{"id":23657,"date":"2017-04-11T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.crowdspring.com\/?p=23657"},"modified":"2025-06-18T15:40:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T20:40:46","slug":"how-to-use-design-thinking-to-innovate-your-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crowdspring.com\/blog\/how-to-use-design-thinking-to-innovate-your-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Use Design Thinking to Innovate Your Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Creative people are often viewed as mysterious, whimsical, and ineffable creatures. <\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, the innovation and solutions creativity generates have incredible value. <\/span><\/p>\n

What if I told you that there is a method to the madness? That you, too, can innovate and problem-solve with the best of them?<\/span><\/p>\n

Enter \u201cDesign Thinking,\u201d a strategic method used every day by designers and creatives. <\/span><\/p>\n

Design Thinking is a methodology used by designers to solve complex problems for clients. <\/span><\/p>\n

Or, as I learned to think of it when I was getting my degree in design: \u201cThe Process.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What exactly is the process? While there\u2019s plenty of wiggle room within the basic structure, it boils down to just four basic steps: empathize, brainstorm, prototype, and test.<\/strong>
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\nThe design thinking process may have originated with designers, but the business world has started to take notice because of the agility, speed, and innovation that it promises. <\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at several companies that have embraced design thinking to great effect and how you can, too.
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1. Empathize<\/b><\/h2>\n

It all starts with empathy.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStrategic design thinking has one single goal: to understand and solve a problem for its consumer,\u201d \u00a0says <\/span>Rakia Reynolds of Skai Blue Media<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

To understand and solve a problem, one must start by empathizing with the people who are experiencing that problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Successful entrepreneurs succeeded, in part, because they fully understood the problem they were solving. Before writing a business plan<\/a> and long before starting a business<\/a>, they conducted market research, talked to potential customers, and carefully assessed the depth and breadth of the problem and the people who experienced that problem.<\/p>\n

Even established businesses can turn things around by embracing this form of thinking.<\/p>\n

Dutch fabric manufacturer <\/span>Vlisco <\/span><\/a>was a company in danger until their design thinking team discovered new avenues for business growth by empathizing with their consumers. Vlisco products had dominated the African fashion textile market for most of their roughly 170 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

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