“Innovate” is the buzzword for success in the marketplace, but it is also much abused. So many people and companies call themselves innovators, but how many of them leave their mark, leading to the  disruption, that is, disrupting an industry or business model? On closer inspection, it is very few. Let’s be clear: bringing innovation does not necessarily mean being emulated by Elon Musk and aiming (literally in his case) for space. The goal of innovation is to improve products and services: cutting the power consumption of a machine by 30 percent, or increasing the efficiency of a process, are for all intents and purposes key innovations that reduce costs and CO2 emissions. But how do you innovate? Waiting for a light bulb to go off in our heads, for the stroke of genius to come along, is certainly the least effective approach. However, there are methodologies to stimulate the creative process, increasing the chances of bringing innovation to the company: one of the main ones is the  design thinking.

What is design thinking?

Design thinking is a design model that was codified in the 2000s by Stanford University, although models approaching this philosophy have been suggested since the 1960s. Design thinking is an iterative, nonlinear development process that focuses on people and their capabilities and is considered particularly effective for solving problems that are particularly complex and require a change in approach. The focus is on identifying real customer problems and finding creative solutions to overcome them.

The design thinking process proposed by Stanford is divided into five stages:

  1. Problem Identification (Empathize)
  2. Context Identification (Define)
  3. Analysis and opportunity research (Ideate)
  4. Ideation, prototyping, testing and validation (Prototype)
  5. Project Implementation (Testing)

Compared to other philosophies, such as the Lean Six Sigma approach, it has one major difference: Lean Six Sigma is a procedural method for continuous optimization, which aims to constantly optimize so as to bring more and more efficiency, and is especially useful in environments such as factories or logistics centers. Design Thinking, on the other hand, does not aim to bring continuous improvements, but to twist a process or product to  innovate radically. There is no lack of commonalities, however, between the two philosophies, particularly in the relationship with the customer. Indeed, in both cases, the idea is to interact directly with the customer in order to fully understand his or her problem and thus identify the solution that best suits his or her needs.

Why adopt design thinking?

The concept of design thinking is applicable to any type of problem: organizational, strategic, technological. The approach is Agile in nature, and therefore requires a  continuous experimentation, which goes through rapid prototyping of solutions. As we said, at the center are the people. Customers, first of all, but also all the people involved in the process, those who will bring ideas, insights and solutions that will contribute to the solution of the problem, solutions that must meet three attributes: liking (of the market or customer), feasibility, and economic sustainability.

SAP and design thinking

Design thinking is not just one of SAP’s approaches to creating innovation-it is the cornerstone of the multinational company’s approach to supporting its customers. Indeed, as the company explains, “innovation can only be achieved if it is desired by people, economically convenient and technically feasible.” The design thinking methodology addresses precisely these needs, and SAP leverages it with its AppHaus center of excellence, where business data is transformed into value for customers. It is not the only approach it leverages, however. Design thinking is applied when specific problems need to be solved, including completely rethinking how they are addressed in their current state. On the other hand, when it comes to optimizing and scaling solutions, SAP suggests relying on Architecture Thinking methods, which are better suited to the purpose but always focus on the same key aspect: people focus.

Design thinking is a development philosophy that leverages people and their skills to find innovative solutions to complex problems.
Contact us for more information.