The impact that design thinking can help us with is not just coming up with better products and services for tomorrow, but in the long term, building a set of durable organizational capabilities that mean we can continue to survive and prosper in the future.
Professor Jeanne Liedtka, of UVA’s Darden School of Business, is a highly influential leader in accelerating the adoption of design thinking & human-centered design methods and helping "non-design thinkers" to understand the value. She specializes in the intersection of innovation and strategy, in particular the integration of design thinking into organizational problem solving processes.
Over the past 6 years, Jeanne conducted a research study exploring cases from over 30 organizations who were using design thinking in practice. She published the analysis of her findings in the report Evaluating the Impact of Design Thinking in Action, which is perhaps the most comprehensive analysis on the impact of design thinking to-date.
Her analysis systematically delineates a framework to calculate the ROI of design thinking, outlined by:
• IDENTIFY the most effective elements practiced under the rubric of “design thinking"
• EXPLORE the elements’ relationship to innovation processes
• ASSESS design thinking’s value for enhancing innovation outcomes
Thinking visually helps us to organize the complexities of Jeanne’s thoughts. We created an infographic to map how the design thinking elements work with their enabling mechanisms to impact specific innovation outcomes. Check it out below.
You can find all of the content from our recent ROI of Design Thinking webinar (hosted by Jeanne Liedtka) on our blog, including the full video recording and presentation deck.