Daily work hacks with Design Thinking

Written by Linda Neiglick and Anamika Firoz

You do not have to be a designer to strengthen innovation at your workplace.  

In fact, some of the best ideas come from people who look at problems differently.  

We gathered a few ideas and research-based methods that you can start using right away if you wish to spark innovation in your organisation.  

1. Experiment often and gain insights 

Insights can be gained by experimenting and testing. When you are dealing with a problem or wish to innovate, try testing and even prototyping at an early stage.  

Research has shown that early testing can lead into notable insights.  With this in mind, start testing before the service is finished and really listen and understand the feedback you are gaining. Unpredicted insights can be achieved by rapid experiments with users. 

Photo: Unsplash, Mareks Manguzis

2. Build diverse teams to solve problems

Do not get stuck in teams that are made up of people who all have a similar background. When you are dealing with complex problems, gather a multidisciplinary team. Diverse teams may be more innovative than teams of one academic discipline.

However, keep in mind, that organisational culture and norms also affect innovation.   

3. Try divergent and convergent thinking methods 

Try divergent thinking methods to solve problems at work. When you are solving a problem start by brainstorming with your team without any criticism or feasibility needs. Every idea is welcomed. You can use visual boards to gather all the ideas. If your team runs out of ideas, use specific questions or give them roles that can help in generating a variety of ideas.   

For convergent thinking, gather all ideas into clusters, after which you can vote for the best solutions and evaluate them against certain criteria, such as feasibility or originality of the idea or solution. 

Photo: Unsplash, Per Loov. 

4. Use empathy as a tool for understanding customer needs 

Empathy lies at the heart of Design Thinking. It involves understanding users by viewing situations from their perspective, rather than relying solely on assumptions or surface-level feedback. Customers may express what they want, but deeper needs often remain unspoken. 

To uncover these underlying needs, designers use methods such as user interviews, observation, and journey mapping.  Empathetic engagement reveals insights that structured data alone cannot capture. It enables a shift from identifying what appears to be the problem to understanding what users actually experience. 

Practicing empathy requires careful listening, attention to emotional cues, and openness to what users may not articulate directly. These insights form the foundation for developing meaningful and user-centered solutions. 

Try using a basic customer journey map as a tool for understanding the customers’ needs, wants and emotions.  

Customer journey map, Miro.com

5. Dare to fail 

Failure, within the Design Thinking process, is not a weakness but a key source of learning. The real barrier is often the fear of failing, which can discourage experimentation and limit innovation. 

Prototyping is not meant to confirm ideas, but to uncover gaps in understanding. Identifying what does not work can be just as informative as discovering what does. When you design services that are useful and do not make users’ anger or frustration arise, you are on the right track.   

By treating failure as part of the learning process, teams become more open to taking creative risks. This mindset encourages continuous improvement and helps build more resilient, user-focused solutions.  

Next time your team fails, ask “What did we learn from it?”  and also learn to celebrate useful failures.  

Photo: Unsplash, Jon Tyson

Sources 

Carlgren, L., Rauth, I. & Elmquist, M. (2016) “Framing Design Thinking: The Concept in Idea and Enactment”, Creativity and innovation management, 25(1), pp. 38-57 

Kolko, J. (2015) “Design thinking comes of age. The approach, once used primarily in product design, is now infusing corporate culture”, Harvard Business Review, September, pp. 66-72 

Meinel, C., Leifer, L., Plattner H., (2011). Design Thinking: understand – improve – apply. Dordrecht: Springer.    

Miro (2025) Customer journey map basic, Accessed September 21st, https://miro.com/templates/customer-journey-map-basic/ 

Tschimmel, Katja (2015) Lecture notes, Design Thinking, 4-5 September, 2025, Espoo Finland.  

Cover photo: Unsplash, Kvalifik

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Comments

4 responses to “Daily work hacks with Design Thinking”

  1. nadeekamadawalawwe Avatar
    nadeekamadawalawwe

    Thank you for this concise and practical guide to help improve innovation at work, especially for those who do not view themselves as designers. The focus on simple, research-based methods makes Design Thinking accessible.  

    I’d like to share a viewpoint that connects your two of the key approaches: empathy and experimentation.  

    The post successfully points out how crucial empathy is to Design Thinking. Customers’ unspoken needs are important, even if they state their desires. User research methods like interviews and observation help teams understand users’ actual experiences, not just the problem. These insights bring meaningful solutions. Empathy boosts experimentation, and teams gain insights by testing early, with user empathy, to solve underlying issues.  

    In addition, I appreciate the inclusion of “Dare to Fail”, which was highlighted in “Creative Confidence” by Kelley & Kelley (2013) as well. The real barrier to innovation is often the fear of failing, which discourages essential experimentation. However, successfully embedding this mindset, where teams become more open to taking creative risks and celebrating useful failures by asking, “What did we learn from it?”, depends profoundly on the second point you raised: organizational culture and norms.  

    A culture that promotes experimentation and learning from failure is key for sustaining innovation and building a more resilient team. I think, If the organizational culture does not identify failure as a source of learning, even the most multidisciplinary and innovative teams may struggle to fully embrace the iterative nature of Design Thinking.

    Reply
  2. gayatrimishra Avatar
    gayatrimishra

    Thank you for this post on Design Thinking hacks for everyday work! I really liked how you translated broad concepts into actionable habits and emphasised diversity and empathy as integral dimensions of the innovation process.

    While reading, I had the thought that empathy and diversity can actually fuel each other in creative problem-solving. Diverse teams bring different lived experiences, which deepens collective empathy and broadens what “user needs” really mean. In this way, empathy extends beyond understanding end users, and also involves listening attentively to colleagues who perceive challenges and opportunities through different lenses. What do you think about this?

    Reply
  3. lauraaugustinaavramd104b6facd Avatar
    lauraaugustinaavramd104b6facd

    This was a very nice read for me. Your post could be a mandatory quick read at the kick-off meeting for many projects I am working on!

    You went with your post straight to some of the things we forget to do or do not do enough in my area of work (reformulated slightly to fit there):

    1. Testing, testing and then testing some more. And also test to break, not only to work :-).
    2. Making teams of people who are different – similar ways of thinking will often not lead to enough innovation.
    3. Brainstorm and visualize – we are for sure missing a lot of that!
    4. Talking to the customer – this is something we are missing a lot.
    5. Treating failure as a learning opportunity.
    Reply
  4. julietlealruokonen Avatar
    julietlealruokonen

    You have pointed out the key characteristics of Design Thinking and I like how you emphasize that “testing can lead into notable insights”. The testing phase of innovation is crucial, the solution undergoes a process of criticism, adjustments or even rejection which is the  idea of the testing process. And whatever the result is, even if it’s numerous failed attempts, we shouldn’t be content, we shouldn’t give up, because many failures lead to breakthroughs.

    I find it very interesting the activity that we had during our lecture with Katja Tschimmel on divergent and convergent thinking. We get to write what is in our thoughts without judgement, thus producing fluidity of ideas. The diversity of our team gives meaning to these ideas and  as we cluster these ideas it produces a unique solution to the problem that is then prototyped. 

    You have addressed well how empathy plays an important role in Design Thinking, the why, how and what to do with the insights that reflects the deep understanding of the users. And there are empathy tools used to communicate users’ needs, like the customer journey that you have suggested, empathy map and user personas among others.

    Reply

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