Does your team need an infusion of creativity and innovation? Learn how design thinking consulting can help your organization.
There is no doubt that interest in design thinking is at its zenith right now. But, design thinking is more than a trend or a hot topic; it is a way of working that leads to actual results for businesses. Take this powerful stat as an example: design-led companies have regularly outperformed the S&P index by 219% for the last ten years.
If you have a business — large or small — that needs new ways to look at your challenges, it might be time to engage with a design thinking consultant. Let’s take a look at design thinking, specifically how design thinking consulting can streamline and improve your business, no matter what industry you’re working in.
What Is Design Thinking?
In the old days, businesses used to have to wait for feedback. The typical business cycle would look something like:
- Come up with an idea
- Release a product or service
- Market it to the best of your ability
- Ask for feedback and hope for the best
There are a lot of blind spots in this business model. There’s also a lot of waiting and downtime, as marketing research could take months to complete.
Design thinking is more of an ecosystem than a flowchart. It applies the principles of design to every aspect of a business. It also introduces a feedback stage to each step, which helps to remove the guesswork from your company.
Part of what makes design thinking so successful (and thus powerful) is the emphasis it places on the customer. 46% of design-led firms report forming bonds with customers as the most important aspect of their business.
Design thinking is also used to incorporate creativity and flexibility into existing business models. This helps to form an alliance between hard facts and qualitative analysis.
What Is Design Thinking Consulting?
Business and innovation are often at odds with one another. Business doesn’t like being disrupted or derailed. Business executives tend to rely on tried-and-true methods to maximize profits, often to their detriment.
Innovators tend to be resentful of how much business slows them down, preventing them from acting quickly and with intuition. Design thinking is the process of getting both camps working together.
Design thinking consulting is when an existing company optimizes their current workflow with the help of design thinking experts. Some of these principles help to overcome everyday problems of digital business at the same time.
Traditional businesses place the majority of their energy in understanding historical data and trends. This is under the assumption that these insights will help future productivity, which may or not be the case, considering how quickly the digital economy evolves. Design thinking helps to prevent “analysis paralysis” by prototyping concepts and ideas and testing them as you go.
Why Design Thinking Consulting Matters
People often quote Henry Ford in the context of innovation: “If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Sometimes people don’t know what they want because they don’t have the language to frame it in. They might not even realize there’s a possible solution to the problem. Design thinking offers a way to check-in with customers on an on-going basis and incorporates those insights back into your business model.
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There has never been as many steps and stages to the business cycle as there are today. Customers are dragging out their buyer’s journey to unprecedented lengths while researching products and services and shopping for the best possible deal.
When implemented correctly, design thinking can answer questions and address problems your customers don’t even know they have. Design thinking consulting is asking for outside help in implementing this process.
How Design Thinking Makes Your Business More Efficient
1. Overcome analysis paralysis
Design thinking incorporates analysis into every step of your business model. It helps to break data and analysis into small, manageable bites to avoid becoming overwhelmed.
2. Implement realistic timescales
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither are successful businesses and brands. Design thinking helps puts long- and short-term goals into perspective.
3. Test your hypotheses
There’s been a trend to put theory before data in the 21st Century. This is the opposite of sound scientific principles which emphasize remaining impartial until all of the data has been collected and analyzed.
4. Bridge business and vision
There’s often a disconnect between marketing teams and the rest of an organization. Design thinking gives marketers a vocabulary to translate their hunches, intuition, and instinct into actual actionable data that the C-suite can comprehend.
5. Customer-centric approach
Customers are incredibly picky these days. After all, they can be. A customer-centric approach should lie at the heart of every business strategy. Design thinking offers a way to incorporate your customer’s insights into every stage of your operation.
Are You Looking For Innovative Consulting?
Whether you’re looking for design thinking consulting or need help leading a design sprint, Voltage Control is here to help. Please reach out to us at info@voltagecontrol.com if you want to talk.
