Uncovering Design Thinking

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Strategy  

You have built a strong skills foundation in frameworks like Lean, Six Sigma, Agile, Scrum and more. You have led a number of successful IT-related projects and are feeling that all is good. As part of your normal read of the business plan for the new year, you notice that part of the organization’s going-forward strategy is to adopt “design thinking” as the framework of choice on all new development projects. Your head explodes. Your mind is flooded with questions like:

1. What the heck is design thinking?
2. What happens to all the skills, tools and knowledge I have spent the last five or more years of my life mastering?
3. Is design thinking something new, or is it just new to me?
4. Now what?

The only bad news is that you will have to learn a little something new--and even then, most likely, very little. The great news is that all your Lean, Six Sigma, agile, Scrum and project management skills, tools and experience can be utilized. This two-part article will present some of the basics you will need to know, along with what others are doing with other frameworks--mashing them all up with the design thinking process.

Basic Concepts
Although design thinking might be new to you, it isn’t new at all. It began around 1969, when it was primarily used by architects and urban planners. In the 1980s and …

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