Be empathetic, gather courage and nurture creativity to make Breakthroughs.

I would like to Thank our energetic lecturer Katja Tschimmel for sharing her knowledge and experiences on Design Thinking. Thank to Virpi Kaartti for providing great support during the Study and Thank to all my fellow students for such an amazing ongoing experience. 

This blog is covering two parts. 1) My perspective and highlight on Design Thinking and Innovation 2) Learning during Laurea contact sessions.

 

My perspective and highlight on Design Thinking and Innovation

 

I have gained a little insight about the potential of Design Thinking and how design thinking approach can lead to create innovations to improve existing conditions and make impact.

I can already feel that Design Thinking is slowly transforming my approach towards solving problems and my realization that empathy is so much central towards design thinking.

Design Thinking is powerful, a great methodology which provides framework for understanding empathy, nurturing creativity and using early prototyping towards breakthrough innovations.

Also, keeping an open mindset to grow and learn at the same time paves the way to unleash our true unknown potential, including creativity hidden among all of us.

Here, I would like to emphasize and highlight on key aspects of Design Thinking.

 

Be empathetic to understand the real need and desirability

 

Empathy is central to human centered design which is essence of Design Thinking. Deep understanding of real  need and desires, beside mere observation is needed to fill Design Thinking.  This aspect enlightens us about the understanding of human motivation and core beliefs which is essential for successful innovation.

Other important factors of successful innovations – such as Technology and Economy are usually well thought and considered in Science and Business domains, so the human factor provides great opportunity for innovation. We need to understand why people do things in certain way and what they might need or do in future.

Human centered design is key towards meaningful innovations and real users should be involved and taken into consideration for successful human centered design. Being successful in knowing real need and desirability for improvement lies in Inspiration and Synthesis.

Inspiration is achieved by being in the field. Being out to gain real experiences helps in creative thinking. Daring to know the unknown and interacting with experts in the field provides Inspiration.

Synthesis recognizes patterns, abstract truths and themes at a higher level after engaging with real users, scenarios and environments and these can be the source to generate innovative ideas.

 

Overcome Fear and gather courage to become creative

 

 

Creativity is the heart of innovation. Design Thinking can trigger our creative mind to prepare an innovative platform for problem solving. Creativity is like a muscle which could be nurtured. Fear of being failed or being judged are the primary blocking factors why we don’t attempt new ideas and methods. Overcoming fear and becoming confident makes way to bend, mold existing methods and create new. We can take small steps to overcome the fear and empower our creativity to fuel innovation.

 

Collaborate, Create ideas, Innovate and Prototype the ideas in an iterative way

 

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Being collaborative, open, fluent , divergent, flexible and original could lead to create many meaningful and promising ideas.

Early prototyping to visualize, test and get an actual feel of the solution in an iterative way takes us closer towards more mature solution.

 

 Learning during Laurea contact sessions

 

It was a good learning opportunity to listen to Design Thinking lectures and attempting to simulate Design Thinking ideologies and methods during Laurea contact sessions.

We were students from diversified fields and cultures. First we started with knowing each other and warming up, then we proceeded to learn about the history, eminent people in the field, evolution and process model about Design Thinking.

Later we got involved in knowing the theoretical aspect of Design Thinking and practicing the same in a simulated environment. 

We engaged in brainstorming and discussions to create meaningful ideas and tried to shape them. We practiced the methods in smaller groups. People from diversified fields and culture brought in different ways of thinking which made way for understanding various perspectives and generate new ideas and different solutions.

We used tools such as Mind map to identify opportunity as part of EMERGENCE.

We used Stakeholder map, Image interview and Mood board to know better Context as part of EMPATHY.

We used tools such as Brain writing, Insight clustering and desktop walk through to generate idea and concepts as part of EXPERIMENTATION.

We used Role play + Pilot testing/Getting feedback and Service blueprint to work on material and semantic solutions as part of ELABORATION.

We used Storyboarding and Visual Business Model and Pitching Final presentation to communicate the new solution as part of EXPOSITION

This is how we concluded our contact session about Design Thinking, of course some of us met for a drink to relax after intensive days 🙂

That’s all about my first blogging experience ever.

 

I appreciate your time and feedback.

 

Thank you !

Manas Mallick

 

This blog is inspired by “Service Innovation and Design” study at Laurea.

Sources: The book titled “Creative Confidence” by Tom Kelley and David Kelley & article “Design_Thinking_as_an_effective_Toolkit” by Katja Tschimmel.