Closing words
What have we learned on the journey?
There are quite a few things we have learned on the journey through the Playbook and in the interaction with potential users, our readers. The time has come to reflect on the factors of success before we move on and say goodbye to Lilly, Peter, Marc, Priya, Jonny, and Linda.
We have been confirmed in our claim that the traditional management paradigms must be challenged in order to detect future market opportunities and successfully implement them. The traditional mechanical- deductive approaches will make it difficult for companies to redefine entire value-creation chains and adapt their business models to the new customer requirements. Yet, unfortunately, the idea that innovation follows a defined stage-gate process with a clear sequence from search for ideas through implementation is still prevalent in many companies and in the minds of directors, department heads, and those responsible for innovation. These models have been outdated for at least a decade now.
There is a need for a fundamental change toward a systemic- evolutionary approach. Ideally, highly motivated interdisciplinary teams act in self-organizing network structures. Their work is based on customer needs and is geared to implementing new services, products, business models, and business ecosystems in a targeted way. When searching for the next big market opportunity, design thinking offers a strong mindset. This mindset must be further developed and combined with other approaches. No one size fits everything—we have to find our own way and the appropriate mindset for our organization.
After interacting with and observing numerous employees in management positions of companies that already have initiated the transition, we noticed in the context of innovation, co-creation, inspiring teams, facilitation, and the like, that design thinking still has not been comprehensively integrated in most companies. Design thinking initiatives often run in specially dedicated organizational units, and a new mindset prevails sometimes more strongly, sometimes more weakly in the companies. Likewise, we could recognize little activity so far that aims toward a consistent application of a hybrid model, with the combination of big data analytics and design thinking. Agility could be boosted and the number of possible solutions increased with such a combination. The business ecosystem approach has so far been dominated by only a few players. Most product managers in large companies have so far neither learned the necessary skills nor received instructions to monetize new solutions in decentralized networks. In addition, a clear vision is lacking in many companies and the same goes for the use of strategic foresight or systems thinking, for instance, in combination with design thinking for an improved mapping of a possible future. Change takes time as well as strong personalities with a clear vision at the top of companies.
However, we hope that a mindset can also spread on a bottom-up and transversal basis in an organization. When we look after our day-to-day tasks tomorrow morning, we should try to live the new mindset or think about which mindset might fit our organization. So heads up and get going!
We have noticed that the training and the application of design thinking at universities and colleges are spreading very fast. Problem-based learning is an important experience for many participants and students not only in a design thinking course—it’s a contemporary way of conveying learning content in general! They learn how agilely and radically teams work and network with other participants in the course of actively processing the problem statements. Often, this gives rise to connections that help to find suitable co-founders for the implementation of business ideas. Companies should also become more involved and have their problem statements prepared by the students. Such possibilities are offered by the ME310 course at Stanford University: in the framework of SUGAR, various international student teams are searching for the next great market opportunity. In addition, well-known programs are offered in Europe and Asia plus at numerous institutions in North America.
Tschüss, Peter! Zàijiàn, Lilly! Bye-bye, Marc! Hello, Future!
Peter, Lilly, and Marc have accompanied us as personas through the Playbook. And we hope that some of you have recognized yourselves in the day-to-day challenges, problem statements, and character traits. We have grown fond of the trio!
Lilly has now fleshed out in detail her design thinking consulting services and has dared to found the company. The tagline of her consulting boutique is: “The future is not enough.” Jonny has sent her way an initial project at the bank for which he works. This customer is an excellent reference for Lilly’s value proposition. For this proposition, Lilly relies on the soft approach of design thinking and the lean start-up methodology. In addition, she integrates a number of models from the old world in her own design thinking approach—“Shaken, not stirred”—something that is quite well received at least by global banks. After all, some bankers drive an Aston Martin like James Bond in the old days. A proposition that would better incorporate Asian ways of conducting business is unfortunately still lacking. Moreover, Lilly is three months pregnant and looks forward to little James completing her happiness in the near future. By the way, Lilly didn’t tell us in the beginning that she is such a big Bond fan!
Peter is increasingly focusing on design challenges, which are on the agenda as part of the digitization efforts of his employer and his customers. He especially likes the new smart topics—from smart mobility to smart city. He dreams of a multimodal mobility platform for Europe. On this platform, all public and private mobility providers would offer their services. The people in the European Union and their visitors would have a unique customer experience to plan their trips optimally, book flights and train rides through state-of-the-art technology (e.g., blockchains), and process payment transactions. In addition, unique movement and behavior data will be made available to individual countries and cities in order to make everything a little bit smarter. Thus not only traffic would be directed optimally but also the planning of the urban space. This would be a first step toward a “smart nation” that is second to none! Peter is very well aware of the fact that this design challenge is a wicked problem, but maybe the challenge might be solved by design thinking in combination with systems thinking, the hybrid model, and, of course, the right mindset.
Marc and his start-up team continue to think big. They want to revolutionize the health care system! The team realized the first functionalities of their idea for a private blockchain for patients. The current MVP has only limited functionalities but they are used in the MVE and it already provides the patients with information about which data has been created for the “health record” and when and where it was done. In the meantime, the start-up also cooperates with an established technology company that has shown interest in taking on the development for the analytics in the field of health metadata. The cooperation partners use the hybrid model for their innovation projects. Thus sound solutions emerge iteratively with the perspectives of the business team and data analytics teams.
Within the framework of the Start-X at Stanford University, Marc and his team also had the opportunity recently of pitching their business idea and the first MVP/MVE of their solution. At the end of it, several companies wanted a personal meeting with the team. In particular, the multidimensional business model in the business ecosystem, in which the benefits were clearly worked out for all stakeholders, won over the attendees and potential investors. Blockchain as a technology component was also recognized and appreciated as a suitable technology. Marc had invited Linda to the presentation of the business idea and presented her as a health expert. The start-up ultimately was able to realize another round of financing and create a lot of attention in the community. The matter is clear to Marc and his team. They continue to live their mindset, to iterate the next set of functionalities in their MVP fast and with agility, and test the functions on the MVE. The goal is to generate more capital for the venture in a couple of months with an Initial Coin Offering (ICO).
THANK YOU!
to Jana, Elena, Mario, Daniel, Isabelle …
Our thanks go to the many experts who have highlighted many facets, tools, and extensions of design thinking so that this Design Thinking Playbook could be produced for you.
