The Explainer: What Is Design Thinking?

Popularized by David M. Kelley and Tim Brown of IDEO and Roger Martin of the Rotman School, design thinking has three major stages. As the complexity of the design process increases, a new hurdle arises: the acceptance of what we might call “the designed artifact” — whether product, user experience, strategy, or complex system — by stakeholders. Design thinking can help strategic and system innovators make the new worlds they’ve imagined come to pass. In fact, with very complex artifacts, the design of their “intervention” — their introduction and integration into the status quo — is even more critical to success than the design of the artifacts themselves. --------------------------------------------------------------------- At Harvard Business Review, we believe in management. If the world’s organizations and institutions were run more effectively, if our leaders made better decisions, if people worked more productively, we believe that all of us — employees, bosses, customers, our families, and the people our businesses affect — would be better off. So we try to arm our readers with ideas that help them become smarter, more creative, and more courageous in their work. We enlist the foremost experts in a wide range of topics, including career planning, strategy, leadership, work-life balance, negotiations, innovation, and managing teams. Harvard Business Review empowers professionals around the world to lead themselves and their organizations more effectively and to make a positive impact. Sign up for Newsletters: https://hbr.org/email-newsletters Follow us: https://hbr.org/   / harvard-business-review     / hbr     / harvardbiz     / harvard_business_review