Struggles as triggers in a design‐thinking journey

Abstract

The scholarly and practitioner literatures have both described the potential benefits of Design Thinking (DT) to develop innovations. Innovation processes are widely characterized by continuous competing demands, which generate tensions. The paper analyzes a DT innovation journey, focusing on the struggles and triggers of participants as they work through conflicting demands. Following a qualitative inductive research design, the study reports on the experience of a group of management students exposed intentionally for the first time to the introduction of DT practices in a class setting. The originality of the paper lies in the fact that it analyzes participants' particular points of view, including feelings and cognitions, during the overall process. This angle allows identifying and describing three main struggles and triggers (destabilizing, non-deciding, abstracting) for new adopters in each step of the DT process, which represent a cultural clash with their background. The study contributes to a better understanding of DT by acknowledging its challenges and costs, to be able to apply it as an organizational resource when facing competing demands. Moreover, it aims to provide some initial steps on how to move organizations to a culture based on collaboration and experimentation, able to better cope with innovation tensions.

Design and marketing: Intersections and challenges

“…Paper 7: Struggles as triggers in a design thinking journey Whereas the benefits of design thinking as an approach to developing innovations are widely recognized, it is also important to acknowledge the tensions the approach creates-particularly to design thinking novices. To shed light on these tensions, Coco, Calcagno, and Lusiani (2020) conducted a qualitative study focusing on the struggles that management students face during a design thinking innovation journey. Employing inductive reasoning, they organize the participants' experiences, opinions, feelings and cognition into three main categories of struggles and triggers, identified as destabilizing, non-deciding and abstracting.…”

Taxonomy of design thinking facilitation

“…Carlgren, Elmquist, and Rauth (2016) identified seven types of DT implementation challenges: DT often does not fit with existing processes and structures, resulting ideas and concepts are challenging to implement, the value of DT is difficult to prove, DT principles/mindsets clash with organizational cultures, existing power dynamics are threatened, skills are hard to acquire and communication styles differ. In a recent article, Coco et al (2020) identified three main struggles and tensions for new adopters of the DT process: destabilization (conflict between demand for control and disruption), indecision (conflict between deductively solving problems and inductively generating ideas) and abstraction (conflicting demands for facts vs. new ideas). They argued that these struggles and tensions are not only an inherent part of every DT project but a desirable part of the journey.…”

“…In a recent article, Coco et al (2020) identified three main struggles and tensions for new adopters of the DT process: destabilization (conflict between demand for control and disruption), indecision (conflict between deductively solving problems and inductively generating ideas) and abstraction (conflicting demands for facts vs. new ideas).…”

“…Struggles and tensions often emerge during DT processes, as tools or methods can be difficult to understand, DT skills are difficult to acquire (Carlgren, Elmquist, & Rauth, 2016; Leifer & Steinert, 2011), and communication styles are distinct (Simeone et al, 2017). Other examples of difficulties are conflicts between the demand for control and disruption and tensions linked to non‐linear and abductive problem‐solving practices (Carlgren, Elmquist, & Rauth, 2016; Coco et al, 2020). These identified challenges and struggles further emphasize the importance of focusing on how innovation projects are facilitated based on DT, as the practice of DT further reveals how DT is understood (Minder & Lassen, 2018; Mosely et al, 2018), particularly with regard to how DT is translated and conceptualized in different settings (Carlgren, Elmquist, & Rauth, 2016).…”

The interplay of marketing and design

“…Table 1 lists all 17 papers and their key insights. Coco et al (2020) Novices in design thinking such as marketing and business students face three struggles during a design thinking innovation journey: destabilizing, non-deciding, and abstracting Baumgarth and Bahati Wieker (2020) Urban art, such as street art and graffiti, positively affects consumers' product evaluation Nagel and Schumann (2020) Consumers' perceptions of the innovative aesthetic value buffer the effect of product-related hedonic experience on attitudes toward the product Carvajal Pérez et al (2020) Creative heritage-a type of cognitive resource-can help marketing and design teams in luxury organizations to address destructive and creative tensions and overcome the trade-off between product innovativeness and brand consistency Artusi and Bellini (2020) To embody new meaning in a new service, the service concept must be simple and focused on one concrete element in the customer journey, the so-called "Moment of Meaning"…”