Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Luis Menezes on September 21, 2010 at 20:45

I would answer that the concept Design Thinking is not known by the majority of portuguese designers (i include my ignorance on this also)
There are some schools now investing on masters in design thinking and also in creativity and innovation wich, i suppose, will take care of some of our "ignorance". But, i believe these courses are mainly aimed at the designers, not for the business owners or entrepeneurs.
I would also take this a level up, saying that there isnt sufficient activity being done promoting design(and design thinking) as an important tool for business growth and development.

Permalink Reply by Nuno Rodrigues on June 20, 2011 at 12:07

While the term is unknown, the methods aren't, at leat in some schools. 3 Years ago i found out the what i was doing as part of my job was UX, ou Service Design, at least part of it or applied to my working process. 

 

For that time i have also learned a bit more about business, since i work freelance now, and also gave me new perspectives. So it was just a matter of terminology. 

 

But i don't really know what Design Schools are teaching right now, if the process or just the technical aspect of Design, Web, Graphic, learn to use software, etc. 

 

Permalink Reply by José António Baldaia on June 20, 2011 at 15:52

Welcome Nuno!

It is good to know you have learned a bit more about business because what I am looking for is the path of convergence of Design thinking and business. This can be a place to put some ideas and questions!

Thank you for your comments

Jose 

Permalink Reply by Pedro Janeiro on December 11, 2011 at 23:24

As a non-designer, and leading a Design Thinking dept in a large company, I feel I'm bridging at least three different tribes. The "engineering tribe" is highly conservative, supposedly logical, and territorial. Being engineers, they assume they have the high ground, they hold the truth, whatever it may be. The "management consulting tribe" believes in strategic concepts and logical deductions. Uses tools such as benchmarking and analytical number crunching to arrive to solid conclusions. 

The "designers tribe" is the worse. They seem to hold the highest potential among the 3 tribes but fail to deliver on their own fault. Most have no clue about the business side and don't care about it. They are the most creative by a huge distance but insist on choosing "their own way" and so it becomes really hard to find designers that will serve the "Design Thinking cause". The problem might be in today's schools. Thinking of Lisbon. ESBAL will never turn to Design Thinking. IADE seems to be doing a short attempt. LSD is still far too small to have any impact in the short term.

I believe that Design Thinking is thriving with non-designers. We seem to have a detachment from classical design concepts that actually helps! We have the required "business approach". However, most of us non-designers lack the creativity spark. Hence the necessity of joining tribes. That's a significant part of my job - it requires far more Change Management efforts than actual Design Thinking.

Permalink Reply by Nuno Rodrigues on December 12, 2011 at 11:32

I guess i am one of those rare designers then... :)  Really, you are absolutely right. Designers by profession lack the Business vision of projects. Schools really aren't prepared for such and most schools are nothing more then production lines that "eject" new "designers" every year. 

While i don't lead Design Thinking in a large company, i do lead it somehow in a small company and the tribes conundrum is still the same. The designers are fresh and still don't realize that are sometimes "political" and business issues that have to be dealt with, but they do try hard to implement new visions, that most of the times fall in the reliability trap, so those ideas are cut. Hopefully i will be able to bridge those gaps. Let's say i aspire to bridge those gaps. And i precisely love that challenge.

As a Designer i do think a more "Business vision" should be implemented early in Universities. As should "creativity" be implemented in MBA's or Business classes. The right mingle between these several disciplines will be the challenge for the future. What the world and Portugal (in our case) needs are good leaders and not bosses. That would somehow balance things out a bit.

Permalink Reply by José António Baldaia on December 12, 2011 at 16:14

Hello Nuno!

I agree. A great leader not bosses! We need collaboration. We need not big hierarchical structures.

However, while universities don't evolve we have to go doing the hard work out here.

Jose Baldaia

Permalink Reply by José António Baldaia on December 12, 2011 at 16:08

Good afternoon Pedro Janeiro!

I agree with the idea of joining "tribes" and I think a good start is to work in interdisciplinary teams whenever possible. This allows us to develop a common language between the various members of different "tribes".

I think there may be a set of good habits which all can share: How to think about business models and how to develop creativity.

It is true that joining the "tribes" and make them collaborate is not easy and requires a lot of persistence but this is a work of a design thinker.

Jose Baldaia