How design thinking can shape your business idea

Design thinking is a solution-based approach to problem-solving. It is a process that draws upon logic, imagination, intuition, and systematic reasoning, to solve complex problems by exploring possibilities of what could be and create desired outcomes that benefit the end-user (customer). Solonia Teodros, co-founder of The Change School*, breaks down the science of design thinking and how any professional can benefit from it.

antler

Author

Antler

The investor backing the world's most driven founders, from day zero to greatness. Enabling thousands of founders every year to launch and scale companies that move the world forward.

Design thinking can be leveraged as a business practice when shifting focus towards what people need, to observe them in their natural environment, to understand their lives, develop empathy, and uncover latent needs.

 "A lot of times people don't know what they want until you show it to them"  

— STEVE JOBS

Two side-by-side infographics showing the difference between Business Thinking and Design Thinking

Design thinking as a practice

 A mindful practice of designing, developing and delivering products or services by:

  • Focusing on the customer - Understand their behaviour (what, when, where, why, how)
  • Establishing clear objectives - Aligned to customer needs (not just business goals)
  • Tapping into creativity - Encouraging collaboration and dialogue in the design and development phase
  • Rapid development and iteration - Embracing failure as an option
  • Listening to customer feedback - Refining solutions to best meet the needs of  your customers
  • Design thinking as a method

    Human-centered design involves a different starting point in the creation process. When evaluating new ideas, instead of asking "Can it be done?" or "Will it make money?", a design thinking approach forces you to first address what people need. It's about observing people in their environments to understand their lives, develop empathy, and uncover latent needs  (anthropology). Good methods include co-design sessions, user research, interviews, and more.

    Design thinking as a mindset

    This brooches the topic of how to look at challenges around us. It is important to look at the world with a fresh sense of curiosity. Be a keen observer and pay close attention to the finer details. Frequently question why things are the way they are, or why people behave the way they do. Never accept a way of life purely through comfort and familiarity. A strong sense of empathy is also key in understanding the people you are designing for and seeing the world from their perspective. Challenging your assumptions about the status quo to explore: "How can this be done better?"

    A good example of adopting this mindset is through this exercise. When tasked to draw an image of gifts, most people would draw box shaped presents. However, in reality people rarely ever give and receive gifts which conform to a box. Similarly, it's more relevant to try drawing a gift which you have actually received. Through this same thinking, there is a need to integrate design thinking into thought processes and business plans to ensure they are relevant and rightfully serve a need.

    An Infographic containing a venn diagram explaining the importance of big picture thinking in Design

    Solonia shares some valuable tools to enable design thinking. Visualisation or visual thinking pushes us beyond words to think nonverbally. Mind mapping is used to connect ideas, categorise them, and look for patterns and insights for key design criteria. Journey mapping traces the customer's "journey" when  receiving a service, focusing on emotional highs and lows. Value chain  analysis understands how an organization interacts with value chain partners to produce, market and distribute new offerings. Rapid prototyping allows us to make abstract new ideas tangible to potential partners and customers.

    It is important to note that what we call a "problem" is often more a  symptom of an underlying cause. When we dive in too quickly to fix a symptom,  the effect will eventually come back or happen again. Instead, we need to  address the root cause to create innovative solutions and design for change.  

    — SOLONIA TEODROS

    *The Change School is an institution for embracing and navigating through change. They have enabled 1,000 plus people using products and tools, transformational experiences and online courses.

    Subscribe to our newsletter

    Get the latest news and views from Antler’s global community

    Thank you! Your submission has been received!
    Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

    Must-read articles from Antler

    Browse our collection of founder stories, industry insights and latest startup successes from Antler Australia

    See articles
    Founder Stories
    5 min read
    Sharon Li & Vanessa Chen: Empowering employees to be their healthiest and most productive selves

    “People sometimes think the emotional and professional are conflicting, but what we believe is when people love their organization, the emotional value will actually make them productive. It will make them give their full self to the organization and make the organization grow for the long term.” —Sharon Li, co-founder and CEO of CHOYS

    Founder Stories
    5 min read
    Piet Hein van Dam: The seasoned data entrepreneur aiming to eradicate type 2 diabetes

    Our content series "It All Starts with People" delves into the passions, motivations, and vision of the exceptional founders we have the privilege of partnering with around the world. Bringing a clarity of vision to our latest spotlight is Piet Hein van Dam, co-founder of Clear, the award-winning digital self-help tool for diabetes patients.

    Insights
    5 min read
    Unpacking the $80+ billion ONDC opportunity: India’s next startup catalyst

    India's approach to unbundle payments made the world look up and take notice. Now it's time to disrupt commerce with the Open Network for Digital Commerce or ONDC. In our latest Theory of Next deep dive we mapped, researched, and reached out to every network participant live on ONDC right now.


    And we're excited to share with you a comprehensive what could be India's next unicorn catalyst with inputs from Vibhor Jain (COO of ONDC), Sujith Nair (Founding member of Beckn Protocol), and founders building on ONDC!

    Co-authored by Nitin Sharma (Partner, Antler) and Gokul Kumaravelu.

    Insights
    5 min read
    Five steps investors can take to support more diverse founders

    Despite growing calls to create a more inclusive venture capital ecosystem and remove the barriers to entrepreneurship, only a fraction of funding is raised by founders from underrepresented communities.

    The first step towards change is quantifying the challenge. While in-depth research has been conducted about women founders and founders from ethnic minority backgrounds, data has never existed about tech founders from the LGBTQ+ community—until now.

    Insights
    5 min read
    A record year for Europe's leading day zero investor

    A look back at 2022, a record year for the leading day zero investor in Europe—showcasing investment activity and key predictions for the early-stage tech ecosystem in 2023.

    Founder Stories
    5 min read
    Antler and Microsoft for Startups partner to back women founders

    Antler is proud to join forces with Microsoft for Startups to support rising entrepreneurs—starting with 23 non-dilutive grants to women founders in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and North America—and reduce the barriers to startup success. Meet some of these founders.

    Founder Stories
    5 min read
    Tanika McLeod: The educator empowering the next generation with an on-demand social learning platform

    Our content series—"It All Starts with People"—delves into the passions, motivations, and vision of the exceptional founders we have the privilege of partnering with around the world. In our latest spotlight, we spoke with Tanika McLeod, one of the three co-founders behind MinuteSkill, a Toronto-based social micro-learning platform that uses bite-sized content and knowledge-sharing communities to empower the next generation.

    Insights
    5 min read
    Venture capital as an engine of positive transformation

    Antler's second annual ESG and Impact Report shares learnings on how VCs can focus on creating sustainable value from the outset, and celebrates our portfolio companies' work in this space.