Ingo Rauth

Design Thinking: Exploring Values and Effects from an Innovation Capability Perspective

ABSTRACT The concept of Design Thinking (DT) is becoming widespread and is seen as improving firm innovativeness. However, studies of the potential value of DT are scarce in the areas of both design and innovation research. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding through investigating how companies that use DT in practice perceive the value it creates in their organizations. The paper builds on an interview study of large organizations in Germany and the US. We find that although some firms identified outcome-related values (such as new ideas, better products), many also underlined other benefits, more related to longer-term effects on competences, innovation processes and the mindset of company employees. We argue that for a company with a strategic intent to be more innovative, DT can be exploited in the development of long-term innovation capability through its contribution to the dimensions of resources, processes and mindset. We also propose the framework of innovation capability to discuss the values and effects of using DT.

The Challenges of Using Design Thinking in Industry – Experiences from Five Large Firms

Design Thinking (DT) is advocated as a user-centred approach to innovation, based on the way designers think and work. Despite being increasingly promoted as an approach to innovation, there is still little evidence of successful impact. Rather, indications suggest that firms find implementation challenging. The purpose of this paper is to analyse challenges of using DT in light of literature on innovation barriers, in order to discuss whether there is something unique about DT as a concept that makes it particularly challenging to use. The paper is based on an interview study of five large firms that all have at least five years of experience of using DT. The analysis shows that several of the perceived challenges can be linked to known barriers to innovation. However, other challenges have not previously been described in the innovation literature, and the paper suggests that there are some unique aspects of DT that makes it particularly challenging for firms to integrate it in innovation work. These are related to its core themes: user focus, problem framing, experimentation, visualization and diversity. Additionally, the paper contributes with an empirically based categorization of challenges that managers will find useful if they want to implement design thinking in their organizations.