Design theory has been a dominant theory in project management, specifically in new product development projects and engineering projects. It is crystllised in the standard work breakdown structure which reflects the technical dimension of projects of this type. It seems to me that if we view projects as a form of organisation, then they would consist of both a technical and a managerial dimension. The managerial dimension involving human actors for the exeuction of the technical aspects.

Mohamed,

Excellent point.

Thank you,

John

Hi John, Design for X (assembly, disassembly, manufacture, reliability, serviceability, testing etc. ) has been existing for many years and recently, this X is getting expanded with recycling, environment, waste reduction etc. within last decade. Hence, it is not a fad, many companies are using some of these principles already.

Thank you for the awesome feedback.

I corrected a typo on my previous answer, "existing"

Hi John,

Thank you for an interesting question - for all of us practising and researching within the Design Thinking as a discipline, this has been an inquiry of some importance as well.

Existing school such as the Stanford's D-School, and the well-known places such as the IDEO with David Kelly, have of course popularized the approach - and demonstrated value with many successful strategic interventions and impact-based innovations encompassing various projects and initiatives.

The discipline has been sufficiently recognized in not just theory but also in practice that one of our top Canadian business management institutions - the Rotman School of Business - has changed their program to formally introduce some key elements of design-thinking into their curriculum (http://bit.ly/McgUZo). And of course, my own school - the OCAD University - has a rather innovative program we believe, called the Strategic Foresight and Innovation (http://bit.ly/1ut6G84), that takes it a step further and is strongly based around the Design Thinking, Systems Thinking, and Foresight principles.

It would seem that all of these organizations and institutions are to some extent 'betting' that there is indeed something much more systemic at play here - and not just a passing 'fad'.

Perhaps this is a reflection of the changing nature of our current socio-economic and environmental systems, that all appear to be entering a new age of complexity - within which we nevertheless must be able to innovate; not just to stay competitive, but also arguably to be able to successfully align with the needs, capabilities and the 'carrying capacities' of our social and natural ecosystems.

I suppose that one of the primary exciting features of Design Thinking might be just that - that it may help us innovate, while enabling our organizational, partner, customer, social and natural ecosystems to be more sustainable and resilient than where we found them.

The question is - how does this assumption translate to the actual perceptions of value within the real business and management communities, as per your question?

On one hand, it feels as if some leading business organizations have been utilizing the associated tools and methodologies for a while. Others are starting to explore the opportunity - while yet others are trying to get educated about it, and understand the feasibility and potential.

As with any 'paradigm shift', I wonder whether part of the challenge is really communicating what the propositions of the 'new world' of Design Thinking are, and how might we effectively translate them into stories that people and organizations can really understand and resonate with.

On the economic side, Design Thinking as a method seems to hold a lot of potential for not just improving the current products, processes and innovation opportunities, but also for introducing possibilities for emerging entirely new lines of products, business opportunities and innovation, at multiple scales;

Which is certainly, rather exciting!

A last thought (and please excuse the long post) would be to take a look at some 'cutting edge thinking' in Design Thinking (please excuse the pun!) ;) called 'Service Design' -

* Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/service-design

* Intro: http://www.service-design-network.org/intro/

* Book (general): http://www.service-design-network.org/intro/

* Book (healthcare): https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/design-for-care/

* Toolset: http://www.servicedesigntools.org/

* Toolset: http://www.servicedesigntoolkit.org/

It represents a method of thinking about building 'customer centric' organizations, and works in very complex, process-driven environments - whether in Healthcare, Government, new business startups or traditional manufacturing.

Hope you find it useful!

Goran,

Outstanding content! I'm including design thinking into my proposal as I type. From a business discipline it feels like design his trying to stage a comeback. For example consumer product companies (US) have the cash but they are @ adopting consumer centric strategies. Just my perspective from client visits.

Thanks for the post and links.

John

These questions were in  2014 , we are in  2017 , I see design thinking much ahead of the game now ! Is there something much in advance than design thinking now ?

"Thinking" hasn't changed. Only emergent of new technologies make the process of converting this "thinking" into goods and services becoming easier. :)