No. 029
Strategy
Design Thinking
Design thinking is a human-centered, iterative approach to problem-solving: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
Why it matters
It gives teams a repeatable way to tackle ambiguous problems by starting with people's needs and learning through quick experiments.
In depth
Popularized by IDEO and the Stanford d.school, design thinking emphasizes empathy, reframing problems, and rapid iteration. Its five phases are non-linear — teams loop back as they learn. It's a mindset as much as a process, applicable well beyond product design.
Real-world example
A hospital team observes patients, reframes the problem, brainstorms ideas, builds a rough prototype, and tests it on the ward.
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