Design thinking: an idea worth investing in

When you are ready to start designing solutions based on all the pre-work you've done: understanding your stakeholders/customers/users, the technology available, the long-term return on investment and of course the human aspect, that is, will people like and use what you give them, you will then want to begin working on a solution with a team. Henry Ford and Steve Jobs did not work alone and neither should you. One way to do this is using a technique called Design Thinking.

Design thinking originated at The School of Engineering at California's Stanford University with a course designed to prepare a generation of innovators to tackle complex challenges. Design thinking challenges participants to solve problems by first defining them and then iterating as a collaborative team focused on developing an unexpected range of possible solutions…to take back out into the field and test with real people.—http://dschool.stanford.edu/our-point-of-view/.

Designing thinking follows a very simple approach to problem solving that introduces the UX mindset to those who may not have experienced it before. Here are the steps:

We can break this down even further, taking into consideration three of the most important areas of focus: technology, business, and human values, as shown here:

In 2006, the design thinking program at Standford, also known as d.School, launched a week-long education program for managers and executives called Customer-Focused Innovation (CFI), where participants from across industries approached problems in a collaborative setting and from the customers' point of view. As of this writing, admission to CFI is approx $15,000 for one week of training, teamwork, creativity, and innovation. That's quite an investment and a positive development in dispelling the "faster horses" myth once and for all.