Design thinking, also known as human-centered design, has been the hot topic as of late, at least among the forward-thinking tech and business scenes. Although the concept has been around for a while, and some of the basic premises have been traditionally known under different names (e.g., market research, R&D), design thinking has come into vogue because of its alternative problem-solving techniques to the scientific method and the popularization of the idea and its related lexicon by IDEO, an award-winning consultancy.

Design Thinking draws upon logic, imagination, intuition, and systemic reasoning, to explore possibilities of what could be, and to create desired outcomes that benefit the end user, i.e., the customer. A design mindset is not problem-focused, it is solution focused and action oriented. It involves both analysis and imagination.

When design principles are applied to strategy and innovation the success rate for innovation dramatically improves. It can be applied to products, services, processes, physical locations… anything that needs to be optimized for human interaction. However, design thinking it is not unerring. In the infographic below you will find four ways in which design thinking can go wrong!