In this rapidly changing world, customer needs vary and change with every tick of the clock. Businesses struggle with transformation more often than you might think. This is mainly because of the lack of the ability to identify problems and the lack of resources to address them.
Design thinking offers companies a way to greatness, helping transform their business and products. It can help businesses find innovative solutions to problems through product design research and market research. And this is how award-winning design companies like Future Factory help businesses transform with innovation consulting.
What Is Design Thinking?
The Interaction Design Foundation describes design thinking as a non-linear, iterative process. It adds that design thinking can be used to understand users, challenge theories, redefine problems and create state-of-the-art solutions. The process involves five phases, namely,
- Empathize
- Define
- Ideate
- Prototype
- Test
Do Companies Need Design Thinking To Stay Afloat?
A business will have to solve problems more often than they identify opportunities. At the pace that businesses are developing currently, it is impossible to strategize for the future with data collected in the past. And the design thinking process caters perfectly to the need to innovate.
Currently, user experience and customer needs govern business strategy. Moreover, companies are laying more emphasis on customer insights during new product design. This is leading more and more businesses to employ design thinking for business innovation.
How Does Design Thinking Help Businesses Innovate?
The design thinking process helps businesses put the needs of the people at the forefront of the business strategy process. It has more to do with user experience and product stories than with new product design.
The design thinking process starts with asking the right questions in the form of design research/user research. The qualitative data gathered during the research provides insights that can help steer a business in the right direction.
Regardless of the discipline or industry, design thinking methodology yields the same results. It drives improvement in innovation & technology. The design thinking process can also help businesses improve collaboration within and among teams when applied effectively. It helps companies identify user needs, ideate innovative solutions and test the same.
Why Does Design Thinking Work?
Not all teams in a company work the in the same manner. The research and development team handles the design and research side of things. Managers of these teams aren’t mostly designers with little to no experience doing user research/design research. The structured linearity of the design thinking methodology helps the managers handle and empathize with their teams.
Each step of the design thinking process provides a clear result that the next step utilizes. But on a deeper note, something more complex is at play. Although it is meant to understand the needs of the customer or user, design thinking helps designers and strategists drive business innovation. This is because it helps the designers empathize with the customers’ needs, figuratively in their shoes.
Conclusion
Design thinking can help businesses in more ways than one can imagine. This is where companies like Future Factory come in. As the best product design agency in India, Future Factory can help your business transform and adapt to the ever-changing world, helping with new product development and innovation consulting.
