“While there is no one best way to move through the process of design thinking, there are useful starting points and landmarks. It’s best to think of design thinking as a system of overlapping spaces rather than a sequence of steps.” (p.16) In reflecting on work/life applications of this concept, it all makes sense, especially those instances that were more successful than others. As an example, I can offer the process of developing a figure skating routine. Starting points can be the beginning of a season, after qualifying competitions and nationals. Other starting points can be choosing music, the first competition of the season, or a test session. A non-linear process is crucial at each of these stages, especially if it allows you to loop back to find a new idea or direction. (p.17) One year, I struggled creatively and technically to create a program to Heart’s Magic Man. Frustrated, my coach had me put some music on and warm up while she mentally attempted to work out how to fix it. I had put on the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper album and was gliding through a few moves in the field while listening to Within You Without You. Something clicked for both of us, and we started over at the music selection landmark, adapting the old choreography to a new program.
At the core of design thinking are the concepts of inspiration, ideation, and implementation. (p.16) There are concepts within this process that scare me a little, that being failing early and chaos (p.17). I was raised to get it right the first time and while I don’t have OCD, I prefer order and cleanliness, especially if I have a lot on my to-do list. But that is where if I’m working on a team, a little of that pressure is off, if you are working on a team that values collaboration, is a safe place, encourages collective ownership of ideas, and enables teams to learn from one another (p.17). In my past experiences, these collaborations are rare, but when done correctly, amazing things are possible. An instance I can think of in my past was brainstorming a huge ad meant for one of the festivals in downtown Grand Rapids, our company as the title sponsor. The goal was to break the typical corporate sponsor pat on the back and tie our product with the festival in a way that was organic and celebratory. Another writer and I shared the opportunity and spent the afternoon generating and testing our ideas. When we finally hit upon the idea of gardening as art, we made parallels between paints and plants, brushes and brooms, we took our ideas to the managers, who implemented the concepts into the sponsorship ads, enabling all the teams - from writers to managers, to designers - to be a part of the successful campaign.
I have to devote at least one paragraph to the example on page 18, citing Target’s success in bringing design within reach of the broader population. It is serendipitous that the concept of human-centered design thinking would align so well with my experiential learning project, examining the processes of a freecycle community. My closet purge the first week of class began with me debating the fate of a pair of Target Missoni flats! I debated whether to repair, throw away, or gift. I developed a framework around these shoes: my desire to keep them, if it was feasible to bother repairing them, and I had the ability to repair them (viable). (p.19) This decision played itself out over and over with every item that was purged from my closet. And each of those items then was offered on freecycle, the process of design thinking starting all over again.
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