Successful design thinkingĪ practical example of the success of design thinking at The Guardian has been the evolution of the navigation on the website. Within these teams each now has a much-improved respect and understanding of the range of skills and how each brings great value to the organisation. Each part of the business is invested in discovering and deploying the solution – from the lofty heights of strategy to the coal face of customer transaction flows. At The Guardian many of the challenges are now tackled from the start with cross-functional teams. It is a process that translates the sometimes disparate languages that different parts of an organisation use to communicate into a single clear narrative that everyone can understand. Internally it is a great way of building collaboration between oft-siloed teams, to create a space for the productive sharing of ideas and building of innovative solutions that have the broadest possible support at their inception. As a process it is a wonderful catalyst for change and evolution. There are several ways of viewing the benefits of design thinking within an organisation. A wonderful catalyst for change and evolution At its best, it is also an iterative and agile process of ongoing experimentation: sketching, prototyping, testing and trying out concepts and ideas. It is extremely useful in tackling problems that are ill-defined or unknown, by re-framing the problem in human-centric ways, developing ideas, and adopting a practical approach in prototyping and testing. It is a process of questioning: questioning the problem, questioning assumptions, and questioning the implications. It helps us observe and develop empathy with our customers. It revolves around a deep interest in developing an understanding of the people for whom we’re designing products or services. More practically it is a methodology used by designers to solve complex problems and find desirable solutions. It used to be de rigueur to call it ‘thinking outside the box’. It is a problem-solving strategy whose focus is to get people to break out of the natural patterns that develop in all of us as we accumulate common knowledge and are manifest in repeated behaviour and decisions based on that accumulated knowledge.
I guess an easy way to begin to understand the value of design thinking is by exploring what it is. How does design thinking benefit an organisation? Design thinking has not only helped them change their funding model and boost revenue but also to adapt their culture and engage on an emotional level with their readers. Here Alex Breuer, Executive Creative Director and Tara Herman, Executive Editor, Design tell us how. Earlier this year The Guardian underwent a rebrand introducing a new font, masthead and a tabloid format.