“Design Thinking ++” The industrial variant

“Design Thinking ++” is a variant of Design Thinking that we have developed in recent years, especially for large organisations.

First of all, however, we should again focus on the fact that there are many variants of Design Thinking worldwide. For example, there are variants that see the implementation of the idea as part of Design Thinking, but also others that deliberately exclude implementation. From David Kelly, to various universities, to the Hasso Plattner Institute and the verrocchio Institute, we now know more than 20 exciting variants of Design Thinking, which also differ greatly in the selection of recommended micro-methods. Basically, the development of new individual variants is also supported, as an essential part of the fundamental Design Thinking approach.

What is special about our variant “Design Thinking ++” is the phase we have called “Build”, which is located between prototyping and testing and the implementation of the idea – see figure.

Click here to take a closer look at the verrocchio worksheet on Design Thinking ++ and see the details.

The “build” phase is about building targeted commitments, initial fundings or first technical feasibility studies for the idea, for example. But why is this so important in large organisations? Large organisations that do not have an innovative figurehead like Elon Musk or Richard Branson at the top are inert masses and cumbersome supertankers, even if individual parts are highly agile and courageous.

It almost always comes down to generating critical masses for new ideas and major changes, which can then move the whole supertanker. If you ignore this fact, even ideas that have achieved top results in prototyping and testing will fail.

By integrating the “Build” phase into the Design Thinking process, this phase is seen and perceived by all participants at an early stage and ideas are also developed in Design Thinking with which the “Build” phase can be passed through individually and effectively.

So for all people who work in large organisations and who want to change a lot with new ideas: “We wish you a lot of fun in creatively brainstorming ideas to generate the critical masses!”

With inspiring regards,
Benno van Aerssen