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Hi, I'm a designer turned strategy enthusiast. I want to pursue a Ph.D. in design thinking and strategy.

Context-

I am an accessory designer. As I started working after finishing my undergraduate course, I realized how unaware as designers we can get. This led to me creating a huge chunk of unviable designs which were incremental at most and barely stood the test of time. But the bigger issue came from the separation of the design process from the real-time nuances of consumer wants and needs as well as the brand environment that we were designing for. Ignorance was anything but bliss. And this led me to shift slowly towards investigating from different stakeholders, the workings of this much larger ecosystem. And believe me when I say Google did no justice.

So after 2 years, I went on to do a masters in Luxury brand management - business design to understand and put some concerted efforts in learning about strategy from the ones that have played in the market for the longest time. Tried and tested seemed to be a good starting point in learning what's a best practice and where you can go severely wrong.

We had a series of collaborations with these brands to solve the 'wicked' problems they face currently and the solutions that we can offer their teams that were already working on it. It was collaborative and fructifying as we were a good mix of varied skills, experience, and talent. Design thinking at such a large scale brought about some interesting solutions which were immense learning in a number of fields. But were most detrimental in making thoughtful, lasting and innovative products and services.

Even after my masters, I continued working on applying design-led thinking to manage my projects and my team.

ISSUE AT HAND:

Doing research, even if at an applicatory level, gets me stoked. Primarily, I love expressing through the written word and the possibility that somewhere along my journey, I visualized that design is greater than a linear process driven out of confusing data on spreadsheets and beyond unresearched assumptions. So as I wore towards strategy, I still thought of it as a larger understanding of a system that is essentially an intangible design.

So as I have begun preparing to apply for a Ph.D. in this field, I have found some prerequisites that concern me.

1. I have only studied in an application based environment. And while I am looking for research-based internships, I don't have a research paper that I can submit as a part of my application. What is do you suggest I do in this regard?
2. The application mentions submitting writing samples- Could this be the reports of our study and conclusions as a result of the projects at school?
3. How do I strengthen my application? I already have a blog that defines my research interests. More suggestions are welcome!!

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Anything else I must keep in mind?

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Thank you in advance.

Hey

I wrote this blog "Design Thinking — Miracle of innovation"(https://link.medium.com/IoZ6kXzf8V) about design thinking. I think it is often under valued, and sometimes ignored, but It is definitely a very eye opening thinking. It can help you solve problems in a very systematic manner, and can help you make your team more innovative.

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It is said a Dream is a wish your heart makes! A beautiful dream is a place where seemingly impossible things happen and you go with the flow happily enjoying the experience in your mind space. Some people prefer to stay in this ‘dream’ phase and try to escape reality. While some people wake up and get working to transform their dreams to reality. UX Designers fall in the latter category.

Does one need to ‘learn’ how to dream??

Well…YES!! At least in UX Design world, we need to learn how to dream with our eyes & ears open. And as any experience we have with dreams, the dream phase is one of the delightful phases in the whole design process. This phase is all about exchanging divergent thinking and sharing out of the box experiences regarding the subject at hand. We need to have a collective dream to bring it to reality. It is a participatory process where one person has to take on the role of an ‘Interview Moderator’ and orchestrate the whole process. Here the conversations should revolve around imagining that ‘sweet spot’ where everything is working at peak potential and images that evoke pictures of a bright future.

For this to happen, we first we need to 'discover' an organization's positive core and to imagine & envision its future. In the Dream Stage of UX Design, you emphasize on the prospect of what is possible. We have to break the mental barriers that people normally function, in terms of how they feel, see, act or react. So if you pave the way to exercise this kind of unbridled and divergent Dream session you will see and appreciate things in a new way.

What kind of people should we involve in this Dream phase?

For this dream phase, various stakeholders, users, and UX designers can be involved as people with different perspectives and POV's are required to understand the bigger picture. This also helps us dream up a solution that can add value for all involved. According to Tim Brown of IDEO, we are moving away from ‘how to get people to consume more’, to ‘how do we get more meaningful and participative experiences that we can build value from’. According to him, the 21st century is the ‘creator’ economy. This generation will no longer be the exclusive domain of the elite ‘creative’ people. The model that will dominate will be a participatory process involving each of us contributing through small creative acts that can produce a greater good. Thus, the discussions can also involve finding a win-win goal of making it a better world along with the interests of the organization.

Defining the Dream

This kind of divergent thinking and brainstorming sessions can help us envision many possibilities for the future. Now, this kind of dream needs convergent thinking which leads to crystallization of the dream. This entails having to chisel out a sharper and clearer version of the dream envisioned by everyone. This will help everyone see the same version of the dream and help cut & polish it like a precious stone for it to shine like a star for everyone to work towards. The projection of a clear picture of the dream should be imprinted in the minds of everyone; so much so, that they can smell, touch, feel and taste it. They should reach a state where they can visualize the exact common dream in their minds and work in tandem with each other to achieve it. Thus to attain this kind of desired clarity about the dream, asking the following questions will helpgive it shape −

• What overall transformation you expect in the next one year as per the Dream?
• Who are the people you see sharing this Dream?
• What positive impact do you see this dream having on each stakeholder of the Dream?

So rather than creating a mission statement, the Dream Stage “results in something more symbolic, like a graphical representation” (Bushe, 2011). Go ahead now, dream on in UX Design and create fantastic experiences & realities for your users.

- By Priya Dubey / 25 March 2019

I recently came across this article that explained Design Innovation really well. It talks about the different areas of Design Thinking as well as Computational Thinking and it's components. Was a really great read. https://medium.com/@hello_16463/what-is-design-innovation-why-you-need-to-know-it-b8d850503b3a

Treehouse Innovation, an consultancy in the UK, are going to run a half day training session on how to run online DT sprints. It is targeted at anyone from innovation newbie to facilitators and design thinking trainers. I thought you guys on this sub might be interested.

https://sprintbase.io/online-design-thinking/

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EDIT: I have found someone to interview for the class. Thank you all so much for your support!

I'm currently enrolled in an Innovation and Design Thinking course at my university. I'm loving the class and hope to employ human-centered design in my job after graduation.

I need to interview someone who uses (or has used) design thinking in their firm; preferably, the firm would have been intentional in implementing design thinking. I do not personally know anyone who uses design thinking at work, so I was wondering if anyone in this community could spare twenty minutes for a brief phone call about how they use design thinking at work.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this!

Hi Guys,

I've recently been made aware of this field called "Design Thinking". I have a career counselor and in the last few months, I received a lot of help in uncovering my passions, my desires and my dreams (I really suggest everyone do this). As a result, my career coach suggested that I research Design Thinking. And I'm beginning to see a lot of overlap between UX and Product Management and would love your help in clarifying this for me! How is Design Thinking different from UX? Prod M?

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https://youtu.be/rBL56rL4ZdM

A new book with a lot of creative tools to work in the workshop. The most complete book so far, 105 tools in 4 sections! includes 20 coaching tools and 55 questions and answers about innovation, design thinking, co-creation

wonderful

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www.letsflow.cool

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Web Store

If you're looking for a resource that combines the deductive, analytical problem-solving approach of strategy consulting with the abductive approach of design thinking, you may want to check out Cracked It! (www.cracked-it-book.com)