How Design Thinking is the new tool for enterprises

A black swan event could change how you work and live. Your conventional way of thinking could never help you tackle the 'wicked problems' these occasions pose. You need to think fresh and think fast to create new solutions. This is where Design Thinking comes in and Niket Karajagi, the facilitator of Design Thinking, says this is the most important tool for companies in the Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous VUCA world we are staring at. BT: Almost every other tech university has put Design Thinking on the curriculum. Is this the latest tool for managing enterprises in the world?

Niket Karajagi: The pandemic was a black swan event. We learned to work around it. During black swan events, new solutions become popular, such as the dishwasher. Because of the specific needs that came up during the outbreak, dishwasher sales spiked. Nobody knew how to deal with a situation like that, but within a few weeks a new normal was created. Niket Karajagi: The first step towards implementing design thinking is to identify needs. The second step is gathering information when you need to do research about what people do and how they do what they do in their environment. Don't just focus on the users of your product or service, you should also check the stakeholders and analyse how you can use the stakeholder network to advantage. You can do operational research to check your limitations, such as money, time, and resources. There is a need for hazard analysis to mitigate consequences. The third step is about specification creation, which is neither too detailed nor too vague and should be implemented. When you need to spend time in the problem space to find creative solutions, you need to make creative design a reality. You have to come up with a conceptual design that would help you winnow down the concepts you developed and zero down on solutions. You need to create a model of your idea that is testable, or prototype design is something you need to do. You need to implement verification so you can learn from your work and reduce uncertainty.

Niket Karajagi: The biggest challenge for companies these days is to be able to introduce empathy. I have been consulting with scores of companies that have realized the need for empathy in the heart of systems. It is always about people, and you cannot change a system without empathy at the center. BT: Can only companies implement Design Thinking, or can individuals use it to solve problems?

Niket Karajagi: You can implement Design Thinking to solve any problem. It is the easiest and quickest way to deal with problems that are thrown at you. From your house to your workplace, implement it with any problem and create winning solutions along the way.

How does Design Thinking win the BT: How does it compare to other analytical methods of problem solving?

Niket Karajagi: Simply because it offers the fastest and quickest way to create a protocol in just 3 to 21 days. You fail cheap early and solve every wicked problem when you try to understand it and the needs of the stakeholders. Design Thinking is the number one tool for the coming century when we are expected to face black swan events more often than ever.