If you are reading this right now, may I ask you a question, are you an iPhone user? How many of your other classmates (or friends) are using an iPhone too? Is there any particular reason “why” you are using an iPhone and not an Android, or Windows phone even when they are more affordable? Would you agree that if I say this is because your experience with any Apple products has usually been a good one? Well, according to Tim Brown, this is because Apple, the most valuable company in the world places design at the center of everything it does; Apple applies design thinking to create value, or delight among its customers. And this led us to our reading this week assigned by our guest speaker Laurel Syah, which is the book “Change by Design” by Tim Brown. 

The book introduced us to the design thinking process, which Tim Brown described as a methodology to solve a problem by putting people’s need and desire first that is technologically feasible and strategically viable. He encouraged us to solve design problem by focusing on human behavior through empathy and observation (known as the human-centered design approach), asking “Why?” and the “How might we” to create value in the solution. So, how would design thinking applicable for you? To apply design thinking, one should start with divergent to gather ideas, and narrow the possible solutions down through convergent with the constraint of the triple bottom line: people, planet and profit. He emphasized that you cannot just have the ability to apply design thinking, it is important that you understand how to execute your idea well too. In an organization setting, a leader should start with design thinking application first, and then imply the design thinking culture within the company in order to create a sustainable business model. Last semester, I had the privilege to be in the same group with Priyama, Giovana and Nadia for the IDEO Human-Centered Design course and it is the best group experience I have ever had. I didn’t just learn about design thinking and Human-Centered Design process from the course, I have learned how to collaborate with people from other discipline in solving a design problem. 

After reading the book, I was curious to then find out more about “The Shop” in which our speaker Laurel Syah is serving as Head Creative. When I was browsing through the website, the three words that caught my attention most are the insights, ideation, and implementation, which is exactly the process for the human-centered design. The Shop is actually a living experience of the book and surprisingly it is not part of IDEO! In these present environment in which everything is constantly changing, more and more companies actually started applying design thinking in their culture to achieve a sustainable business model. In a Harvard Business Review article this August titled “When Everyone Is Doing Design Thinking, Is It Still a Competitive Advantage?” by Tim Brown, he stated that design thinking is a skill, a mastery that required lifelong learning and practices, a set of tools that grow old with us. The reading doesn’t just teach us about design thinking, it teaches us to design life. I sincerely hope that every one of us in this class after reading the book, will use what you have learned as a catalyst, to be the drivers of change in the society. We shouldn’t just see our daily problems as just an ordinary problem, but see it as a design problem that we can tackle, and come out with a solution that will create delight and also beneficial to the triple bottom line.