Design Thinking
Meme
Design Thinking
The second innovation approach after First Mover is Design Thinking. It was popularized in the 1990s by companies like IDEO.
It has become the go-to methodology for consultants and innovation teams, especially when the context is complex and features multiple interconnected actors with divergent goals. Design thinking cuts through that complexity by focusing primarily on the users of the product or service being designed. Innovators study people in the contexts in which they will use an offering, empathize with them, divine their unarticulated needs, and then seek to reshape products and processes in ways that improve their experience. Rather than slicing through the Gordian knot, design thinkers focus on one strand in the knot (the user) and ignore everything around it.
Problems
Design thinking has a track record of success, but it too has significant downsides as the obsessive focus on the user creates knock-on problems for other parties. For example, Airbnb solved a problem for homeowners and vacationers, but it created a host of problems for local communities.
Other Approaches
The most common approach is the First Mover to try to get a solution in the market place fast and then, in Zuckerberg's lingo - "Move Fast and Break Things". That approach will continue to build the occasionally unicorn (worth a billion $), but they could be catastrophic errors for human society.
The more comprehensive approach, systems thinking, emerged from the pioneering work of theoretical biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy, computer scientist Jay Forrester, and others. It had its heyday in the 1990s with the publication of Peter Senge's bestseller The Fifth Discipline. Systems thinking recognizes and embraces the complexity of organizational problems, rather than seeking to simplify them. It leads to innovations that make an entire system more sustainable and resilient, avoiding the side effects and collateral damage sometimes seen in the other two approaches. At its best, systems thinking generates more-creative solutions and greater engagement in organizational ecosystems. So whee the goal is to fit into the existing organization, it might be the best approach.
Design Thinking creates better solutions for users than systems thinking as the goal is to meet human needs through innovation, because it prioritizes empathy, rapid iteration, and user-centered outcomes.
Best Practices
The Following wiki pages have sections on Design Thinking
Best Practice and Example Identifier Provider ...n example for use by an Identifier or Attribute Provider (IAP) systems design. ===Design Thinking=== 20 KB (3,337 words) - 17:30, 25 November 2019
Best Practice and Example Relying Party ...eeds and constraints on an example for use by a Relying Party (RP) systems design. ===Design Thinking=== 22 KB (3,678 words) - 13:42, 18 August 2021
Best Practice and Example Self-issued Identifier ...eeds and constraints on an example for use by a Relying Party (RP) systems design. ===Design Thinking=== 29 KB (4,564 words) - 08:31, 12 October 2022
Best Practice and Example Trust Registry
