Measuring the use of design thinking and co-creation for innovation

Design thinking applies a designer’s methods and activities to innovation processes. User centeredness and involvement of users (co-creation) is fundamental to design thinking in a search to respond to user needs. This chapter addresses the relationship between innovation and these two concepts, their interrelationship, and how the work on developing relevant indicators is still in its infancy. The chapter provides an operational definition for the two concepts and suggests measures that can be used in surveys by academics or national statistical agencies, or by academics in case studies. The proposed questions capture activities and working methods of relevance to design thinking and co-creation that can be used by organisations to develop and implement innovations. In addition, we also suggest how to measure the use of these methods at specific stages of the innovation process and how to estimate whether companies implement design thinking as a systematic methodology.