World is changing at a nanosecond pace and so is customer expectations. In the era of cut-throat competition and technological advancements, business growth can be led by innovation. Companies have expanded the scope of funding for R&D activities. Almost all Fortune 500 companies have their own R&D labs across the globe. As more and more basic needs of the customers are met, what they are looking for is experience. An innovative product and a sophisticated yet complex technology which cannot give the most sought-after experience fails to attract customers. “A lone genius” inventor without business sense cannot provide any solution to the complex business world of today. A human centric approach built to deliver the experience and in pursuit of making the product as much closer to the needs and personality of the consumer needs to be the part of the plan right from the start. Design thinking is not just the art of packaging and making the product flashy, rather it has now evolved to link the product to the emotional needs of the consumers and help them in deriving meaningful experiences. This design thinking has to encompass a complete business sense. Without a business sense, the innovative product is like a pomp and show with no revenue generation and actual sales. Thomas Edison was brilliant to create an electric bulb, but he was a genius to back that electric bulb with electricity supply systems and a vision of a completely new market.
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| Design Thinking by Rajat Jhingan |
Design thinking process is comprised of three stages: Inspiration; Ideation and Implementation. A problem, an opportunity or an issue ‘inspires’ the companies to find novel solutions. To these issues, various ‘ideas’ are generated and tested which leads to solutions. And it is the ‘implementation’ stage, where a workable idea meets the market. Thus, this process of finding new values and solutions often loops through these stages, particularly more in first two. Design thinking in itself is a collaborative process where new solutions are found by looking into multiple perspectives ranging from colleagues to consumers, production departments to sales etc. “People first”, is the guiding light of this process. To provide this novel value to the consumer, a repetitive process of prototyping, testing and innovating goes on till a pragmatic solution can be reached. A prototype is for testing an idea, it is an ends to a mean and never an end in itself. Testing is when we match ideas to the market, and innovation is to refine those ideas to as much closer to the needs of the consumer as possible.
Thus we see that departure from a “lone genius inventor” to a design thinking based approach is meant to provide novel value, experience and emotional connect to the customer is more beneficial to the business and to the consumer. Of course, the need to make product physically attractive, flashy and cool cannot be over-emphasized, but to evolve in innovation from the stand point of human first approach makes it more acceptable and surely provides a competitive edge.
Consistency is the playground of the dumb mind. Design thinking is a creative aspect which takes innovation and business closer to its customers. The concept of design thinking provides a pragmatic touch to the business. Budding entrepreneurs and those business which are looking at the dead end of their businesses have to mold themselves to the market realities, and design thinking is a part of that re-alignment strategy. A more integrated and wholesome approach is needed in today’s business environment where customers are better informed and information asymmetry is less. Customers have more choices now days and what sets a product apart from another is the connect to the emotional appeal and functionality in terms of price differentiation. This concept is quintessential to guide R&D in the right direction and keeps it from deviating from market needs. It is useful in not just creating new ideas, but to turn around ‘question mark’ products into ‘stars’ and ‘cash cows’. With the era of information technology and knowledge economy, design thinking is the new tool to win market battles.
