Modern business enterprises and organizations are constantly looking for innovative approaches to successfully deliver projects. Since the percentage of a project fail is very high, the need to apply the right approach for the project delivery is vital. Project management has taken several major refinements over the years with the introduction of the agile methodology and the application of a hybrid approach for project execution and completion.

However, the evolving market trends and changing dynamics of the economy are still proving to be a challenge for project managers. Design Thinking allows project managers a chance to fight off these modern challenges. While agile is a methodology and has its own framework for project managers to work with, Design Thinking is just a new approach. Both Agile Thinking and Design Thinking focus on the customer. Other than that, both approaches are completely different from each other and should not be confused to mean the same.

 

What is Design Thinking?

 

Design Thinking is the modern approach to finding the right problem to solve. Instead of finding the solutions to existing problems this approach focuses on finding the problem itself. This requires a great deal of empathy and understanding of the end-users of the organization or business enterprise. Some of the problems can be plain assumptions but each problem needs to be analysed and visualized just the same.

 

The Design Thinking approach has five stages:

 

There are 5 Essential Steps of the Design Thinking Process

§  Empathize – This stage gives importance to the customers and the end-users of the product or service the organization is trying to create. Understanding the need of the users by asking them relevant questions through surveys or personal contact will help organizations create products and services that will meet the customer requirements.

§  Define – After establishing the reason to create a product by gaining valuable inputs from the customer, organizations need to define the problem areas and start the problem-solving process.

§  Ideate – This stage involves generating ideas to solve the problem. Several possibilities can be generated through collaboration between teams and brainstorming.

§  Prototype – The idea that fits the situation perfectly can be developed further by creating prototypes of the product or service. Most prototypes are just dummy versions of the original product and need to be examined several times before the actual product is delivered to the users.

§  Evaluate – The prototype of the product or service is evaluated repeatedly by teams or volunteer users to test its viability.

The final product that is created after passing the viability test has a better chance of satisfying the customer requirements. This is the reason why the Design Thinking approach has been utilized by several organizations around the world.

 

How is Design Thinking different from Agile?

 

Like Agile, Design Thinking is based on users. It is not restricted to any specific domains or industries. Design Thinking has found its uses in quality management as well as in project management. Along with agile thinking, it can prove to be a strong approach to delivering customer-focused solutions. Both Design Thinking and Agile value feedback from the users but solve the problems in their own way. Project managers should learn about the two approaches – Design Thinking and Agile Thinking for problem-solving using verified professional training and certification providers. They can help their organizations improve their project success rate tremendously by implementing the innovative approach of Design Thinking as well as the tried and tested methodology of Agile.