Design Thinking as a Problem Solving Tool

In chapter 10 we covered thirteen ideation tools. We dedicate this chapter to Design Thinking (DT), as a procedure to generate and test ideas, and even more importantly as a creative problem-solving methodology. DT is a human-centred process that will help designers, innovators, entrepreneurs and business executives to systematically solve complex problems, not only in product design and businesses processes, systems and other sticky organizational problems, but also in our communities and our everyday lives. Some leading global brands, such as Apple™, Google™ and Samsung™ have adopted the DT approach to complex problem-solving. As DTDesign thinking (DT) is a shift in our way of thinking and a collection of hands-on methods and tools, we devote this chapter to this highly useful, well-honed 5-stageDT stages process. The chapter first covers the history of and thinking modalities involved in DTDesign thinking (DT), then examines how various design thinkingDesign thinking (DT) schools and leading universities (e.g., Stanford, Harvard and MIT) apply the DTDesign thinking (DT) principles using models with three to eight stagesDT stages. Finally this chapter covers the 5-stage DTDesign thinking (DT) iterative process we propose for business executives – those who lead multi-disciplinary teams of innovators, ideators, intrapreneurs and others in business problem-solving roles.