Exploring Design Thinking in London

Design thinking lends itself to a variety of innovative challenges and problem-solving solutions. The design thinking process, which has multiple steps and is non-lineal, consists of empathy, define, ideate, prototype and test.

As we have seen in previous posts, design thinking is used all over the world. In Turkey, a non-profit organization enhanced stakeholder engagement in Istanbul neighborhoods. In Peru, school leaders in one of Lima’s poorest neighborhoods listened to parents and students and developed services that helped the community. In the United States, a hospital system in Princeton, New Jersey, developed user-friendly hospital rooms. Indeed, design thinking has established a place in future scientific and entrepreneurial innovation.

On a recent visit to London, I wondered how design thinking has had an impact on British innovation.

Design thinking is a valuable component in a growing number of businesses in London and the UK. Of course, there are expected businesses, like architectural firms, that implement the design thinking process. But increasingly multiple business sectors are adopting design thinking in their business strategies. To name a few: Healthcare (NHS, British Red Cross), real estate (Compass), multinational companies (Hewlett Packard, GlaxoSmithKline, Ricoh, Goldman Sachs, Mastercard), communications (Reuters, Meta), and publishing (McGraw Hill Education).

Compass, a real estate agency transplanted from New York, provides an example of how design thinking can work to improve an established industry. The company relies on “Agent-Centric Design” derived from design thinking. The agent-centric focus on user-friendly dashboards, marketing tools, and innovative approaches to support that drive agent productivity. Making use of design thinking may give Compass an edge in the evolving British real estate process, which is currently in need of updating for ease of sales and transfer of properties.

In addition to innovations in business, design thinking also complements innovations in education with an emphasis on real-time experiential education. For example, the London School of Business Administration (LSBA) champions “effective methodologies like Design Thinking” as an innovative business strategy.

There are several reasons why design thinking is an integral component in the LSBA curriculum. Design thinking fosters creativity and innovation by challenging conventional problem solving solutions in product development and service enhancement. It enhances the customer experience using empathy to maintain a focus on the customer’s experience throughout the product development process. It uses iterative learning to test assumptions and refine solutions. It promotes multi-disciplinary, multi-functional collaboration to explore solutions from a variety of perspectives. It potentially drives business growth because of its ability to respond to market changes to enhance “business growth and sustainability in a competitive market”.

Both business and educational institutions are utilizing design thinking to increase innovation and output for product and services. Design thinking offers enormous added value to 21st century job skills because it encompasses the top skills necessary for success. Take a look at the list and compare it with the skills inherent in the design thinking process: Analytical thinking and innovation, communication, team work and collaboration, resilience and flexibility, active learning, and leadership and initiative.

London educators and employers are preparing for a future that emphasizes human-centric skills that cannot be easily automated or outsourced. Design thinking provides a potent methodology for that future.