Understanding Design Thinking: Impact And Challenges

Reflection on the weekly blog

In previous times, design was considered as one of the fairly occurring downstream within development process. Development processes sofa discarded the idea of aesthetic design and they have been focusing on creating new products based on the attractive brand perception by aesthetically presenting smart and evocative advertising (Spradley, 2016). This has been characterized by implementation of design thinking today as a daring of innovation that expand in the processes involving resumes and encompasses all the processes as well as services including the products the companies have been asking for. Nowadays the companies are asking the designers to make ideas that are created by their own mind rather than dressing the entire process up.In the world of technological advancement in the recent times it can be seen clearly that a product is not just based upon the way it is developed but also the way it can be presented in the market to the customers. This creates the opportunity for the product to attract the previous customers as well as the potential customers in the concerned organization.

Therefore, following would be a reflective report on understanding the impact and challenges faced by the design thinkers implementing projects forming the core objective being followed by several different sub tasks. This is characterized by a reflection demonstrated on a weekly blocked as per the previous report followed by a Candid and Critical self-analysis of knowledge and personality development from the aspect of design thinker. This should be subjected with an action plan that addresses the key development focuses of a design thinker and the specific activities that he or she needs to perform in order to develop their own career personally and professionally.

In the first week of the entire understanding about a design thinker in the first lecture the understanding of the brief discussion about the professional aspects and activity or experience of a design thinking has been described by the unit “Design It”. It has been based on the entire concept of entrepreneurship as well as Innovation and in which way does Entrepreneurship and innovation are connected with each other. This has made me understand during the activity that how the knowledge of entrepreneurship and innovation has the ability to enhance the depth of Thinking in a person and that can be implemented in the expansion of the individual businesses to transform and from a small scale organization to a large scale business organization.

In week 2, the lecture that I have gone through was about design process. In this activity the entire class has been subjected to watching a video on how to design shopping trolley. The video demonstrated that 10 and 20 people of different field came together to work and discuss about designing the trolley and the first plan that the admin initiated out design of the trolley in a paper. With that they had taken reviews from all the senior managers and created a prototype. With the prototype within made finally they have taken that trolley prototype in the market and ask a customer about providing a feedback for the trolley about its look feel and other features. Considering the feedback of the customer it was father decided if any changes were to be made in the design implementation of the trolley.

Candid and Critical Self-analysis of knowledge and personal development

In week 3, our activity had been based on the perspective of a designer based on his or her mind set thoughts and the way by which the designer would implement a solution to a problem and what would be the approach towards solving the problem. Therefore it can be easily said that the entire activity was based upon 3 Logics. Firstly, the initial activity of a designer was to find a feasible problem within the design process. The next activity would be the evaluation of the problem regarding the design ending with finally finding solution to the problem identified. This weekly activity was also based on a self-reflection activity following to the initial base activity within which a student was to rate them themselves according to the capability of skill regarding identifying problem within a design set and the mindset working behind solving the problem.

The activity on week 4 was based on the general perception of a human being from the aspect of a designer to find a problem within their project rather than jumping into a conclusion about the solution at one go. This particular activity included that there are numerous images of beaches why people are carrying their own personal staff and going to enjoy the beach along with their children. We have to identify the issues regarding the different inventions of the beach we have been provided with us clearly stating what were the problems regarding each of the images. From the personal point of view I would like to put forward the fact that amongst all the activities that has been done in all the previous weeks I have enjoyed this activity the most since it was a lot creative in comparison with the others.

On the 6^th week of the lecture, the importance of value chain analysis is identified along with a demonstration of the same on the organization of Woolworths to show how value chain analysis works on the different aspects of an organization. I had received a rough idea on how the value chain analysis works for the organization of Woolworths by separating the primary and support activities. Different departments in the industry were separated to find out the value added on the various departments of the organization based on the divisions of primary activities and support activities.

On this week, focus has been given on developing interview skills. We were assigned with the task of interviewing our partners to understand what questions are needed to be asked during an interview. This activity had been found to be extremely interesting.

This week’s task has been assigned to develop skills to make interview questions and this skill was developed by an activity involving framing questions on our partners. This was characterized by one person describing the morning activities and another describing the evening activities. Both of them were assigned to make interview questions.

This week’s activity was characterized by the development of learning on activities regarding launches. This activity involved carrying out an experiment on the live market demonstration and we had to collect feedback and suggestions from the customers. This gave us an idea on how a product would need more alteration to fit the bill of the customer’s needs.

From the learning outcomes that I have gathered on the first week, it has made me understand during the activity that how the knowledge of entrepreneurship and innovation has the ability to enhance the depth of thinking in a person and that can be implemented in the expansion of the individual businesses to transform and from a small scale organization to a large scale business organization (Yeager et al., 2016). Although this is achievable only through immense knowledge and consistent hard work. However, after the activity completing the entire thing I have felt that any person is able to make money with the end up knowledge and implementing a mind open to innovations for achieving dreams and doing something with life (Turner III, 2017). I believe that this would be the key to a solid success in human beings life (Rothaermel, 2015). When I was in the activity during that time I had the idea that any business can be turned from small scale to large scale business with only immense knowledge and incompatible hard work. But after the activity has been over, I had come to the conclusion that it is not just hard work that is needed for achieving success in this field (Gereffi, 2014). I have gathered knowledge that more than anything the in-depth knowledge and the ability to make out innovative ideas within the mind and putting it perfectly converting them into reality is all that is required to put a feasible design into action to make gathering of knowledge and personal development successful.

In week 2, I have identified that the entire environment was noisy and messy. However the people involved in the project were friendly and they were having a great time enjoying their work while playing and communicating with each other. I believe that from all of the form of enjoyment given equation has been established as the most well achieved part in the entire activity. I also identify that the senior manager had a very friendly nature and was immensely supportive (Thienen, Royalty & Meinel, 2017). Thus, after the activity and ended I could see that the process of designing is very complex since a person behind designing has to take into consideration about the customer’s point of view and then put it into action by implementing on the plan as per their own skills. Therefore for knowledge gathering and personal development with in this regard I would say that a person has to go through several processes by taking themselves in place of the customer and viewing the entire project from their perspective. It would then have nobody here in the project progression and it could be achieved with success.

The activity that was explained in week 3 had made us learn some new ideas and skills that was previously present within me and with the enhanced and improved learning of the same ideas and skills we had to rate ourselves within the category of skilled person I resided in. I found that this activity has been extremely interesting and after the completion of the activity I felt that I have been lacking behind in several skills needed to become a successful designer. I understood that I have to improve your skills and teach from the people around me to initiate the improvement process myself (Plattner, Meinel & Leifer, 2015). I believe for perfect for perfect personal development regarding this issue identification of weaknesses is absolutely necessary because it is only then that the weaknesses could be illuminated completely to have a feasible solution.

I felt the most interesting one and in the following activities was the one where we had to find the proper problem within an activity and the reasons why it is generated (Cordes, 2016). Based on that we had to find a probable solution from the point of view of a user and identify the problem beyond the consideration of a personal problem. After the problem has been identified we have to think like a designer. Full creative thinking we need to implement the ideas of a designer but identify the issues from the point of view of a user (Geissdoerfer, Bocken & Hultink, 2016). I believe that value can only be separated in all the departments of designing by implementing a proper value chain to find out that which department is doing better than the other or which department is falling short of fulfilling its requirements (Schneider, 2015). With this activity the enhancement of personal development can be achieved by identifying the fact that value change needs to be implemented within a project for designing. Then it is necessary that while taking interview for a person at first the overall outcome needs to be overview so that their gestures emotions behavior and actions could be analyzed to find out if the person is telling the truth also helps in framing further questions (Hoevemeyer, 2017). In addition to that addition alterations of a product launch should also be done before actually launching a product in the market by conducting a thorough market research taking feedbacks from the customers beforehand.

After all the activities have been identified it is also to be noticed that design thinking is ozone of development which does not only depend upon how the background of a product is designed with development frameworks. It generally depends upon the foreground or the presentation of the entire project (Liedtka, 2015). It is required that for this key development in specific activities be identified to frame an action plan for personal development of a designer. A designer first and foremost needs to initiate the designing process by creating a prototype which would be subjected to taking feedback from random customers. As a successful designer this is a feasible activity that enhances the initial stages of design implementation which is one of the key development factors of a person’s career (Filatro, Cavalcanti & Muckenberger, 2017). Again it is not to be forgotten that every design process also has some problems and risks associated that has the potential of damaging the entire project in the long run. It can be identified as a matter of fact that they have been several instances where design thinkers could not identify what the problem was within particular project. Therefore identification of a particular issue in a design process is absolutely necessary.

Personality development also relates somewhat to development of a person’s own self which in turn develop the skills of a person (Howlett, 2014).Then it is necessary that while taking interview for a person at first the overall outcome needs to be overview so that their gestures emotions behavior and actions could be analyzed to find out if the person is telling the truth I also helps in framing further questions (Kolko, 2015). In addition to that development of a product launch should also be done before actually launching a product in the market. It is quite an understandable fact that a person’s skills would only be identified if the person is presentable enough (Oxman, 2017). Confidence is essentially required and for that a person needs to communicate effectively in the personal life as well. Therefore other than personal development and skills required communication also forms as a key improvement factor in the career of a design thinker.

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be clearly stated from the above reflection report that the activities that I have gone through in all the food we enhance my way of Thinking from the perspective of a designer. Initially I had the idea that designers task was only based on designing a particular project and not on any other aspect. However now I can clearly see that the skills are not the only thing required for a designer to implement into a project. It requires a lot of skills as well as intellect of the particular person. The activities that I have gone through in all the four weeks have characterized a sense of implementing skills and brains amalgamated into one project. Does it would not be a problem for me to proceed with my next designing project from the knowledge that I have acquired from the activities of these four weeks.

However, there has been a solid structure based on which I have reached the conclusion about the skills behind and designer for feasible implementation in the project. Thus it has followed the pattern of a reflective report on understanding the impact and challenges faced by the design thinkers implementing projects forming the core objective being followed by several different sub tasks. This is characterized by a reflection demonstrated on a weekly blocked as per the previous report followed by a Candid and Critical self-analysis of knowledge and personality development from the aspect of design thinker. This should be subjected with an action plan that addresses the key development focuses of a design thinker and the specific activities that he or she needs to perform in order to develop their own career personally and professionally.

References

Cordes, M. (2016). Launching a product: on the market floor. Farmer’s Weekly, 2016(16040), 57.

Filatro, A., Cavalcanti, C. C., & Muckenberger, E. (2017). Design Thinking and Online Education.

Geissdoerfer, M., Bocken, N. M., & Hultink, E. J. (2016). Design thinking to enhance the sustainable business modelling process–A workshop based on a value mapping process. Journal of Cleaner Production, 135, 1218-1232.

Gereffi, G. (2014). Global value chains in a post-Washington Consensus world. Review of international political economy, 21(1), 9-37.

Hoevemeyer, V. (2017). High-impact interview questions: 701 behavior-based questions to find the right person for every job. Amacom.

Howlett, M. (2014). From the ‘old’to the ‘new’policy design: design thinking beyond markets and collaborative governance. Policy Sciences, 47(3), 187-207.

Kolko, J. (2015). Design thinking comes of age.

Liedtka, J. (2015). Perspective: Linking design thinking with innovation outcomes through cognitive bias reduction. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(6), 925-938.

Oxman, R. (2017). Thinking difference: Theories and models of parametric design thinking. Design Studies, 52, 4-39.

Plattner, H., Meinel, C., & Leifer, L. (Eds.). (2015). Design thinking research: Making design thinking foundational. Springer.

Rothaermel, F. T. (2015). Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education.

Schneider, J. (2015). 10 Tactics for Launching a Product Using Social Media. Harvard Business Review.

Spradley, J. P. (2016). The ethnographic interview. Waveland Press.

Turner III, D. E. (2017). A case study in Design Thinking applied through Aviation Mission Support Tactical Advancements for the Next Generation (TANG) (Doctoral dissertation, Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School).

von Thienen, J., Royalty, A., & Meinel, C. (2017). Design thinking in higher education: How students become dedicated creative problem solvers. In Handbook of research on creative problem-solving skill development in higher education (pp. 306-328). IGI Global.

Yeager, D. S., Romero, C., Paunesku, D., Hulleman, C. S., Schneider, B., Hinojosa, C., …&Trott, J. (2016). Using design thinking to improve psychological interventions: The case of the growth mindset during the transition to high school. Journal of educational psychology, 108(3), 374.