Key principles of Design Thinking

Design thinking isn't a replacement for other problem-solving models, but a distinct approach with its own set of principles.

1. Human-Centricity Over Everything Else

Design thinking prioritizes the human over the product, profit, or market. This contrasts with common business practices that are often regulatory, product, or competition-centric.

Non-human-centric example: An airline flight attendant rushing through emergency exit instructions. The action is regulatory-centric, ensuring compliance, not human-centric, as it doesn't guarantee the passenger understands the instructions.

Human-centric examples:
- Singapore's public transport system is designed for people of all types, including children, the elderly, and those in wheelchairs, making it highly accessible and adopted.
- Japanese public transport is so human-centric that young children can use it by themselves.
- Children's toys are inherently human-centric; a child doesn't need to read a manual because the toy's design facilitates learning through play and trial and error.

A great way to validate if a product is truly human-centric is to give it to a child to use.

2. Thinking Over Designing

The term "design thinking" is a bit of a misnomer. The focus is not on designing a tangible object but on designing your thinking. This challenges the assumption that people naturally become better thinkers just by thinking. Design thinking provides a systematic model for improving one's thought process.

The Tata Nano Case Study: The Tata Nano project was a product of sympathy, not empathy. Ratan Tata saw a family on a bike in the rain and decided they needed a car. The team focused on designing the cheapest car in the world, but they failed to think about the customer's true desires, such as parking space, or priorities, which might have been their daughter's marriage or a better house. A car is an aspirational product, but no one aspires to buy the "cheapest" car. The team's failure was in overemphasizing designing at the expense of thinking.

3. Focus on the Subject, Not the Object

Similar to human-centricity, this principle advocates focusing on the human subject rather than the physical object.

Baby Incubators: In developing countries, many donated, high-tech incubators from the Western Hemisphere are unused because they are complex, expensive to operate, and difficult to maintain. This is a classic example of product-focused thinking.

Embrace Baby Warmer: Instead of improving the incubator (the object), a team focused on the baby (the subject) and its desire for warmth. They created an affordable, quilt-like "baby warmer" that maintains temperature without electricity, allowing the mother to hold the baby, providing a far more enduring solution.

4. Diverge and Converge

Design thinking promotes divergent thinking before convergent thinking. Creativity is about generating many possible answers (divergence), while intelligence is about finding the right one (convergence).

Quantity over Quality: When ideating, the goal is to generate a high quantity of ideas first, as quality ideas often emerge from a large pool of average ones. Combining seemingly unrelated ideas can lead to innovation, such as combining paper and glue to create a Post-it note.

Compartmentalize Your Thinking: This process involves three distinct stages that should be separated:
1. Problem Exploration: Spend time with the problem without immediately jumping to a solution.
2. Solution Generation: Generate multiple ideas without evaluating them.
3. Idea Validation: Select and test the ideas one by one.

5. Go from Symptoms to Root Causes

A good design thinker recognizes that a problem's visible symptoms are not the problem itself. The goal is to go deeper to uncover the root causes.

Traffic Example: Traffic in Bangalore is a symptom, not a problem. Solving the traffic by building a flyover is a local optimization that doesn't address the underlying root causes, which leads to a "perennial bottleneck" elsewhere.

Diabetes Example: Symptoms like frequent thirst and urination are not the problem; they are manifestations of the underlying problem: diabetes. The root causes of diabetes (e.g., lifestyle, genetics) must be identified through diagnostics to truly solve the problem, or it will reoccur.

6. "What Less?" over "What Else?"

Design thinking is about removing complexity and embracing minimalism, which is the opposite of a typical engineering mindset of adding more features.

FAB Model: The FAB model (Features, Advantages, Benefits) illustrates this. While a product may have many features (F), it doesn't necessarily lead to more benefits (B).

Minimalist Examples:
- Apple products are successful because they reduce features to the bare minimum.
- An old VCR remote was bulky and confusing with hundreds of buttons, whereas an Amazon Fire TV stick remote has only a handful of buttons, each serving a purpose.
- The pencil and safety pin have remained timeless because they do one thing well and haven't added unnecessary complexity over centuries.

As the Chinese master Lao Tzu said, "To gain knowledge, add something daily; to gain wisdom, remove something daily".

7. Think with Your Hands

Our minds and hands co-evolved, and to think better, we must use our hands. Engaging in hands-on hobbies like cooking, gardening, or playing a musical instrument can help.

Brain Connectivity: When you use both hands simultaneously (ambidexterity), you develop stronger connections between the left and right halves of your brain via the corpus callosum. Albert Einstein's brain, for example, had a thicker connection than normal, which is attributed to his lifelong practice of playing the violin.

8. Sell the Problem Before the Solution

The problem must be framed as important and legitimate before the solution is presented. A good problem storyteller can capture attention and convey the gravity of the issue.

SCQA Technique: This storytelling technique, developed by Barbara Minto of McKinsey, helps sell a problem.
- S (Situation): Narrate the current situation.
- C (Complication): Explain why this situation is a problem that needs immediate attention.
- Q (Question): State the central question you're trying to answer.
- A (Answer): Present the solution.

9. Visualize Your Thinking

Design thinking encourages visual thinking. Instead of just speaking or writing, expressing ideas through sketching, doodling, or using art supplies makes them more concrete and allows for better collaboration and critique from others.

10. Fail Often to Succeed Sooner

The central tenet of design thinking is not to be right the first time, but to be okay with being wrong. In contrast, traditional quality control methods like Six Sigma aim to be "right first time". Innovation involves failure.

Nature's Model: Nature itself follows a design thinking model. Evolution occurs through constant mutation and testing against the environment. The vast majority of species that have ever existed are now extinct because they were not "fit".

Learning from Failure: You should maximize the number of experiments you can conduct with limited time and money to maximize learning. The real regret in life is not the things you tried and failed at, but the things you never tried at all.

11. Solve With the Customer, Not For Them

Traditional models solve problems on behalf of the customer, but design thinking advocates for co-creation. This requires courage and humility from both the company and the customer.

Mirror Box Example: Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran addressed the "phantom limb" pain of amputees with a simple, elegant solution. Instead of a complex, risky brain surgery, he created a mirror box that tricks the brain into seeing a reflection of the intact limb, which relieves the pain permanently. This solution was developed with the customer, not just for them.

12. Think Beyond Products

Companies should not be obsessed with products but should think about the complete experience from the customer's perspective.

Royal Enfield: Buying a Royal Enfield is not just about a product; it's about a complete lifestyle and brand experience, including accessories and a sense of belonging.

Asian Paints: This company transformed from a paint seller to a "home-making company" by providing a full ecosystem of services, including certified painters and interior designers.

13. Striking a Balance (The Venn Diagram)

A winning idea is the sweet spot where three crucial conditions overlap.

Human Desirability: What people need or desire.

Technical Feasibility: What is technically possible to build.

Business Viability: What makes business sense and is profitable.

Example of Success: Big Basket, a grocery delivery company, succeeded by balancing all three. It was desirable (home delivery), feasible (they had a system for delivery), and viable (they maintained profitability through deep analytics and a disciplined approach).

14. B2H (Business to Human) over B2B/B2C

The distinction between Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) is becoming obsolete. All companies should now operate as Business-to-Human (B2H).

Volvo Example: Although Volvo is a B2B company that sells buses to transport departments, its success depends on thinking like a B2C company. It considers the comfort and experience of the end-user (the passenger) by focusing on factors like seat recline, suspension, and TV units. Ford, in contrast, failed in the Indian market because it was so product-focused that it expected consumers to change their habits to suit the product's design.