Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers

by Jeanne Liedtka, Tim Ogilvie, Nicol Zanzarella (Narrator)

Liedtka and Ogilvie cover the mind-set, techniques, and vocabulary of design thinking; unpack the mysterious connection between design and growth; and teach managers, in a straightforward way, how to exploit design's exciting potential. Exemplified by Apple and the success of their elegant products, and cultivated by high-profile design firms such as IDEO, design thinking unlocks creative right-brain capabilities to solve a range of problems. This approach has become a necessary component of successful business practice, helping managers turn abstract concepts into everyday tools that grow business while minimizing risk.

Genres: Business, Design, Nonfiction, Leadership, Management, Entrepreneurship, Art Design

7 pages, Audible Audio

First published May 6, 2011

About the author

ِAn American strategist and professor of business administration at the Darden School of the University of Virginia, particularly known for her work on strategic thinking, design thinking and organic growth.

Reviews

[Aaron Bolin · Rating 3 out of 5]

My expectations for this book were quite high -- I wanted the promised thinking tool kit for managers in a fun-to-read package as advertised in the book title.

I was a little disappointed. It is a good read, and the authors did a nice job of making the book visually compelling. I was disappointed in the depth of the content though. The authors presented what I felt was a very surface-level explanation of the design process. The primary "tool" was a phased approach to design that separated creativity from concept development from sales pitch: not exactly a revolutionary design strategy.

I am struggling a little bit with the question "who would I recommend the book to?" It is generally well-written, and the illustrative stories are also kind of interesting. In all fairness, some of the organizing outlines are also useful. However, it is too surface-level to be useful to an expert audience, and it won't really help novice designers grow in expertise.

This book could be useful as a group read. For example, I could imagine a professional design group reading this book together (like a book discussion group) as a way to explore their own thoughts about the design process. For most everyone else, I would not recommend this volume.

[Shahab · Rating 2 out of 5]

این فرایند تفکر طراحی است چهار پرسش ده ابزار و ابزارهای مدیریت پروژه
این همه چیزی است که در آن وجود دارد.
پرسش ها
۱- چه چیزی شگفت آور است؟
۲- چه وضعیتی هست؟
۳- چه میشود اگر ؟
۴- چه چیزی جواب میدهد؟
ابزارها
۱- بصری سازی: استفاده از تصاویر برای تجسم امکانهای مختلف و حیات بخشیدن به آنها
۲- ترسیم مسیر تجربه مشتری: ارزیابی تجربه موجود از نگاه مشتری
۳- تحلیل زنجیره ارزش: ارزیابی زنجیره ارزش فعلی که تأمین کننده مسیر تجربه مشتری است.
۴- ترسیم نقشه ذهنی: استخراج بینش از فعالیت های اکتشافی و به کار بردن آن برای ایجاد معیارهای طراحی
۵- بارش فکری: خلق امکانهای جدید و مدلهای کسب و کار جدید
۶- توسعه مدل مفهومی: گرد هم آوردن اجزای نوآورانه در راه حلی جدید و منسجم که امکان بررسی و ارزیابی داشته باشد
۷- آزمون پیش فرض: مجزا کردن و آزمودن پیش فرض های اساسی که موفقیت یا شکست مدل مفهومی را سبب میشوند
۸- نمونه سازی سریع: بیان مدل مفهومی جدید در قالبی ملموس به منظور بررسی آزمایش و بهبود
۹- هم آفرینی با مشتریان: استفاده از مشتریان به منظور مشارکت در خلق راه حلی که به بهترین شکل نیازهایشان را برآورده می سازد
۱۰- عرضه اولیه به منظور یادگیری: ایجاد آزمایشی ارزان که به مشتریان اجازه دهد راه حل جدید را در بازه زمانی طولانی تر تجربه کنند، آزمودن پیش فرضهای اساسی با داده های بازار

[Neda · Rating 4 out of 5]

طراحی، اوج هنر ذهن است. ذهنی که طراحی می کند یعنی از هیچ، چیزی می سازد. و طراح کسی ست که قدرت خلق دارد و از خلق کردن، لذت می برد.
تفکر طراحی، تکنیک نیست، روش هم نیست بلکه مهارت ذهنی است. ذهنی که قابلیت طراحی دارد می تواند میان پدیده ها ارتباط برقرار کند، نظم بدهد، پدیدههای جدید را تصور کند و فضاهای خالی ذهن را پر کند، خود را به جای دیگران قرار دهد و از منظر آنها پدیده ها را مشاهده کند، از خود منتزع شود، طرح بزند و بسازد. از متن کتاب

من طراح ام.

[Mohamed · Rating 4 out of 5]

ترجمش افتضاح بود. فوق افتضاح

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

ну наконец-то я тебя закончила, Откровение Капитана Очевидности

мусолила месяц, отлынивала и перепрыгивала через страницы. отметила закладками три места в книге - и это всё, что в принципе стоило бы читать (там были пошаговые инструкции некоторых процессов). всё остальное - вода, констатация общеизвестного, скучные до слёз примеры и рассусоливание. местами казалось, что авторы пишут для умственно отсталых. впрочем, знаю много менеджеров, у которых интеллектуальное развитие на уровне умственно отсталых, так что может быть реально попали в ЦА

[Ehsan Karimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

توقع کتاب جذاب‌تری و داشتم، کیفیت ترجمه هم میتونست خیلی بالاتر باشه

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the first book recommendations from the Singularity University that I actually jumped on. Of course, I’m super late to this party. Turns out my colleagues in Design and Visual Communication have been teaching whole courses on this topic.

That said, it has been a minute since I finished this book, and I am ALREADY adopting techniques and behaviors the book relates and it all starts with these four questions:
What is?
What if?
What wows?
What works?

These are convergent divergent and once again convergent moments in the process of innovation. The best thing is, this structure can be more or less utilized in many many contexts - in no particular order: Art, Team/Personal Projects, Teams, Self/Business Improvement, Creativity, Education, Innovation, Immersion, Artificial Intelligence. Ugh…

I love that the authors frame design as a type of future thinking. That ‘Innovation is born out of discontent,’ in the same vein as ‘Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken.’ I immediately used parts of this book in an important email, and then utilized it on a collaborative team that I was invited to join! They’re in on it- even though they shouldn’t be, but I’m not the manager or leader so I figure inviting them to this process (as teachers) isn’t bad.

The main takeaways:
-Innovation/Invention is all about visualization.
-Storytelling is key! (Supplement this with data.)
-Journey-mapping and Personas are ways to understand
-Assumptions help develop design criteria; but they need to be tested in a group
-There are tons of team building, mangagment, and interview techniques.


I’m sure there are more cool things… but you get the idea?

[Mohammad · Rating 3 out of 5]

می‌شد خیلی مختصرتر باشه.

[Ali Arabzadeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

اولین واکنش من در هنگام خواندن این کتاب حس آشنایی با روش‌ها و آموزه‌هایش البته اغلب ذیل عناوین دیگر بود. در واقع به نظر می‌رسد، گذشته از سرچشمه‌های تفکر طراحی، آموزه‌هایش در بدنه‌ی کسب‌وکار به معنای متاخرش که استارتاپ یکی از صورت‌های آن است، رسوخ کرده و ما مصرف‌کننده و مواجه با آن‌ها هستیم.
زیرعنوان فارسی کتاب این است: «جعبه ابزاری برای راه‌حل‌هایی خلاق» ولی بصیرت دیگری که عاید من شد درست خلاف این است. یعنی چیزی که دست‌گیرم شد این بود که مهم‌تر از روش‌ها و ابزارهای طراحی که در کتاب درباره‌ش حرف زده می‌شود، مجموعه‌ای از رویکردها و مدل‌های ذهنی وجود دارد که با اتکای به آن‌ها هدف اصلی طراحی یعنی ساختن همدلانه محقق می‌شود و اتفاقاً این جعبه‌ابزار نقش محوری‌ای ندارد.
ترجمه متاسفانه مثل شیشه‌ی معوجی عمل می‌کند که اتفاقا فهم متن را سخت می‌کند و به نظرم مهم‌ترین مسئله‌ ترجمه‌ی تحت‌الفظی‌ست که از اشتباهات مترجمان تازه‌کار و ناآشنا با ادبیات متن است. ظاهراً ترجمه‌های آریانا پابه‌پای کتاب‌سازی‌های غیرکاربردی‌ای که مخل مطالعه می‌شود قرار است در فهم متن اختلال ایجاد کند.

[Adoptry · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a former management consultant, my dominant thinking is left-brained, linear, and very structured. However, through a 7+ year career post MBA, I found that I was weak when it came to generating creative yet business value generating ideas. I took up Prof. Liedtka's Coursera class on Design Thinking to supplement my arsenal of skills and found the design thinking approach in this book to be a great complement to my existing skill set.

The book is simple to read and understand; plenty of illustrative examples bring the principles to life and impart a basic understanding of how to apply principles to a real world situation. But as the book concludes, design doing is more important than merely design thinking so now to march forth and apply these in those situations which can benefit from a different problem solving approach than the B-school "case method".

[Farhad Azadjou · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب تفكر طراحي در كسب و كار براي من مثل كتاب هاي برايان تريسي بود. يك فضاي فكري رو ترسيم ميكرد و به تحليل فوايد اون مي پرداخت. پياده سازي بعضي از اون گفته ها در كسب و كار در ايران سخت هست. ولي نكته جالب براي من اين بود كه تو شركت هاي چابك نا خودآگاه ميزاني از تفكر طراحي وجود دارد.
اين كتاب رو به كساني كه فراغت دارند و زمان كافي پيشنهاد ميكنم. ولي انتظار مطالب طلايي از كتاب نداشته باشين

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm reading this book for my online Design thinking class, am learning a lot from the course and forum thread discussions.

[Vibhor Jain]

The modern business conducting methodologies have definitely changed the landscape of how the industry works today. The ecosystem of combining market research with lean management techniques have come a long way in minimising the scope of error across multiple façade of business zone, around the world. Who would had thought that corporates would become so customer centric that before even launching any product, the co-creation with consumers would become such an important point that they would invite a set of diverse audience to come and judge their product long before it’s launch?

Such is the disruption in marketplace that 100% of the consumer product companies are monitoring each and every expression of the people testing their prototypes from behind the glass wall. So, essentially this is the new normal. And if this is the new normal then what would be the fate of innovation in future? What would an organization do to stand apart from the competition? How would they understand the consumer even better?

Some of such worrisome questions are being answered by the book “Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers” authored by Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie. Before hopping onto the book, it is my fiduciary duty to introduce the concept of ‘Design Thinking’ to people like me who had no idea about this technique before. Design thinking is a strategic and practical tool to innovate existing process and develop new concepts by using creative techniques to achieve goals & transform the future. In a nutshell, it is the answer to all the questions posted above.


For the complete review, visit: https://afictionaltale.wordpress.com/...

[Tony Filonov · Rating 2 out of 5]

F*** this book, why I even thought I should read this or it may be useful for growing as a designer? That’s why you should add notes on “who and why and when recommended this” to every book you add to your “read later” list.

As for the book itself: just a generic description of corporate design process which pretends to be an innovative way of thinking about design at your company. But if you “know the difference between UX and UI” or/and work at a company which even tries to think of itself as of progressive one — you would waste time reading this.

Sure the ideas are not wrong, but they are dry, surface level, corporate and already generic and definitely irrelevant for anything that I do or might do as a professional. I’m too lazy to even continue listening to it in an audio format. Narrator not being the author doesn’t help either.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great primer on design thinking

If you look up design thinking on Google images, you'll see something with a bunch of hexagons or circles that each represent a step in the process. That part is pretty easy to find. The not so easy part to find is what each of those steps consist of. This book will help fill that void, and will provide some tools you can use to complete each of the steps of the design thinking process. I use the word process loosely, because as with any creative endeavor, there is a certain level of flexibility required as you move along.

I would mostly recommend this for those who are newer to design thinking.

[Mandana Nouri · Rating 4 out of 5]

همون طور که روی جلد کتاب درج شده، این کتاب نوعی "جعبه ابزار" هست.
به نظرم کتابیه که یک بار باید خونده بشه و بعدا جهت یادآوری بهش مراجعه بشه (مثال های جالبی داره که یک بار خوندنشون خالی از لطف نیست) .
ممکنه کلی جرقه در ذهن خواننده راجع به طراحی خدمت و محصول زده بشه و سرنخ های زیادی رو برای مطالعه بیشتر میده. گرچه فکر میکنم اگر خواننده پیش از این هم راجع به مفاهیم بیان شده در این کتاب مطالعه داشته باشه، این کتاب به خودی خود خیلی حرف جدیدی برای گفتن نخواهد داشت.
قسمت هایی از کتاب، بعضی از مفاهیم رو چندبار توضیح داده که به نظرم یک یا دوبار اشاره کفایت میکرد و میشد که خلاصه تر باشه.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a decent overview of how to design a product with the consumer in mind. The authors don't clearly define "design thinking" but I think that's what they mean.

The authors provide a nine-step path for product development, from putting yourself in the customer's shoes to a soft launch of your product. They ask four questions along the way - what is (problem statement), what if, what wows, and what works? It seems like pretty reasonable stuff.

I finished the book without any strong takeaways...

[Maralise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love and use the concepts of design thinking in my day-to-day. And I'm so grateful for the resources provided here and elsewhere, particularly those out of UVA Darden. I do find, however, that much of design thinking education materials are 'over designed'- meaning that most applications of design thinking are far simpler than those outlined and the perceived complexity (bolstered by how academics talk about it and how their books are written) lessens design thinking's potential impact.

[Tommy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to like design books so badly, but I am having a hard time. This book started off strong by describing design thinking, but got really prescriptive, really fast. In retrospect, I'm having a hard time picking out novel and useful concepts differing from AGILE thinking and Lean Startup methodology.

I do think there are a few concepts in this book--a few tools rather--that I may revisit.

[George Velez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whoa! What a deep study of a cohesive way to structure growth with a design basis. This is the perfect framework and set of tools any leader seeking true scalable growth should be using. Wonderful information and so creatively exposed. Loved the images and colors and the way the information was displayed on the pages.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this as a supplement to the MOOC run out of Darden. The subject matter was great, and the format helped with placing the learning into action. I felt there were too many stories, and many of them unqualified, and uninteresting.

[Shrikant Navelkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent primer for your first "dive in" in Design Thinking concepts. The book scores high because it is based on successful case studies of Design Thinking. I am sure you will be able to relate at least one of them with your problem.

[Partha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend that this book be read right after Tim Brown's 'Change by design'. When observed together they form a strong base for design thinking driven work. By itself this book is direct and crisp to follow.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good supplement to an online course. This is just an introduction to the subject. But it does have some pointers and some tings I could try now at work. The authors suggest you start small until you get familiar with the process.

[Juan Manuel Vera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good, very complete

This really is an excellent book. You can learn from source of design thinking. The tools are very well explained, the home exercises help you to better understanding of concepts. I really enjoy the actual stories about design thinking implementation.

[Satyajit Lele · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book, even if you don’t have intentions of doing design thinking, the book offers quite a lot of useful tools and techniques which we can use in our professions. You need not be working on a life changing project, the tools and techniques are pretty much practical and useful even on a routine project.

[Sara (onourshelves) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great read for individuals who are new to the design thinking process--It is short, clear, and explains both why and how to do design thinking. I am thinking about purchasing it as a reference book for work.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

READ SEP 2021

Well done piece that would benefit any manager regardless of function. My focus was on how design thinking can be integrated into learning and development projects. I believe it pares well will the ADDIE model and rapid development approaches for L&D.

[Anu George · Rating 4 out of 5]

some good tools on how to practice design thinking. Also liked the model of Design for Growth .. what is, what if, what wows, what now

[Sertaç Mustafaoglu · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are very useful tools and tips for managers and designers who want to establish better relationships with managements, clients.