulates how the web is changing the fabric of organizations, and how the task of interaction designers is to help organizations manage systemic change.
The latest book on [design thinking] is Designing for Growth, a “design thinking toolkit for managers” and it provides a pretty good snapshot of how people are thinking about the discipline right now. Namely, that the reins of design thinking lie firmly in the hands of executives. In this world, design thinking is shorthand for the process implemented in a more creatively driven type of workshop, one involving visual thinking, iteration and prototyping. In this world, you don’t have to be a designer to be a design thinker, and the process has been codified as a repeatable, reusable business framework.
This is all, arguably, fine. But mostly it unwittingly highlights the true tension at the heart of the design thinking debate. A codified, repeatable, reusable practice contradicts the nature of innovation, which requires difficult, uncomfortable work to challenge the status quo of an industry or, at the very least, an organization. Executives are understandably looking for tidy ways to guarantee their innovation efforts — but they’d be better off coming to terms with the fact that there aren’t any.
Helen Walters of Doblin on the challenges of integrating design thinking into business.
CC JRNL 