The outline presentation for a talk I gave at a Design Thinking Conclave in Lavasa, near Pune. The conclave was organized by MIT Institute of Design (http://www.mitid.edu.in/) to restructure their Design Management curriculum. Other speakers included Design Professors and Professionals from Consulting and Design Firms with Phds and Masters Degrees in design. I was the odd one out! :-) Friday, March 12, 2009

1. A SPLASH OF CYNICISM
What is all this hype about
“design thinking?”

2. HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL was
recently named one of the TOP 10
DESIGN SCHOOLS by BusinessWeek

3. Roger Martin’s “DESIGN OF BUSINESS”
is probably the most talked about
Design Book of last year

4. Every DESIGN SCHOOL wants to
launch a MANAGEMENT course
*Business Schools in India haven’t caught up with
their own DESIGN courses yet!

5. Yet, a “DESIGN MANAGEMENT”
student recently told me that she’d
learnt how to “MANAGE DESIGNERS”
and she can “Understand them better”!

6. DESIGNERS are HUMAN
They don’t think differently,
they think DIFFERENT things
How can I make this look better?
How can I make it easier to use?
How can I make this less cluttered?

7. The current curriculum is designed to
make Designers into pseudo-MBAs and
everyone else into pseudo-designers.
NEITHER IS A GOOD IDEA.

8. “DESIGN THINKING”
IS TOO ABSTRACT
What are its practical applications? Service Design? Experience Design?
Product Innovation? Designing Business Models? Retail Design?

9. What do WALL CLOCKS and
FLOOR TILES have in common?

10. An UNEDUCATED BUSINESSMAN
from Gujarat knows the answer...
*But he’ll laugh you out of his factory if you harass him with
“Design Thinking” Jargon!

11. STRATEGIC DESIGN INTEGRATIV
SENSORY BRANDING
DISTRIBUTED DESIGN THIINKING
MANAGEMEENT PROBLEM SOLVIN
CREATIVE LEAPS METHODS
RIGHT-BRAINED HUMAN CENTER
DESIGN
VISIONARIES EMPATH
DESIGN ECONO
MANAGEMENT
DES
N MINDED
RESE
ESIGN
ROI
GO EASY ON THE
JARGON!

12. PRACTICE
Innovation PRACTICE
cannot be PRACTICE
learnt in a PRACTICE
classroom, PRACTICE
ONLY BY PRACTICE
PRACTICE

13. A MODEL FOR TEACHING
Design Thinking and Innovation
A not-for-profit organization that brings professionals from
technology, design, marketing, academics... and asks them
to develop a business prototype over a weekend

14. Make teams of 5 STUDENTS
from different disciplines and make
them work on a REAL BUSINESS
EVERY WEEK, followed by
A WEEK IN THE CLASSROOM
where the Professor analyses
their progress and teaches the
part of the subject relevant to
their business stage. THAT’S IT.