The ability to transform in an ultra-reactive, fast-changing world where the end customer is king is the key to a company's success. Kodak failed to transform itself, but IBM did. The Design Thinking approach offers this capacity for transformation to companies that respect a few rules... but also a few apparent paradoxes:
- First and foremost, you need to create an ideal physical, social, emotional and even sensory environment in your workgroup, to activate the two stimulants of innovation: pleasure and confidence. Because you need to be kind to the ideas that have just been born, be able to change the way you look at things, be positive and allow yourself to ask the magic questions "...what if...?
- But at the same time, and this might seem paradoxical, it is important to follow a set of "gymnastics" made up of methods and techniques, a process, rules and instructions; for example, it is key to respect the stages, to sequence them, to reproduce them in an iterative way to explore the problem in all its aspects, to note down all the questions, comments and avenues for improvement. But it's also important to respect the rules for setting up and leading groups, with profiles that are more ideative, others that are more realistic, a variety of profiles to create chaos, and the leader whose role is simply to ensure the group's dynamics.
- Starting with the consumer, the customer, their feelings and their use to identify new needs is the DNA of Design Thinking. The best techniques for doing this are empathy, immersion and observation. Experimenting with a problem is the best way to imagine solutions.
- But in the creative phase, you also have to take a step back and look at the bigger picture, to allow ideas or strong convictions to come through. The focus must be widened to accommodate the corporate bias or simply that of the resource group.
- An idea is fragile. You have to protect it by bringing it to life as quickly as possible. The presence of designers, draughtsmen and illustrators means that the Master idea can be established and then improved in small steps.
- Once the design idea has been selected, the functional prototyping phase for objects, or the development of finished concepts with a key visual and a final draft for a service, allows the idea to be tested against reality, by testing in vivo the performance of the idea. This is when we check three key success criteria: understanding of the idea, its natural empathy (the way it responds to a latent need) and its accessibility.
- During this process, the benevolent support of a Design Thinking facilitator ensures that the initial objectives are met, while taking care to respond to a customer need (need gap) in a compact, agile and rapid way. They need to understand how the organisation works if they are to get buy-in for the transformation project and achieve the ultimate goal of Design Thinking: to develop innovative leadership.
Florence Hussenot
