Design Thinking is more than a buzzword. It is a transformative process that encourages marketers to think like designers, and vice versa. In our latest blog, we take an in-depth look into how this user-centric approach can upend your marketing strategy, and help you connect with customers on a deeper, more human level.
If you think design is just about making things look pretty? Think again. Businesses worldwide are using Design Thinking to solve real-world problems, improve customer experiences, and drive innovation. Whether you’re a designer, marketer, or business leader, understanding this process can help you streamline projects and create more impactful solutions.
From this, the designer can address design challenges, problem-solve, and provide creative solutions.
So, what is Design Thinking?
Design Thinking is a human-centred ideology and iterative process. Its core principles are empathy, collaboration, and user-centred problem-solving, which helps designers provide innovative and tangible design solutions.
The process is broken up into five phases: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. Let’s dive a little deeper into what each of these phases involves:
Empathise
As the first step in the design process, the designer needs to have a deep understanding of the project’s purpose and target audience. The designer will research to identify the end users and their needs. This could be your customer, client, or key stakeholder. This may include discovering the user’s demographics, likes/dislikes, and pain points.
Define
In this phase, the designer now has a more solid understanding of the purpose of the project and the end-user. They create a problem statement to guide creative solutions. This can be communicated with the wider team or key stakeholders in a project and can form a basis for creative ideas and solutions.
Ideate
It’s time to get the creative juices flowing! In this phase, the designer will begin to develop concepts by brainstorming and generating as many ideas as possible that reflect their findings in the previous two phases, remaining focused on the end user’s needs.
Prototyping
This phase involves creating a tangible design solution, with the designer using their concepts from the ideate phase. This includes mock-ups, graphics, or wireframes. Essentially, the prototyping phase is where the designer will build out the final product with a user-focused outcome.
Testing
The testing phase allows users to interact with the prototype and provide feedback. For example, for a digital prototype feedback can be tracked through monitoring user engagement or web traffic and a physical prototype can garner verbal feedback. Insights from the testing phase help designers refine the design for better results.
Design Thinking in Action – Air BnB
In its early days, AirBnB founders employed elements of Design Thinking to not only change the public perception of their fledgling company but also transform its marketing approach and ultimately grow the company into what it is today. How did they do this? By taking a few nice pictures, with proper equipment. Simply by replacing amateur photography with beautiful high-resolution pictures of listed properties, they doubled the weekly booking and revenue figures, and the move became the first major financial improvement in months.
The rest as they say is history. But the moral of the story here is that while data-driven decisions are crucial for iteration and product/service improvement, the first step – and arguably the most overlooked step – is often empathy.
By having a deep understanding of their customers, and speaking directly with their target audience, AirBnB was able to make a quick and relatively low-cost decision, based on empathy and addressing pain points.
Why Is Design Thinking So Important?
Design Thinking helps create a defined approach to creative innovation. The process embodies core principles such as:
- Empathy & User Centricity
- Challenge Assumptions
- Expansive Thinking
- Experimentation
- Collaboration
- Finding solutions
Design Thinking can offer many benefits for your business or organisation when done right. It helps improve your understanding of your customers, clients, or audience, foster a more collaborative and innovative working environment, and drive business growth.
How one designer may implement Design Thinking in a project may greatly differ from how another designer uses it. One may document each stage through sticky notes, slide decks, or communicating informally during project meetings. Another may implement it loosely and use it as a guide throughout a project. It’s important to remember that Design Thinking is a non-linear iterative process, meaning it is flexible and dynamic in its approach.
Do you know the hidden beauty of the design thinking process? You don’t have to be a designer to use it! Many large businesses and organisations are now practicing Design Thinking across different teams and business sectors to recognise the benefits. According to Harvard Business School Online, jobs requiring Design Thinking skills have greatly increased from 2016 to 2021.
Some roles that often encompass elements of Design Thinking are:
- Marketing Managers
- Architects & Engineers
- Executives
- Software Developers
- Consultants
- Business Analysts
Wraping It Up
From a B2B marketing perspective, practicing design thinking isn’t just about creating better campaigns, it’s about driving tangible results. With 71% of B2B businesses already using design thinking to improve customer experience and drive innovation, the evidence stacks up. Design-led strategies help deliver measurable impact.
McKinsey reports that B2B companies that adopt design thinking, experience up to 32% higher revenue growth compared to competitors who don’t. IBM is also a student of the theory, reporting in their Design Thinking field guide that companies that invest in design thinking, report a 56% faster time-to-market for new products and services.
So now you know more about the Design Thinking process, how and why designers and marketers use it, and the many different environments in which it can be utilised in.
If you would like to know more about our services and what IMS offers, get in touch with the team today to arrange a free consultation.
This blog was written by one of our graphic designers, Marie-Clare Duncan. Marie-Clare is a Senior Creative Designer specialising in branding and visual identity. Passionate about innovative design, she shares insights on how design thinking drives creative solutions.