Turning Creativity into tangible Solution

Written by; Durga Shahi Thapa, Sabita Shrestha & Vijay Pulami Magar

Why do some products do really well when others fail? How do you find what is needed in the market? What makes a product sellable? Are you sure the “idea” currently in your mind is the best you can do? How will you implement those ideas to design a service or a product? When do you test it? These are the questions we explored during our Design Thinking masterclass at Laurea with Prof. Katja Tschimmel.

One of the things we learned was that good ideas are not achieved solely due to creativity, but due to the knowledge of human beings. Design thinking is a human-centered and applied philosophy that places real needs, real experiences and real solutions at the forefront. It renders imagination a fact, and the concepts devised by it add value to our lives. Brown (2008) believes, design thinking completes three fundamental things – human needs, technological possibilities, and business value. Innovation involves not just coming up with ideas but also creating them so as to make them usable, viable, and sustainable solution. This is to say that even brilliant ideas will not help unless it works in a real-life scenario.

Lesson of the past: Edison’s Method

Thomas Edison was not only a genius to invent but also the one who foresaw how these devices would be used by people in their daily life (Brown 2008). He observed human practices, found out what was required by people, and developed solutions that suited them; another principle that is mainstream in design thinking: it takes human wisdom to invent innovation, not technology. Similar to this, our group conducted a couple of interviews, gathered insights and worked on creating a service that would solve the problem faced by the interviewees (who were new students facing cultural adjustment issues in Finland). By doing this, we understood that the product should solve an existing problem to succeed.

Problem Framing: The Solution to the Right Problems

Design thinking prevents us from rushing to make a judgement. It is also significant because a clear definition of the problem will allow us to address the right issue (Carlgren et al. 2016). The approach has a tendency of isolating mediocre ideas and breakthrough innovation. In our case also, we did not rush to design a solution without reviewing all the problems first. we used the “How can we?’ method and listed out few questions to all the problems that we gathered from the interviewees. Then we finalized on one of the problems and only then created a concept statement.

Empathy: The Design Thinking Pillar

Designers will need to look at the world in the multi-faceted lens of the user, customer, and stakeholder to assist in meeting the explicit and implicit needs (Brown 2008). This is as Carlgren, Rauth and Elmquist (2016) discover, through observation, interviews, and life experience. Even the tiniest things, like stalking someone throughout the day can reveal something that will alter solutions.

Action Learning: Prototyping and iterating

After creating the concept statement, team Everest tried to come up with as many solutions as we could individually using the “Divergent thinking” method and later combined them to narrow down on a singular solution with “Convergent thinking” to come up with a service. It is not a perfect product that is being designed, the idea of prototyping is rather about learning quickly (Brown 2008). It is created and nurtured by doing things fast through trial and error, learning by trial & error, and iterating constantly (Carlgren et al. 2016). We then created an initial prototype and pitched it to the fellow classmates. We received feedbacks on the service and improved accordingly.

Conclusion

The overall lesson is that design thinking is an endless process; know people – make the problem clear – brainstorm – prototype – experiment – refine. It is a technique and a manner of thinking founded on empathy, trial and error, learning and curiosity. Design thinking is not merely about the generation of ideas, but transforming them into the real-life solution that works, as it is people-oriented, tolerant of experimentation and continuous learning.

References

Brown, T. (2008). Design thinking. Harvard Business Review, 86(6), 84-92.
Carlgren, L., Rauth, I., & Elmquist, M. (2016). Design thinking: The concept and reality notion. Creativity and Innovation Management, 25 (1), 38-57

Posted

March 31, 2026

Uncategorized

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Tags:

business, Creativity, design, education, innovation, practicality, prototyping, technology

Comments

5 responses to “Turning Creativity into tangible Solution”

nirmalshrestha62bb702539

April 3, 2026

This post is incredibly well-written and simple to read. It made perfect sense how you linked Thomas Edison’s methodology to modern design theory. It’s a great reminder that great inventions were never just about being smart — they were about understanding people.

One thing I’d like to add: “Failure is actually a feature of design thinking, not a bug”. Because they believe their idea won’t succeed, many people are afraid to prototype. But as your blog accurately points out, the goal of a prototype is to “learn fast” rather than to be perfect. The mental shift from “I must get it right” to “I must learn quickly” is, in my opinion, one of the hardest but most important ideas to accept.

I also loved the “How Can We?” method you mentioned. It is a very small change in the word; however, it changes how you see the issue in a big way. You begin to see a problem as an opening instead of a wall; that’s a huge change.

“Empathy doesn’t stop after the interview phase” is another point of view that should be given consideration. Many teams conduct initial interviews, develop a product, and then never revisit the users. Checking in with people at every stage of the prototyping process, following feedback, and even after the product’s launch is a key component of real design thinking.

Your conclusion summed it up beautifully design thinking is a loop, not a straight line. Thank you for sharing your experience which made this topic feel very real and relatable.

Reply
Bijaya Tamang

April 4, 2026

It is very hard to be the server or the service provider due to the fast-paced changing behavior of the consumers. So, I really touched by the sentence “even brilliant ideas will not help unless it works in a real-life scenario”. And this the actual phenomena that all the creative design thinkers persive.

I really amazed by the way you guys present about the real world examples. The example of Thomas Edison really inspires us to foresee the future of any kind of products and services before its actual production. This will helps us to judge about the practicalability of the products.

Similarly, the highlights you guys have done on how the design thinking and creative design thinking work is another admirable work. Problem framing, design with the empathy and prototyping are very important aspect of the design thinking and product or service innovation and you people have presented it on very easy way.

I hope the presentaion which you guys have made upon the design thinking, will definitely helps us to be the creative design thinkers in the field of service innovation and design.

Reply
sundarlamsal

April 4, 2026

Your framework explaining design thinking is well presented and clear and I especially liked how you used your personal experience with Team Everest to relate theory and practice together. This makes the contents more realistic and approaching. The case of students who are in cultural adjustment matters and demonstrates the significance of paying attention to actual user needs.

The description of such concepts as empathy, problem framing, and prototyping is quite understandable. The part of the problem framing was the one that I found to be the strongest since I realized how crucial it is to get the proper problem and then build solutions. Your interview and real user insights are also an indication of good human-centered design.

Among the recommendations to improve the post, I would remind a more specific example in the empathy section, i.e., one of the main things people have learned during your interviews. This would make your readers know a little more how empathy contributed to your final solution. In addition, it may be helpful to simplify some long sentences and make them easier to read.

Altogether, this is a deep and knowledgeable blog that demonstrates a great concept of understanding of design thinking and applying it in reality. It explicitly points to the fact that it is based on understanding, testing solutions, and constantly learning that successful ideas go.

Reply
ujb00002

April 5, 2026

Your reflection captures the essence of the Design Thinking beautifully. I like how you connected the theory with your team’s practical experience. Especially the way you emphasized human‑centeredness as the core of innovation. It’s easy to assume creativity alone drives good ideas. Your examples—like Edison’s method and your own interviews—show how deeply understanding people shapes meaningful solutions.

I also liked how clearly you described the transition from divergent to convergent thinking. Many teams struggle with that balance. Your process of expanding possibilities and then narrowing them down felt very intentional. The way you framed problem definition was another strong point. It’s something we often rush through. Your group demonstrated how essential it is to pause, question, and refine before jumping into solutions.

The conclusion ties everything together well. Design thinking is not a linear process. It is a cycle of experimentation, and learning. Reading your experience made me reflect on my own project.

Reply
Ujeli Bhattarai

April 5, 2026

Your reflection captures the essence of the Design Thinking beautifully. I like how you connected the theory with your team’s practical experience. Especially the way you emphasized human‑centeredness as the core of innovation. It’s easy to assume creativity alone drives good ideas. Your examples—like Edison’s method and your own interviews—show how deeply understanding people shapes meaningful solutions.

I also liked how clearly you described the transition from divergent to convergent thinking. Many teams struggle with that balance. Your process of expanding possibilities and then narrowing them down felt very intentional. The way you framed problem definition was another strong point. It’s something we often rush through. Your group demonstrated how essential it is to pause, question, and refine before jumping into solutions.

The conclusion ties everything together well. Design thinking is not a linear process. It is a cycle of experimentation, and learning. Reading your experience made me reflect on my own project.

Reply