Did the conversation pass me by? I’d argue we haven’t even begun.
Here is my definition of Design Thinking.
Design Thinking is derived from the creative process perfected by designers and practiced everyday by artists. Artists are comfortable creating something from nothing and never intimidated by what they don’t know. They are inspired by problems that seem to have no solution. When the artist approaches a blank canvas or block of marble they don’t have all the details or answers how they will create a work of art, but they live for these moments and embrace the challenge. The designer has learned to survive and excel in the highly structured, process driven, hierarchal environment of the corporate world while practicing the creative process. Design thinking interprets and formulates the artists and designer’s process to support creativity and produce innovation in a predominantly left-brain world.
Design Thinking takes complex concepts and ideas, breaks them apart to understand the nuances, and the meta-dynamics; including intrinsic and extrinsic elements, parts, relationships, as well as the direct and peripheral influences. The Designer then develops steps, processes and models to make the concept accessible and the ideas reproducible. Design Thinking facilitates the process of turning ideas into innovations.
Why do you center your definition around artists? I would argue that this is a very narrow minded view of design thinking.
Elizabeth,
I use the artist as an example of someone who innovates for a living in the most uncorrupted, purest sense. Then, I expand the definition out to designers who have moved the creative process into a structured, business environment.
Artists provide the foundational approach and designers show it can be done anywhere.
I use artists to ground the definition. My observation is the term Design Thinking was coopted by business consultants who did not understand the term or the creative process used to innovate; therefore, their explanations are shallow and often incorrect.
The field of Design provides the process and terminology to allow anyone to reproduce the innovative process.