Before we get into it let’s look into history a little - Design Thinking has been around for a while with its roots growing from the study of design methods in the 1950s and 60s. It was brought into the business world by the innovation agency Ideo in the early 90s but was largely unknown until the publication of the book, Change by Design by Tim Brown who was the CEO of Ideo at the time.

As the 2010s progressed more and more people started hearing about the wonders of Design Thinking. Businesses didn’t want to be left behind and agencies, coaches and facilitators were popping up to meet the ever-increasing demand. 

Design Thinking was sold as the magic pill to your business problems. Tales were told of Bank of America’s “Keep the Change” initiative and GE Healthcare’s “Adventure Series” that made their MRI machines more kid-friendly.

It felt like one of those old-school adverts.

“Want to solve all of your problems? Just implement our simple 5-step process and you’ll be able to innovate like Apple, Google and Ideo in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”

And that, right there, was the problem.

People were being sold on the dream that all you had to do was attend a 2-day workshop, learn the 5-steps and you’d be able to innovate like the best. The reality was this didn’t happen. Companies invested heavily in Design Thinking but didn’t see any real outcomes from it. It became seen as something fun to get people out of the office but not practical outside of the classroom, and this lack of real-world success led to its downfall.

And the reason why companies weren’t able to innovate using Design Thinking?

Because it was being sold as knowledge whereas Design Thinking, just like innovation as a whole, is a skill. I repeat, Design Thinking is a skill and skills need to be practiced before you get good at them.

Let me explain, knowing what Design Thinking is, the steps, and the different tools within it is pretty easy to teach and learn. Anybody can become an “expert” in the process. But applying them in the real world is very different.

It’s like driving a car. The process of driving a car is pretty straightforward, especially if it’s an automatic. My kids are in 7 and they could tell you how to drive a car. They love to play driving games where they get to use their indicators, they’ve raced real-life go-karts around a track so they understand how to accelerate, brake and turn, and although I’m a little biased, they were pretty fast around the track too.

But that’s exactly the point. They were fast around the track.

Put them out on a real road where there are so many different things competing for their attention, vehicles cutting in, people speeding, knowing where to go, the stress of being on the public road for the first time; and I’m sure it wouldn’t end well for anybody.

Design Thinking is the same.

It’s ridiculous to send somebody to a 2-day or even 10-day workshop and expect them to magically become innovators. Just as it’s ridiculous to expect a new driver to be able to safely navigate public roads alone after a couple of lessons on a controlled driving school circuit.

In a 2-day workshop, just like on a driving school circuit, there are people there to guide you and keep you safe. It’s a controlled environment with minimal risk.

The world outside of that is chaotic, uncertain and messy. In a car, the instructor is still there to help you brake, pull the steering wheel and look out for danger. But in the business world, after the design thinking workshops, you’re generally on your own!

So of course people are going to fail! They walk out of the workshop feeling excited, and ready to make a change, then they encounter the chaos of the real world and they freeze. They know what they should be doing but they have no idea how to do it. It’s like Mike Tyson said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

So does this mean that we should throw Design Thinking onto the scrap heap and move on to the next popular shiny thing? (I’m looking at you, Agile)

No, because the same thing will happen again.

I still believe that Design Thinking has a role to play in innovation and problem-solving. The problem isn’t Design Thinking, the problem is not recognising that it’s a skill. We, as practitioners and coaches need to stop positioning Design Thinking as a quick fix and start positioning as a skill that needs to be practised and honed.