Design Thinking changes the way we approach innovation because it does not start with a solution. It starts with the customer by understanding their needs, behaviors and the context in which they use something.
IDEO describes it through three perspectives that need to be connected: desirability, feasibility and viability – whether a solution is desirable to customers, feasible from a technology and organizational perspective and viable from a business perspective.
A good customer experience is not just about what the customer wants. It must be possible to deliver it and it must make business sense.
Design Thinking connects these three perspectives.
First Understand, Then Solve
One of the biggest values of Design Thinking is that it forces us to slow down before we start solving the problem.
We do not immediately ask: “What can we do?” Instead, we first ask: “What is actually happening to the customer?”
We observe, talk to customers, listen, research their behavior and try to understand what they do, what matters to them, where they struggle and why they behave the way they do.
Because customers will not give us the solution.
They will tell us the problem.
Our job is to understand what is behind that problem.
This is particularly important in CX because customers may not know how to explain exactly what should be changed but they know very well where the experience creates a problem for them.
We Do Not Just Ask What the Customer Wants. We Ask Why.
If a customer says: “I want another communication channel,” we can give them another channel.
But perhaps the real problem is not the lack of a channel.
Maybe they are not getting an answer quickly enough.
Maybe they have to repeat information.
Maybe they do not know who to contact.
Maybe different channels provide different answers.
If we solve only what the customer has explicitly asked for, we may add another touchpoint without actually solving the problem.
Design Thinking pushes us to go deeper.
We do not just look at what customers ask for or think they need. We try to understand what they actually need.
We try to understand what they are trying to achieve and what is standing in their way.
What About CX?
Design Thinking is particularly useful when we want to improve an experience that involves multiple touchpoints, departments and channels.
It is also a powerful tool for Customer Journey Management, process redesign, new service development and solving complex CX problems.
Companies Use It to Solve Complex Business Problems
IBM has developed Design Thinking into its own Enterprise Design Thinking approach, which it uses across large organizations to better understand customers, align teams around outcomes and iteratively improve experiences.
Frito-Lay, part of PepsiCo, used human-centered design with IBM to improve the experience of its customers and employees in the field. They interviewed managers and followed merchandisers in their day-to-day work to understand real problems before developing solutions.
Zalando partnered with IDEO to launch an innovation studio to build its own design thinking capabilities. Teams from different parts of the company worked together on new products, experiences and ways of working.
And Lincoln Motor Company used Design Thinking and prototyping during the development of new models, bringing together different internal teams and testing real prototypes to improve the experience.
What these examples have in common is not that they had “super creative workshops”.
What they have in common is that they involved real customers and their needs in the process of developing solutions.
Design Thinking Breaks Down One of the Biggest CX Problems – Assumptions
Companies are full of people who know the product. But knowing the product is not the same as knowing what it is like to use it.
We know how the process is supposed to work but the customer knows what it is actually like to successfully get through it from beginning to end.
We know why we created a particular step but the customer knows how much that step makes their life harder.
Design Thinking makes that gap visible.
Not Every Company Needs to Become “Design-Driven”
But every company that wants to seriously understand its customers should adopt at least part of this way of thinking.
You do not need a large innovation lab, ten designers or a multi-month project for every problem.
Start simply:
Go where your customers are.
Observe what they do.
Talk to them.
Define the real problem.
Generate multiple possible solutions.
Build a prototype.
Test it.
Learn from it.
Repeat.
That is far more useful than another meeting where ten people discuss what customers would “probably” want.
Design Thinking Changes the Questions Companies Ask
The greatest value of Design Thinking is not in the methods, tools or Post-it notes.
Its value lies in changing our perspective and the questions we start asking once we change that perspective.
Instead of spending months developing a solution we assume will be useful to the customer, we learn with the customer before investing significant resources in developing the solution.
That Is Why Design Thinking Belongs in CX
Good CX does not happen because we have created a beautiful Customer Journey Map and run another workshop.
It happens when an organization understands its end customers and uses that understanding to design better products, services, processes and experiences.
That is exactly what Design Thinking enables.
It connects the customer, the business and innovation.