Great video, Jon! I am happy to see that I've learned and now I follow experiment people that think the same way about it. I am just starting, but the foundations are that Design Thinking is a mindset. I will use the information you just shared here to help me clarify when another person just asks me exactly what are the differences between DT and DS. Thanks a lot for sharing! I just think the title of the video is not fair with the content... But that is just my opinion. Keep on sharing all this knowledge! AJ&Smart is a great reference for me!
Agree. At the end, you need to know where are people wasting time, getting variable results from a solution or not getting the yeild desired when sing a product. Three critical metrics that should be built into how you gather needs. How you articulate the needs is critical. At best, use one definition and make it include one of the three metrics above.
In my humble opinion, I think the Design Thinking process does work. I will not talk about the entire process, just the first one (Empathize). With empathy, you can identify a problem or understand a problem clearly. I can think of a solution only when I understand the problem well. That is where the Design Thinking wins. A lot of the times "Lead Users" come up with their own solutions because of "Deep" Empathy. I am sure a lot of you are familiar with the story of a team from Stanford’s d.school designing incubator for babies in remote villages of Nepal. They came up with the solution only because they empathized with everyone like the parents, doctors, hospitals, even the location, and environment. If you know that story you will understand why Design Sprint wouldn't work properly in this case. From my personal experience, I designed a makeshift software (working prototype I would say) for a hotel that solved a very crucial problem for them. I was able to identify the problem and find a solution only because I was working with them. My solution came from deep empathy. It changed their entire work process. Design Sprint is absolutely a great process but it is not necessarily a tool to identify a problem. By definition, it's a "methodology for solving problems through designing, prototyping, and testing ideas with users. Therefore, you can use it effectively after you identify a problem or someone brings a problem to you. Again, both are amazing tools but I wouldn't say that Design Thinking does not work. We just need to know where to use what. Thank you.
I think that the beauty of design thinking is that it is what it needs to be in the situation. It's flexible, and if you have an actual designer facilitating the process, it works. People aren't used to making empathic observations and constantly asking why. Not everyone thinks that way. Some people are used to waterfall project processes with a finite end, they don't iterate and end up constantly redesigning the wheel. For our organization, the first step of integration is using design thinking as a common working language so that we can start to avoid some of the ravages of silent design. "Everything is designed. Few things are designed well." It can be implemented at different levels with different parts of it empathized according to need. That's why if you google it, there are soooo many flavors. They all basically say the same thing, but in a language according to their audiences' needs. A next step for us will be incorporating data and observations to make true insight. Then we might focus on iteration and testing. It works, it just depends on the facilitator and a well-designed process of incorporating the ideas into culture. What it does REALLY well, is get people collaborating across the organization, and gets people excited to build something great.
I am a major advocate of DT and agree that the way it is often presented and executed falls far short of it's potential. I also really like the Design Sprint model A J & Smart have developed. I would even use it as an example of one way to move thru the DT phases. Note that he says that he admires and honors DT as a philosophical mindset but feels that it has failed in application. As with most master skills, there is theory and there is practice. Individually they each have value. Together they are even better. If all you know is the how, but not the why, you don't have the knowledge you need to figure out why what you are doing wrong when its not working. Knowledge of the theory provides that. (Perhaps we should consider if Design Sprint has the same problem?) That being said, understanding the theory behind DT, I really like the way Design Sprints illustrate one rapid way to apply *most* of it. Note that AJ&Smart have managed to put together two dozen hours of RUclips videos on their view of the wild and wacky world design consulting.
You exactly nailed the point I was trying to make Dexter, this is why i'm pinning your comment to the top of the conversation. Thanks for taking the time!
One of the challenges with teaching any skill is to find the balance of theory and practice which works best for the student. You can learn the theory of DT in (or Sprints) in a few minutes, but getting really useful results from applying that theory takes lots of practice. The d.school tends to take the experiential path to teaching - which can feel like learning to swim by being thrown into the pool. Once you realize that the meta framework for DT is essentially about learning - like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for your business - reiteratively Feeling Thinking and Doing your way to a solution, it starts to make more sense. That being said; You guys might consider refining your message. DT does work - really well - what's not working well is the way its being taught by some advocates.
At the end of the day, the main takeaway from design thinking should be divergent and convergent phases of design - something that design sprints do very well in a practical way
When Design Thinking fails to be implemented. There are two reasons for it: 1.Individual bias and self-interest within the organization. 2.The culture and politics within the organization. You also stated that design thinking is a philosophy, not a process? I am very curious why you think that and how did you reach that conclusion? I would love to debate you on this topic. We can do it on your channel or mines.
Yeah, but he really got me with ›then they got their personas and stuff and don't know what to do with it.‹ That's something we see on a daily. An alternative would be something like not putting a new mindset into a company and just instead deliver a process, that just helps filling a temporarily gap. What you think?
How you emphathise is the key. If you do not have a map of the underlying steps people use a product to do what they are doing (the job) you are not going to figure out what they need. You are not going to be able to set aside solutions bias. What is the job? Map it. How do people value how the job gets done? Time, variability and yeild are the basic measures.
Jan Richter so true. DT can be self contradictory where the proponent is concerned about injecting a new mindset instead of finding what already motivates the organisation and tailor solutions that are up their alley, if I may say so. The DT is a study of what designers and consultants do. It is more of an academic inquiry into what designers do and it organizes the items of design into an order but as someone who has been involved in design thinking from a very young age, I can say that most of the most successful projects I've executed were reverse engineered from the get go. I start with Ideating, prototyping, find out all the problems of the product before brainstorming immediate and overall solutions. DT is a linear process but any actual designer knows their mind is a behive. Ever observed a professional painter? They add bits to the picture here and there till it's done and only then can you fully appreciate what they were getting at. Design is mostly like that. DT is beautiful but it isn't practical because it attempts to make linear what is 'Brownian' (motion).
This was already mentioned elsewhere but I would love to hear what other methodologies or strategies other than design sprints you’ve seen that have been successful and useful. Thank you!
My experience with DT as a web developer brought into workshops for coming up with new features: Finding real user problems first was a nice break from my solution driven daily work. And nice to have features originate from user needs rather than business needs, stakeholder ideas or tech opportunity. The empathize phase was the most valuable. Made me really see the big picture. all team members should do it once ( qualitative user interviews) But when it came time to generate ideas they felt unrealistic and vague. Then the quick prototyping and testing didn't really assure me many would use the feature - just felt like a UI test. So after a DT workshop we often went back and said: ok realistically we're not gonna build any of those whacky features. Let's look at our backlog and build some realistic stuff instead.
So I am in love with this... Had a training on design thinking recently and because it us very uncommon in my country, Nigeria. I decided to start to train organizations on design thinking but having this great insight on design sprints makes me wanna get really trained with design sprint also, incorporating them together DT as a mindset and DS as a recipe. I am opened to more partners and trainers if my country is accessible by you Thank you AJ& Smart
Hi bayode oke, I just designed an ultra-practical product design curriculum for trainings too. I love the idea of DT and always did want to study it. But the thing is too theoretical and doesn't Have the capacity to help someone turn their idea into products and into cash or whatever satisfaction they hope to harvest compared to my curriculum...no bragging. Perhaps we can collaborate. I work in Lagos. I guess it's that dissonance that landed me on this video. DT certification is a fashionable boost to one's CV.... I'll check out DS too.
Every time you say something I've not heard of I go away and learn about it. A couple months ago I started looking deeper into Design Thinking (bought 4 books, read 2 already) and you keep moving the knowledge gap goalposts.
Thank you all from AJ&Smart. Your channel is an amazing treasure box that constantly inspires me to push forward with design think. By far my absolute favorite ressource. Thank you so much for your work and dedication. If you ever come to Copenhagen, Denmark, coffee at coffee collective is on me.
You are absolutely right! After developing my curriculum for products design, I decided to research the body of knowledge and Yea, it was all philosophy. Ideo did something that people now study. I've never been a fan of all creativity being pushed through an academic birth canal. It curdles my creative juices and Burns away my projectile energy. I just can't. It should be simplified and taught in nursery schools. By the time we're in tertiary we should be implementing like it's second nature. Thanks for daring to think differently and speaking against the current too. That being said, I'll still complete the DT course I started.
Let me get this straight, you're claiming that Design Thinking does not work, yet your pitch is that Design Sprint does. Your Design Sprint has most of the same phases and elements of Design Thinking for crying out loud. Design Thinking (DT) has been used broadly by David Kelly and Tim Brown at IDEO since 2006 when Stanford U. brought Kelly back at his d.school. However, the design thinking process has been part of many designers for many centuries, you might refer to DaVinci, Newton and Galileo's notebooks to know they followed a principled practice, that of the current DT model that Kelly uses at his school program. Design Thinking is a philosophy and mindset, yes, but it is also the recipe, a recipe that can help you build more recipes, and systems, and processes, and products, and services, and much more. The way you indicate in other video Design Sprint 1.0 and 2.0: Map -> Sketch -> Decide -> Storyboard -> Prototype -> Test has almost all similar elements of Design Thinking, minus the essential part of the process, how to define what the actual problem is: (Empathize) Interview -> (Define Problem) Needs/Insights -> (Ideate) Diverge-Sketch-Explore-Decide-Storyboard -> Prototype -> Test and this Design Thinking (5 non-linear phases) can be reduced to 3 non-linear phases, for those very apt with the process, just like a chef making a recipe can skip steps in a recipe. One interesting fact, the original Design Sprint by Jake Knapp also has 5 phases: Understand -> Diverge -> Converge -> Prototype -> Test. Furthermore, The Design Thinking methodology derives from the Engineering Design Process (EDP) which traditionally is a very utilized process with seven phases, in elementary schools EDP has been taught in 8-or-9-steps methodology. Consider the following: Design Thinking works just like EDP works, just that in order to make it successful, a design professional, has to lead and facilitate, just like in EDP an engineer would guide you to successful innovative products and solutions. See how Google Ventures is using Design Sprint: www.gv.com/sprint/ and they launched their kit at designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/ And how IDEO created the kit before GV did and then collected it and its current version can be found here www.designkit.org/ Thus, design thinking works, and it's a philosophy, a mindset, a methodology, a process.
Short then: AJ&Smart says in video that without design thinking none of their design sprint would be possible, thus title is just clickbait or false since it proofs that design thinking works.
Hey Ludvik, sorry this reply took so long, it got lost in the YT comment hole! First of all, let me get my facts straight: 1. It is my opinion that Design Thinking programs generally doesn't work out for companies around the world. I've worked for all the big brands you know of, including the big silicon valley firms and I can tell you that they all try to integrate Design Thinking Systems within their organisations AND lose confidence in it very quickly. 2. Design Sprints and Design Thinking are not the same thing. Yes, Design Sprints take a lot of tools and mindset from Design Thinking, but it's a very specific, very cold, very logical recipe for aligning teams and coming up with product concepts and it's NOT an open-to-interpertation, creative toolkit like Design Thinking. In this video I lay out the differences more clearly: ruclips.net/video/uvTTgCUNITI/видео.html 3. So yes, as you stated: I AM saying that DT doesn't work (in my experience) and DS do work (in my experience).
I’m hearing you..... I’m currently doing a law and design thinking assignment for law school - and it’s great buuut .... I’m not seeing myself innovating as a result of the design thinking process😊
I think you need to clearly define what Design Thinking is compared to sprints up front and early in the video. Too many words. You nail it towards the end. Mindset and toolset. As a plug and play "thing" it ain't gunna work for nobody.
Jonathan thank you so much sir for posting this video. You nailed the issue I am having with my clients regarding a Design Thinking process that usually dies once I leave the engagement. Engineers find Design Thinking informative for product development but just don't see a "recipe" or lean process out of the "design philosophy" as you described. It's time I just buy the book and practice the Design Sprint exercises for my clients (no brainer). Can't wait to give some feedback from my future clients :) - thanks again for all the videos!
I completely agree that it's a mindset, but how do you go about teaching that mindset? I often think about this question, it took me 4 years of a design degree to truly live and breathe design. How can that be fast-tracked? Is it even possible? There have been too many times that I've come across managers who have an outdated mindset. It just doesn't work, and we can't expect people to embody a mindset overnight when it costs people like me a 4-year design degree.
Speaking of practical side, Design Sprint or Thinking or The Wisdom of Crowds or whatever you call it - JUST DO IT! Connect people together for an idea, let each other express himself, get on a precise schedule, get the impact from the real user, create a working product - and do it again and again, and well, you"ll see it's all about connecting the "dots" together... Because you get that satisfaction, it's not only when you get the work done and raise millions. It's good. But it's not enough. The real fulfillment comes from the process itself, this collaboration between us. When you know that you're a part of the whole system, you're not alone. We get there together. And we continue together. It's like climbing the mountain, everyone tied to another. There is no smart mr-know-all or strong-big-guy, no any geniuos between us, but together we create, together we take much bigger step, together we get the quick solution, together we're organism, it's our nature. That's why it's so good. So thank you, AJ&Smart for spreading this :)
You are exactly right from the way, what you say....Design thinking is a Theory not Practical..... Innovation start with the problem and thinking towards making the product to live for long by giving options for future changes.
rumor has it that Jonathan you secretly own all "post-its'' manufacturing çompanies in the world and this sprint design is only to increase your sales!
I've always thought that design thinking is BS. in reality, companies are more focused on getting clients and selling what they already make. I'm an indsutrial designer and companies don't put up design on a pedestal like designers assume they would. we're just another clog in the machine. I've learned that designers have their head up their asses and think its the most important thing a company has to rely on, and its not. the DT process seems like a workshop for people who don't know what to do. good design comes from research, testing, and experience, not from a recipe.
You don't sell Design Thinking as Tool of Innovation! We sell a system built by people (stakeholders) using Design Thinking, Agile, LEAN Startup Method, Design Sprint or whatever needed Methods fits their case and business model. We go their to change the way they think, decide and act to tackle thier business challenges not give them manuals, canvas and sheets!
I don't think they are mutually exclusive. Design thinking feeds into your Design Sprint Backlog and Your Sprint review feedsback into your Design thinking loop, which feeds into your refined DS Backlog.
I think it's an interesting distinction. The ugly secret about design sprints is that no one can keep up with the pace. Big companies will always have tension with change and, yes, Design Sprints are much easier to sell to big companies who don't know the difference. I think selling Design Sprints without talking about understanding customer need (however you go about gaining that) seems short-sighted. I also think your analogy about the cooking class is totally wrong (in both videos). I do agree that you have to take action and make stuff. Sprints are great if you are looking to understand the impact of an individual feature, but you may want to get to know your customers before sprinting off too far. Shitting on Design Thinking is very en vogue and as a consultant all over RUclips, you have to be controversial. So, I guess you have that going for you.
Sorry you disagree with our outlook Jason. We feel that Sprints offer companies great value, in terms of time as well as money, and are a great way to get stuff started or off the ground in a more fun and democratic way.
you forget to say WHATS the replacement for it. Now I Really wanted to know - what should I do to give my best as a designer to company? Are you promoting design sprint here as solution? complete the loop JONN
On the food analogy. You can give the exact same ingredients to a regular person and a professional chef. The two dishes are likely to be totally different and the Chef is likely to produce a far superior looking and tasting dish. My point being that the more experience the person has in cooking (Design Thinking) the better the end result. If clients don’t hire good people then the Design Thinking alone won’t work. But a Design Thinking professional like a Creative Consultant (👈cough!) can help the client do Design Sprints for the short game (& low effort+high return) and a deeper Strategy for the long game.
WOW! That video just opened my mind! I am from Brazil, I found you guys on Instagram and I am in love with AJ&Smart contents! I heard a lot of about design thinking but I never seen something in practice, and after watching that video, I kind of feel more comfortable and relieved. Because seeing so much people talking about design thinking but not seeing any concrete result can be kind of terrifying for some designers Haha. Now I really want learn more about design sprint! I have a channel that I talk with brazilian graphic designers about my freelancer routine and also tips about working with graphic design! Thank you guys for the really great videos! :D
Thank you for sharing your thought process on this. It would be very interesting to learn in a video what are the other frameworks that companies use aside from the design sprint.
Too fluffy? What's fluffy about a prototype and a test with real people? You seem to stop at the blue sky ideation phase. At your core perspective, you are limiting your scope to coming up with feature sets? The training portion you are bashing in this video is a failure to make it stick. That's not necessarily the fault of design thinking but more an organizational barrier to adopting a new method. You could swap "design thinking" in this video for "agile" and it's the same beef. Try going into a waterfall culture and spending 2 weeks training them on agile and then leave. Likely, that wouldn't stick either. Don't throw the method under the bus when the failure to adopt the mindsets is a cultural/training problem.
Hey Tim - testing a prototype with real people is exactly the goal of the design sprint, so believe me, I’m on board with that! What I mean by “too fluffy” in regards to DT is that many of the outcomes are not tangible/actionable, they’re often used to gain empathy. I’ve seen many teams (agile or waterfall) fail to understand how to translate their findings from design thinking processes into actual products. You’re right though, the failure is making it stick, but I think DT is inherently difficult to make stick.
AJ&Smart right on. I think your complaint is echoed by more than a few skeptics. It will never be a magic bullet and should never be sold like that. People, teams, companies still need to put in the work and commit to a new way of thinking or it will be a boondoggle workshop. Thanks.
Thing is, actual designers who design something worth studying never took a DT class. It's a beautiful thing for designers to sit together and discuss what they do but if you try to use it as is, you'll abandon it midway. There should be different iterations for different personalities and scenarios... A designer's mind is a beehive and attempting to make linear something that's inherently 'Brownian' comes with the risk of curdling creative juices... Yea and injecting too much empathy is stiffling. Design is a right brain function and once you let the left brain take over, all that frolicking with the social conscience all you'll ever see is problems with your products.
Really love AJ&Smart! First exposed with design sprint was on 2015 and been enthusiast since then. Would love to attend your workshop in Indonesia one day! greets from Jakarta
So... I think you are right but I think the point is you need design thinking then have designers to follow up and implement or deliver. Companies just make a persona and a journey but don’t know how to connect or to actual delivery
Hey Jon great video, I liked the explanation about one (design thinking) is the concept and how the other (design sprint) is the execution. I noticed that you mentioned user personas in the video and I wanted to know what are your thoughts about using them. Especially when these haven't been created very well...
AJ&Smart Totally agree that they're useless if companies don't use them. Although it's even worst when they were created without much research and they are not actually representing real customers. Looking forward to your video on personas!
Hi, why can’t the personas map to the product features? At the end of the day, features we add to the product must serve the persona we defined. Am I missing something?
I hate you guys ... I'm so addicted to all your videos and there so valuable and I use it everyday. As a result I'm up till 2am watching all your engaging videos. Love Justan :)
Design thinking was always going to fail, it was just another person/company selling something and delivers nothing,"Oh we will embed the design process and you will innovate". Kinda similar to your sprint. Everyone has an angle, everyone selling something you included. The real designers talk about vision, and less about holding hands and forming a circle.
why i doesnt work? i don’t get it. what problem that you want to try to solve in that company? i don’t get it. i missing alot of context. not every priblem can be solved with design thinking
This is perfect, the missing piece between design thinking and the practical and the ground application in a non-creative environment. Great video, thank you 😊
Doesn't Design Thinking exist as a process inside of User Research? Along with User-Centered Design of course. My processes as a Researcher include some aspects of Design Thinking obviously and I have had success with it.
Ain't the Design Thinking and Design Sprint complementary to each other? And btw: is there any Design Sprint training coming to Asia, especially China? thanks Jonathan!
I'd love to be involved. I teach design in a high school just north of NYC and have a network of similar teachers in the area who would be interested in a workshop! Also, I might have a very cool location for you... DM me on Twitter if you want @lyokana59
Like his video however I don't really know what the point was. Maybe next time spend less time talking about your experience and more time about the point of the video.
i wonder if you can make some videos about what to do when you have an amazing concept but when you start render and realize the Design fails. I'm in graphic design still in school but I'm also working both environments I get tons of praise for concepts but then the design always kind of lack four don't seem to finished. I can see it as well as my colleagues, peers and teachers.
😂😂😂 there's an entire book titled make your bed... anyway, when an idea is burning hot all night and you can barely wait for the crack of dawn, the very last thing you need to distract you is an unmade bed... On the other hand, what if there's an actual principle that boosts productivity like crazy which you obey when you can tame that urge to run by doing something so pointless? Just what if? Can someone please investigate that?🤔🤔🤔
Sorry AJ i really liked your videos but you really missing the taste of DT, its like you speaking about fast food instant & really great for instant needs of project requirement & ofcourse time & DT is like gives a taste that you never forgettable even after years & feels like memorable & may be its like very small dish of old culture to present the modern world, definitely its mindset or philosophy but within this ( extra time) you get a high chances of unforgettable taste that you never get in early. As per your statement may be someone not used design thinking purely from heart & mind combination & you thought it not works but put 100% to sprint. I really like all the process depends the project need & what taste they are looking & actually required.
I don't know of any "singular systems" the way that design thinking claims to work - what i've seen working well is a combination of Design Sprints and Agile
@AJ&Smart Hi I really appreciate your thoughts on this topic! Can you name any examples of other companies using those different systems or company names that we could look up in the internet?
Great video, Jon! I am happy to see that I've learned and now I follow experiment people that think the same way about it. I am just starting, but the foundations are that Design Thinking is a mindset. I will use the information you just shared here to help me clarify when another person just asks me exactly what are the differences between DT and DS. Thanks a lot for sharing! I just think the title of the video is not fair with the content... But that is just my opinion. Keep on sharing all this knowledge! AJ&Smart is a great reference for me!
Thank you Patricia! =)
Agree. At the end, you need to know where are people wasting time, getting variable results from a solution or not getting the yeild desired when sing a product. Three critical metrics that should be built into how you gather needs. How you articulate the needs is critical. At best, use one definition and make it include one of the three metrics above.
In my humble opinion, I think the Design Thinking process does work. I will not talk about the entire process, just the first one (Empathize). With empathy, you can identify a problem or understand a problem clearly. I can think of a solution only when I understand the problem well. That is where the Design Thinking wins. A lot of the times "Lead Users" come up with their own solutions because of "Deep" Empathy. I am sure a lot of you are familiar with the story of a team from Stanford’s d.school designing incubator for babies in remote villages of Nepal. They came up with the solution only because they empathized with everyone like the parents, doctors, hospitals, even the location, and environment. If you know that story you will understand why Design Sprint wouldn't work properly in this case. From my personal experience, I designed a makeshift software (working prototype I would say) for a hotel that solved a very crucial problem for them. I was able to identify the problem and find a solution only because I was working with them. My solution came from deep empathy. It changed their entire work process. Design Sprint is absolutely a great process but it is not necessarily a tool to identify a problem. By definition, it's a "methodology for solving problems through designing, prototyping, and testing ideas with users. Therefore, you can use it effectively after you identify a problem or someone brings a problem to you. Again, both are amazing tools but I wouldn't say that Design Thinking does not work. We just need to know where to use what. Thank you.
I think that the beauty of design thinking is that it is what it needs to be in the situation. It's flexible, and if you have an actual designer facilitating the process, it works. People aren't used to making empathic observations and constantly asking why. Not everyone thinks that way. Some people are used to waterfall project processes with a finite end, they don't iterate and end up constantly redesigning the wheel. For our organization, the first step of integration is using design thinking as a common working language so that we can start to avoid some of the ravages of silent design. "Everything is designed. Few things are designed well." It can be implemented at different levels with different parts of it empathized according to need. That's why if you google it, there are soooo many flavors. They all basically say the same thing, but in a language according to their audiences' needs. A next step for us will be incorporating data and observations to make true insight. Then we might focus on iteration and testing. It works, it just depends on the facilitator and a well-designed process of incorporating the ideas into culture. What it does REALLY well, is get people collaborating across the organization, and gets people excited to build something great.
I am a major advocate of DT and agree that the way it is often presented and executed falls far short of it's potential. I also really like the Design Sprint model A J & Smart have developed. I would even use it as an example of one way to move thru the DT phases.
Note that he says that he admires and honors DT as a philosophical mindset but feels that it has failed in application. As with most master skills, there is theory and there is practice. Individually they each have value. Together they are even better.
If all you know is the how, but not the why, you don't have the knowledge you need to figure out why what you are doing wrong when its not working. Knowledge of the theory provides that. (Perhaps we should consider if Design Sprint has the same problem?)
That being said, understanding the theory behind DT, I really like the way Design Sprints illustrate one rapid way to apply *most* of it.
Note that AJ&Smart have managed to put together two dozen hours of RUclips videos on their view of the wild and wacky world design consulting.
You exactly nailed the point I was trying to make Dexter, this is why i'm pinning your comment to the top of the conversation. Thanks for taking the time!
One of the challenges with teaching any skill is to find the balance of theory and practice which works best for the student. You can learn the theory of DT in (or Sprints) in a few minutes, but getting really useful results from applying that theory takes lots of practice. The d.school tends to take the experiential path to teaching - which can feel like learning to swim by being thrown into the pool.
Once you realize that the meta framework for DT is essentially about learning - like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for your business - reiteratively Feeling Thinking and Doing your way to a solution, it starts to make more sense.
That being said; You guys might consider refining your message. DT does work - really well - what's not working well is the way its being taught by some advocates.
At the end of the day, the main takeaway from design thinking should be divergent and convergent phases of design - something that design sprints do very well in a practical way
When Design Thinking fails to be implemented. There are two reasons for it:
1.Individual bias and self-interest within the organization.
2.The culture and politics within the organization.
You also stated that design thinking is a philosophy, not a process? I am very curious why you think that and how did you reach that conclusion? I would love to debate you on this topic. We can do it on your channel or mines.
Yeah, but he really got me with ›then they got their personas and stuff and don't know what to do with it.‹ That's something we see on a daily. An alternative would be something like not putting a new mindset into a company and just instead deliver a process, that just helps filling a temporarily gap. What you think?
How you emphathise is the key. If you do not have a map of the underlying steps people use a product to do what they are doing (the job) you are not going to figure out what they need. You are not going to be able to set aside solutions bias. What is the job? Map it. How do people value how the job gets done? Time, variability and yeild are the basic measures.
Jan Richter so true. DT can be self contradictory where the proponent is concerned about injecting a new mindset instead of finding what already motivates the organisation and tailor solutions that are up their alley, if I may say so.
The DT is a study of what designers and consultants do. It is more of an academic inquiry into what designers do and it organizes the items of design into an order but as someone who has been involved in design thinking from a very young age, I can say that most of the most successful projects I've executed were reverse engineered from the get go. I start with Ideating, prototyping, find out all the problems of the product before brainstorming immediate and overall solutions.
DT is a linear process but any actual designer knows their mind is a behive.
Ever observed a professional painter? They add bits to the picture here and there till it's done and only then can you fully appreciate what they were getting at. Design is mostly like that.
DT is beautiful but it isn't practical because it attempts to make linear what is 'Brownian' (motion).
This was already mentioned elsewhere but I would love to hear what other methodologies or strategies other than design sprints you’ve seen that have been successful and useful. Thank you!
My experience with DT as a web developer brought into workshops for coming up with new features:
Finding real user problems first was a nice break from my solution driven daily work. And nice to have features originate from user needs rather than business needs, stakeholder ideas or tech opportunity.
The empathize phase was the most valuable. Made me really see the big picture. all team members should do it once ( qualitative user interviews)
But when it came time to generate ideas they felt unrealistic and vague.
Then the quick prototyping and testing didn't really assure me many would use the feature - just felt like a UI test.
So after a DT workshop we often went back and said: ok realistically we're not gonna build any of those whacky features. Let's look at our backlog and build some realistic stuff instead.
So I am in love with this... Had a training on design thinking recently and because it us very uncommon in my country, Nigeria. I decided to start to train organizations on design thinking but having this great insight on design sprints makes me wanna get really trained with design sprint also, incorporating them together DT as a mindset and DS as a recipe.
I am opened to more partners and trainers if my country is accessible by you
Thank you AJ& Smart
Hi bayode oke, I just designed an ultra-practical product design curriculum for trainings too. I love the idea of DT and always did want to study it. But the thing is too theoretical and doesn't Have the capacity to help someone turn their idea into products and into cash or whatever satisfaction they hope to harvest compared to my curriculum...no bragging. Perhaps we can collaborate. I work in Lagos.
I guess it's that dissonance that landed me on this video. DT certification is a fashionable boost to one's CV....
I'll check out DS too.
Every time you say something I've not heard of I go away and learn about it. A couple months ago I started looking deeper into Design Thinking (bought 4 books, read 2 already) and you keep moving the knowledge gap goalposts.
I keep learning and I keep sharing :)
Awesome!
Thank you all from AJ&Smart. Your channel is an amazing treasure box that constantly inspires me to push forward with design think. By far my absolute favorite ressource. Thank you so much for your work and dedication. If you ever come to Copenhagen, Denmark, coffee at coffee collective is on me.
You are absolutely right! After developing my curriculum for products design, I decided to research the body of knowledge and Yea, it was all philosophy.
Ideo did something that people now study. I've never been a fan of all creativity being pushed through an academic birth canal. It curdles my creative juices and Burns away my projectile energy. I just can't. It should be simplified and taught in nursery schools. By the time we're in tertiary we should be implementing like it's second nature.
Thanks for daring to think differently and speaking against the current too.
That being said, I'll still complete the DT course I started.
Let me get this straight, you're claiming that Design Thinking does not work, yet your pitch is that Design Sprint does. Your Design Sprint has most of the same phases and elements of Design Thinking for crying out loud. Design Thinking (DT) has been used broadly by David Kelly and Tim Brown at IDEO since 2006 when Stanford U. brought Kelly back at his d.school. However, the design thinking process has been part of many designers for many centuries, you might refer to DaVinci, Newton and Galileo's notebooks to know they followed a principled practice, that of the current DT model that Kelly uses at his school program. Design Thinking is a philosophy and mindset, yes, but it is also the recipe, a recipe that can help you build more recipes, and systems, and processes, and products, and services, and much more.
The way you indicate in other video Design Sprint 1.0 and 2.0: Map -> Sketch -> Decide -> Storyboard -> Prototype -> Test has almost all similar elements of Design Thinking, minus the essential part of the process, how to define what the actual problem is: (Empathize) Interview -> (Define Problem) Needs/Insights -> (Ideate) Diverge-Sketch-Explore-Decide-Storyboard -> Prototype -> Test and this Design Thinking (5 non-linear phases) can be reduced to 3 non-linear phases, for those very apt with the process, just like a chef making a recipe can skip steps in a recipe. One interesting fact, the original Design Sprint by Jake Knapp also has 5 phases: Understand -> Diverge -> Converge -> Prototype -> Test.
Furthermore, The Design Thinking methodology derives from the Engineering Design Process (EDP) which traditionally is a very utilized process with seven phases, in elementary schools EDP has been taught in 8-or-9-steps methodology.
Consider the following: Design Thinking works just like EDP works, just that in order to make it successful, a design professional, has to lead and facilitate, just like in EDP an engineer would guide you to successful innovative products and solutions.
See how Google Ventures is using Design Sprint: www.gv.com/sprint/ and they launched their kit at designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/
And how IDEO created the kit before GV did and then collected it and its current version can be found here www.designkit.org/
Thus, design thinking works, and it's a philosophy, a mindset, a methodology, a process.
when it comes down to it, they're all just pretentious buzz words that people think will make them sound cool. You're just problem solving. thats it.
Despite how long your reply is, it sounds like you didn’t actually watch this video.
Short then: AJ&Smart says in video that without design thinking none of their design sprint would be possible, thus title is just clickbait or false since it proofs that design thinking works.
Crazy good comment.
YT needs share function for comments.
Hey Ludvik, sorry this reply took so long, it got lost in the YT comment hole! First of all, let me get my facts straight:
1. It is my opinion that Design Thinking programs generally doesn't work out for companies around the world. I've worked for all the big brands you know of, including the big silicon valley firms and I can tell you that they all try to integrate Design Thinking Systems within their organisations AND lose confidence in it very quickly.
2. Design Sprints and Design Thinking are not the same thing. Yes, Design Sprints take a lot of tools and mindset from Design Thinking, but it's a very specific, very cold, very logical recipe for aligning teams and coming up with product concepts and it's NOT an open-to-interpertation, creative toolkit like Design Thinking. In this video I lay out the differences more clearly: ruclips.net/video/uvTTgCUNITI/видео.html
3. So yes, as you stated: I AM saying that DT doesn't work (in my experience) and DS do work (in my experience).
Also, it helps a lot that you're an Engineer or have an Engineer in your team who knows how to actually build the product solution.
I’m hearing you..... I’m currently doing a law and design thinking assignment for law school - and it’s great buuut .... I’m not seeing myself innovating as a result of the design thinking process😊
That's exactly when the Design Sprint comes into play!
I think you need to clearly define what Design Thinking is compared to sprints up front and early in the video. Too many words. You nail it towards the end. Mindset and toolset. As a plug and play "thing" it ain't gunna work for nobody.
Jonathan thank you so much sir for posting this video. You nailed the issue I am having with my clients regarding a Design Thinking process that usually dies once I leave the engagement. Engineers find Design Thinking informative for product development but just don't see a "recipe" or lean process out of the "design philosophy" as you described. It's time I just buy the book and practice the Design Sprint exercises for my clients (no brainer). Can't wait to give some feedback from my future clients :) - thanks again for all the videos!
Cheers man! Glad this helped
I completely agree that it's a mindset, but how do you go about teaching that mindset? I often think about this question, it took me 4 years of a design degree to truly live and breathe design. How can that be fast-tracked? Is it even possible? There have been too many times that I've come across managers who have an outdated mindset. It just doesn't work, and we can't expect people to embody a mindset overnight when it costs people like me a 4-year design degree.
Speaking of practical side, Design Sprint or Thinking or The Wisdom of Crowds or whatever you call it - JUST DO IT! Connect people together for an idea, let each other express himself, get on a precise schedule, get the impact from the real user, create a working product - and do it again and again, and well, you"ll see it's all about connecting the "dots" together... Because you get that satisfaction, it's not only when you get the work done and raise millions. It's good. But it's not enough. The real fulfillment comes from the process itself, this collaboration between us. When you know that you're a part of the whole system, you're not alone. We get there together. And we continue together. It's like climbing the mountain, everyone tied to another. There is no smart mr-know-all or strong-big-guy, no any geniuos between us, but together we create, together we take much bigger step, together we get the quick solution, together we're organism, it's our nature. That's why it's so good. So thank you, AJ&Smart for spreading this :)
Epic comment!!!
You are exactly right from the way, what you say....Design thinking is a Theory not Practical..... Innovation start with the problem and thinking towards making the product to live for long by giving options for future changes.
Thanks Himanth!
rumor has it that Jonathan you secretly own all "post-its'' manufacturing çompanies in the world and this sprint design is only to increase your sales!
I've always thought that design thinking is BS. in reality, companies are more focused on getting clients and selling what they already make. I'm an indsutrial designer and companies don't put up design on a pedestal like designers assume they would. we're just another clog in the machine. I've learned that designers have their head up their asses and think its the most important thing a company has to rely on, and its not. the DT process seems like a workshop for people who don't know what to do. good design comes from research, testing, and experience, not from a recipe.
You don't sell Design Thinking as Tool of Innovation!
We sell a system built by people (stakeholders) using Design Thinking, Agile, LEAN Startup Method, Design Sprint or whatever needed Methods fits their case and business model.
We go their to change the way they think, decide and act to tackle thier business challenges not give them manuals, canvas and sheets!
Digital Transformation is the key
Your chanel is legitly great reference for me as well as uni assignments on design thinking.
Keep up good work!
Best regards from Vietnam.
Thank you, this really helpful for my assignment
You're very welcome! Let us know how you got on with your assignment
I don't think they are mutually exclusive. Design thinking feeds into your Design Sprint Backlog and Your Sprint review feedsback into your Design thinking loop, which feeds into your refined DS Backlog.
I think it's an interesting distinction. The ugly secret about design sprints is that no one can keep up with the pace. Big companies will always have tension with change and, yes, Design Sprints are much easier to sell to big companies who don't know the difference. I think selling Design Sprints without talking about understanding customer need (however you go about gaining that) seems short-sighted. I also think your analogy about the cooking class is totally wrong (in both videos). I do agree that you have to take action and make stuff. Sprints are great if you are looking to understand the impact of an individual feature, but you may want to get to know your customers before sprinting off too far. Shitting on Design Thinking is very en vogue and as a consultant all over RUclips, you have to be controversial. So, I guess you have that going for you.
Sorry you disagree with our outlook Jason. We feel that Sprints offer companies great value, in terms of time as well as money, and are a great way to get stuff started or off the ground in a more fun and democratic way.
you forget to say WHATS the replacement for it. Now I Really wanted to know - what should I do to give my best as a designer to company? Are you promoting design sprint here as solution? complete the loop JONN
I guess this video wasn't about "what to replace Design Thinking with" - but if you want my current opinion: it's the design sprint.
On the food analogy. You can give the exact same ingredients to a regular person and a professional chef. The two dishes are likely to be totally different and the Chef is likely to produce a far superior looking and tasting dish.
My point being that the more experience the person has in cooking (Design Thinking) the better the end result. If clients don’t hire good people then the Design Thinking alone won’t work. But a Design Thinking professional like a Creative Consultant (👈cough!) can help the client do Design Sprints for the short game (& low effort+high return) and a deeper Strategy for the long game.
haha thanks Joe, interesting points! The food analogy usually goes down a storm too! We like your analogy too! Thanks for sharing!
WOW! That video just opened my mind! I am from Brazil, I found you guys on Instagram and I am in love with AJ&Smart contents! I heard a lot of about design thinking but I never seen something in practice, and after watching that video, I kind of feel more comfortable and relieved. Because seeing so much people talking about design thinking but not seeing any concrete result can be kind of terrifying for some designers Haha. Now I really want learn more about design sprint! I have a channel that I talk with brazilian graphic designers about my freelancer routine and also tips about working with graphic design! Thank you guys for the really great videos! :D
Thanks for your thoughts! :) Your channel looks great Pastel! Keep up the great work!
Thank you for sharing your thought process on this. It would be very interesting to learn in a video what are the other frameworks that companies use aside from the design sprint.
Ford Global 8D, Lean Thinking, TRIZ, Design for Six Sigma, Appreciative Inquiry, 4D, 6D, just to name a few
Ah, I forgot to mention MESA Method.
Bravo!!!!
Too fluffy? What's fluffy about a prototype and a test with real people? You seem to stop at the blue sky ideation phase. At your core perspective, you are limiting your scope to coming up with feature sets? The training portion you are bashing in this video is a failure to make it stick. That's not necessarily the fault of design thinking but more an organizational barrier to adopting a new method. You could swap "design thinking" in this video for "agile" and it's the same beef. Try going into a waterfall culture and spending 2 weeks training them on agile and then leave. Likely, that wouldn't stick either. Don't throw the method under the bus when the failure to adopt the mindsets is a cultural/training problem.
Hey Tim - testing a prototype with real people is exactly the goal of the design sprint, so believe me, I’m on board with that! What I mean by “too fluffy” in regards to DT is that many of the outcomes are not tangible/actionable, they’re often used to gain empathy. I’ve seen many teams (agile or waterfall) fail to understand how to translate their findings from design thinking processes into actual products. You’re right though, the failure is making it stick, but I think DT is inherently difficult to make stick.
AJ&Smart right on. I think your complaint is echoed by more than a few skeptics. It will never be a magic bullet and should never be sold like that. People, teams, companies still need to put in the work and commit to a new way of thinking or it will be a boondoggle workshop. Thanks.
Bondage workshop sounds fun :D
Thing is, actual designers who design something worth studying never took a DT class. It's a beautiful thing for designers to sit together and discuss what they do but if you try to use it as is, you'll abandon it midway.
There should be different iterations for different personalities and scenarios...
A designer's mind is a beehive and attempting to make linear something that's inherently 'Brownian' comes with the risk of curdling creative juices...
Yea and injecting too much empathy is stiffling. Design is a right brain function and once you let the left brain take over, all that frolicking with the social conscience all you'll ever see is problems with your products.
Really love AJ&Smart! First exposed with design sprint was on 2015 and been enthusiast since then. Would love to attend your workshop in Indonesia one day! greets from Jakarta
Thanks so much Catra
So... I think you are right but I think the point is you need design thinking then have designers to follow up and implement or deliver. Companies just make a persona and a journey but don’t know how to connect or to actual delivery
Interesting point Raymond, thanks for watching too!
What about strategic marketing and Concept sketching as well as Ideation...
The process of design thinking works. It's just that the people doing it do not really have the right perspective.
Hey Jon great video, I liked the explanation about one (design thinking) is the concept and how the other (design sprint) is the execution. I noticed that you mentioned user personas in the video and I wanted to know what are your thoughts about using them. Especially when these haven't been created very well...
Personas are MOSTLY really useless in companies because people make them but don't use them. I'll make a video on those soon :)
AJ&Smart Totally agree that they're useless if companies don't use them. Although it's even worst when they were created without much research and they are not actually representing real customers. Looking forward to your video on personas!
Hi, why can’t the personas map to the product features? At the end of the day, features we add to the product must serve the persona we defined. Am I missing something?
I hate you guys ... I'm so addicted to all your videos and there so valuable and I use it everyday. As a result I'm up till
2am watching all your engaging videos. Love Justan :)
HAHA we were worrried for a second there! Very kind! Hope you're still watching!
Great points here. But what's with all the bleeping out the F and S bombs, Jon? Swearing only helps get your point across more convincingly :)
David O. Andersen Believe me,
It’s only because RUclips deranks vids with swearing and we can’t repurpose them for ads 😂
I think of Design Sprints as the most digestible form of Design Thinking.
Yeah, its just a practical application that produces tangible results without needing to understand the concepts
Design thinking was always going to fail, it was just another person/company selling something and delivers nothing,"Oh we will embed the design process and you will innovate". Kinda similar to your sprint. Everyone has an angle, everyone selling something you included. The real designers talk about vision, and less about holding hands and forming a circle.
why i doesnt work? i don’t get it. what problem that you want to try to solve in that company? i don’t get it. i missing alot of context. not every priblem can be solved with design thinking
What do you think about double diamond thinking ??
This is perfect, the missing piece between design thinking and the practical and the ground application in a non-creative environment.
Great video, thank you 😊
Thanks a lot Shayne! Glad it was useful!
Doesn't Design Thinking exist as a process inside of User Research? Along with User-Centered Design of course. My processes as a Researcher include some aspects of Design Thinking obviously and I have had success with it.
I'm a bit confused 🤔. I was sure that this channel promoted design thinking. The points in the video are accurate though
Great to see some critical perspective on DT as well. Arriving to your channel, best regards from Colombia (not Columbia :v)
haha! Thanks Ivan! Welcome to our channel!
Ain't the Design Thinking and Design Sprint complementary to each other? And btw: is there any Design Sprint training coming to Asia, especially China? thanks Jonathan!
Yes! They are definitely complimentary :) No plans for Asia yet... should we come?
yes, come! at least in China, i see more and more discussion/meetup/practice in China, since the book "SPRINT" been translated into Chinese.
totally agree
Nice one. Got me thinking. Which doesn't happen enough. ;-)
The Magic Sauce Great to hear!
He likes to hear himself talk. He contradicts himself at every turn.
Hi Bruce, sorry you feel that way. What points do you feel weren't made clear?
Thank you for making it clear about the Design Thinking and Design Sprint!
No problem!!
I really would like to learn more or attend courses of design sprint but there aren't any in NYC.
We will do one in NYC soonish!
That sounds awesome! Definitely post a video when you have a date set.
I'd love to be involved. I teach design in a high school just north of NYC and have a network of similar teachers in the area who would be interested in a workshop! Also, I might have a very cool location for you... DM me on Twitter if you want @lyokana59
any coming one in Asia? especially in China?
well said
Thanks Pawel!
Like his video however I don't really know what the point was. Maybe next time spend less time talking about your experience and more time about the point of the video.
With this one, it's a lot about the opinion. Which is why it's more about experience than teaching! But we have a lot of those videos too :)
i wonder if you can make some videos about what to do when you have an amazing concept but when you start render and realize the Design fails. I'm in graphic design still in school but I'm also working both environments I get tons of praise for concepts but then the design always kind of lack four don't seem to finished. I can see it as well as my colleagues, peers and teachers.
Making your bed is one of life's greatest.... wastes of time. I haven't made my bed since '88. Pointless!
Agreed!!
😂😂😂 there's an entire book titled make your bed... anyway, when an idea is burning hot all night and you can barely wait for the crack of dawn, the very last thing you need to distract you is an unmade bed...
On the other hand, what if there's an actual principle that boosts productivity like crazy which you obey when you can tame that urge to run by doing something so pointless? Just what if?
Can someone please investigate that?🤔🤔🤔
Because someone wants cheap hype saying it doesn't work.
great video
Thanks!!
Learn to make your bed kid! (yes even if you are staying at an hotel)
Hahah Dempo! Fair point...
Sorry AJ i really liked your videos but you really missing the taste of DT, its like you speaking about fast food instant & really great for instant needs of project requirement & ofcourse time & DT is like gives a taste that you never forgettable even after years & feels like memorable & may be its like very small dish of old culture to present the modern world, definitely its mindset or philosophy but within this ( extra time) you get a high chances of unforgettable taste that you never get in early. As per your statement may be someone not used design thinking purely from heart & mind combination & you thought it not works but put 100% to sprint. I really like all the process depends the project need & what taste they are looking & actually required.
What are some of the other systems you’ve seen working as alternative to the Design Sprint?
I don't know of any "singular systems" the way that design thinking claims to work - what i've seen working well is a combination of Design Sprints and Agile
@AJ&Smart Hi I really appreciate your thoughts on this topic! Can you name any examples of other companies using those different systems or company names that we could look up in the internet?
Another one that read only the headlines and have no idea what he is talking about.
Mmmm we'd have to diagree Ricardo, sorry you feel that way, but we stick by it!
ugh that awful patchy facial hair is so distracting.
Thanks for your comment Alex, i'll try better next time to grow a better beard for you.
hahhahahaa
You just never had the right Design Thinking tools! Great self publicity though. Next topic: Pope isn't Catholic?
even more epic comment.
epic repllies