Design thinking your way through

Of all the certifications, workshops, and implementations I've been involved in nothing spins my wheels more than design thinking.

My introduction to design thinking came through an energetic, inspiring, and talented group of practitioners based in Tauranga, who held a yearly, weeklong, introductory course for local businesspeople known as the Design Thinking eXperiment or DTX – supported by Priority One.

A career highlight for me at Trustpower was being lucky enough to meet and learn from Justin Ferrell of Stanford University dschool. I’m not sure if many attendees knew of the star power we had in the room, but he was truly inspirational and presented an approach to human centred thought that really had my mind racing with excitement.

“Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”

Tim Brown, Executive Chair of Ideo & Lecturer – Stanford University dschool

I have since applied design thinking to all aspects of my life – problem solving business opportunities, wrangling project issues, working through worries with colleagues and friends, and cranking through some tough times with my kids.

My kids know how to define a problem, rapid fire brainstorm, and frame a positive “How might I…?” statement to trigger a range of potential options. Someone once said to me choice is nice, options are better!

I’ve even used design thinking to frame and reframe my own approach to the initial shock of my cancer diagnosis and, more recently, ‘living with cancer’. I love the process – to let my thoughts run wide and wild, opening my brain to the whimsical and unexpected. The process itself feels freeing and cathartic. Narrowing in to define the crux of the problem or opportunity – what is really at the core? Wide again to explore potential opportunities, the “How might we…?” and then finding which options feel the best to explore through prototyping – checking in all the way with the people you are designing for.

Then there’s the test – being brave enough to put your work on the line, and potentially go back to the drawing board, or committed enough to take your work further out into the world. Hmm - a great time to remind everyone to read the notable passage now referred to as ‘The Man in the Arena’ from a speech entitled Citizen Republic by Theodore Roosevelt.

Little Miss Floret rose out of a design thinking session I had with my kids and partner around my second chemo cycle in 2022. They were enthusiastic and supportive participants then and remain my constant cheerleaders and critical thought panel. Their honesty and the space they make for our conversations, often difficult and raw in emotion, bring me joy every day.

My current project, gift tags, has evolved as a creative outlet while I have time on my hands but am often feeling fatigued and ill from chemo. The solution needed to be something I could do anywhere, involving few tools and low effort, while engaging my creative brain and delivering a sense of achievement.

While I can totally influence many aspects of my life, especially my mindset, there are very few situations where I am not reliant on the work of others. Time has a taken on a whole new level of urgency for me with cancer and I have found that my resulting laser like focus on getting things done doesn’t wash with Cancer, house renovations, Councils, supermarket lines, the Health system, test results, peak hour traffic queues etc. Patience has become like a four-letter word for me!

At this point, I should also share an app called ‘Waking Up’ which attempts to keep my brain open and chilled but challenged. A bonus being that Sam Harris, the main presenter, has a voice that gets me to sleep while chemo races through my body for the first few days of every treatment cycle. If you are like Kung Fu Panda and I, inner peace, Inner Peace, INNER PEACE!… can be found in this app.

Circling back to design thinking, while I like the above description from the design thinking guru Tim Brown, I believe the constructs can be successfully applied to any and every challenge in life.

Use the framework for a quick self check in; an in-your-head 30 minute How might I…? Alternatively, you can spend days and weeks carefully crafting an end to end design thinking masterpiece that produces enough output to paper your walls!

Whatever you do I wish you joy because if you’re having fun and finding momentum (no matter how small) you will be in a better place.