Marcus Jahnke

Avhandlingsämne: Critical design management, design thinking, innovation

Inskrivningsår 2007 – fall

Nyckelord: Design, design thinking, design management, innovation, organizational learning

Title: Innovation through Design Thinking - An experimental study of the implementation of design thinking in non-designerly firms

Huvudhandledare:
Ulla Johansson, Associate Professor, Business & Design Lab, University of Gothenburg

Bihandledar:

Håkan Edeholt, Professor in Product Design, AHO, Oslo School of Architecture and Design

Maria Elmquist, Assistant Professor, Center for Business Innovation, Chalmers University of Technology

Text:
It has been shown, both in practice and through research, that design can be beneficial to innovation in firms. More specifically design here includes designs attitudes, methods and perspective – what is often referred to as “Design Thinking”. Within the Design Management discourse it has been argued since the mid-90’s that design should be considered a strategic resource and be represented and integrated in both the processes and the management of firms. This strand of research seems however characterized by a rather traditional business perspective on design.

A more recent development go further in proposing that design thinking should serve as the very model for innovation and management processes. Borrowing from previous research into the design practice by for example Lawson and Cross, this concept is rapidly developing as a “hype” within the innovation and management discourses and is also popularized not least through business media. However, despite the interest in this new role for design, the problematic implications of these suggestions have been little explored.

For example what occurs in the meeting of practices with different traditions and epistemologies? And what is the role of the designer in this new context where it is his or her experiences and process which are valued, rather than the designed result? If the designer is regarded almost as an incarnation of innovation, as in the current hype, what will be demanded of her or him? For example, what skills and abilities will it take to channel or transfer design’s thinking and methods to organizations with little or no previous experience from design, considering that the practice of design is based on knowledge which is largely embodied and non-articulated.

Further, the rhetoric of design thinking proponents seems characterized by a non-problematic and even normative understanding of design. Designs more subversive tradition is for example rarely articulated. How does this affect the general understanding of design? Within the field of artistic research several voices have raised similar critique of the current instrumental adoption of “creativity” within EU policy. (e.g. McRobbie 2002 , von Osten 2007). So far however, within the design discourse, a more critical perspective seems for the most part lacking.

To summarize, it is interesting to note how radical the approach of applying design thinking to spur innovation is. In this light it seems paradoxical that design thinking as a model for innovation is heralded without reservation and with little empirical knowledge backing these claims. The aim of this study is to attempt to fill some of this knowledge vacuum - or more specifically to:

“explore what occurs when design thinking is introduced by a designer as a model for innovation in organizations with little or no previous experience of design.”

This will be done via an experimental empirical project. In this project a learning process with the aim of transferring design thinking to organizations with little or no previous experience of design is modeled on the proposals of design thinking proponents. This experimental project involves four industrial companies and four designers. It has been set up in collaboration with SVID (Swedish foundation for industrial design).

My role and method will be to switch between periods of active participation in the experimental project as “creative director”, and periods of distancing and reflection through an ethnographically inspired approach. This method is modeled on my previous design of and participation in a project on gender and design.

The study is financed by VINNOVA (The Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems).