Solving Problems with Design Thinking

Design-oriented firms such as Apple and IDEO have demonstrated how design thinking can affect business results. However, most managers lack a sense of how to use this new approach for issues other than product development and sales growth. Solving Problems with Design Thinking details ten real-world examples of managers who successfully applied design methods at 3M, Toyota, IBM, Intuit, and SAP; entrepreneurial start-ups such as MeYou Health; and government and social sector organizations, including the City of Dublin and Denmark's The Good Kitchen.

Using design skills such as ethnography, visualization, storytelling, and experimentation, these managers produced innovative solutions to such problems as implementing strategy, supporting a sales force, redesigning internal processes, feeding the elderly, and engaging citizens. They elaborate on the challenges they faced and the processes and tools they used, providing a clear path to implementation based on the principles and practices laid out in Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie's Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers.

Jeanne Liedtka has been involved in the corporate strategy field for more than thirty years. She has served as associate dean of the MBA program at the Darden School of Business, executive director of the Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and chief learning officer at United Technologies Corporation.

Andrew King has a faculty appointment to the Darden School of Business as a research associate for the Batten Institute.

Kevin Bennett has worked for organizations ranging from technology start-ups to government institutions and is currently manager for marketing and partnership development at Personal, a technology start-up in Washington, D.C.