1.
Design Thinking 101
Natalie Nixon, PhD
Innovation Strategist & President
Figure 8 Thinking, LLC
www.figure8thinking.com
natalie@figure8thinking.com

2.
Rules of Engagement
1. Blue Sky Thinking
2. Quantity over Quality
3. Suspend Judgement
4. Show me, Don’t tell me
5. Time is a Constraint for
Creativity

3.
What do people actually need…
and want?

4.
“If you want to plan for
change, you’ve got to
change the way you
plan.”
Mickey Munley

5.
Adapted from Sabine Junginger & the Design Management Institute
The DMI Design Value Scorecard (2013)
Becoming a Design Thinking Led Organization
Aesthetics
Function
Project Basis
Labs & Centers
Team Basis
Budget Growth
Seniority &
Support
Review &
Performance
Business
Model

6.
Backcast +
Hindsight
Forecast +
Foresight
Get Out The
Building
Qual + Quant
Design thinking makes an organization more agile because
of its temporal + spatial dimensions. -Source: Natalie Nixon

7.
THE FUTURE OF WORK...

8.
“We must be
adaptive, resilient,
curious, open-source
problem solvers.”
-Natalie Nixon, PhD

9.
Jerry Hirshberg’s
“creative abrasion”

10.
“Design is the art &
science of cutting cubes
out of fog.”
-Larry Keeley, The Doblin Group/Deloitte

11.
1: DESIGNERS ARE CHANGE AGENTS

12.
2: DESIGN IS A METHOD OF INQUIRY

13.
WHAT IS DESIGN THINKING?

14.
A problem
framing/solving
process.

15.
Strategy is about re-framing.
A good strategy reconnects
the dots between disparate ideas
to create value.
Thus, design thinking (a re-framing process)
is critical to building new value during
a time of transformation.

16.
50%
Ethnography/
Qualitative
Research
50%
application of
design principles
DESIGN
THINKING

17.
“Design thinking transfers the
problem solving process that
designers use, to the design of
a service, an experience, a
process, or a system.”
-Natalie W. Nixon, PhD

18.
Lead with inquiry:
“What business are we in?”

19.
What
is?
What
works?
What
wows?
What
if?
...What’s next?
Source: Jeanne Liedtka et al

20.
WHAT
IF?
HOW?
WHY?
Source: Warren Berger, A More Beautiful Question

21.
... IN THEORY

22.
... IN PRACTICE

23.
Source:
Damien Newman, The Central Office of Design

24.
METRICS
EMOTIONAL
SOCIAL
FUNCTIONAL

25.
METRICS
DESIRABLE VIABLE
FEASIBLE

26.
EDUCATION
design thinking in action

27.
GOVERNMENT
design thinking in action

28.
Source: Dan Roam

29.
What was in place in all of the prior examples?
● Commit to integrate design thinking leadership
● Training, Development & Performance Review
● A long horizon

30.
3 things you can start doing to integrate design
thinking.
1. Doodle- Visualize data- insist on a show me
don’t just tell me culture
2. Thought diversity- Insist on mixed meetings
(note Jerry HIrshberg, former President of
Nissan Design)
3. Story Systems- Acknowledge that stories are
data too- integrate quantitative & qualitative.

31.
Read 😊:
Strategic Design Thinking-
Innovation in Products,
Services, Experiences and
Beyond
Edited by Natalie Nixon

32.
THANK YOU!
Natalie Nixon, PhD
@natwnixon
natalie@figure8thinking.com