An Introduction to
Design Thinking

Business Value Creation with IT (BVC)

Andy Weeger

Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences

February 21, 2025

What is design?

aesthetics

event

product

experience

Design is
a process …

… based on these mindsets.

The five principles of design thinking provide a framework for approaching complex problems with a human-centered mindset:

• Human-centered
  
• Collaborative
  
• Experimental
  
• Iterative
  Action-Oriented
  Design thinking prioritizes concrete action over abstract analysis with a bias toward making and doing rather than just thinking and discussing. Rapid prototyping brings ideas into the physical world, real-world testing provides authentic feedback, and the ultimate goal is implementation and impact, not just insight.

These principles work together as an integrated system, encouraging teams to engage deeply with human needs, collaborate across boundaries, experiment boldly, refine solutions iteratively, and focus on tangible outcomes that truly meet user needs.

Human-centered

Understand people in context — focus on how they do things and why, their physical and emotional needs, how they think about the world and what matters to them.

Design thinking places humans at the core of all problem-solving efforts. This means starting with deep empathy for the people you’re designing for, understanding their needs, motivations, and pain points through observation and engagement. It values emotional and experiential insights as much as quantitative data and considers the full context of how people interact with products, services, and environments.

Collaborative

Focus on diversity — bring people with different backgrounds and experiences together to really understand a problem and evolve a solution.

Design thinking embraces diverse perspectives and collective creativity. Cross-functional teams bring multiple viewpoints and expertise, while users and stakeholders become active participants in the design process. Power dynamics are flattened to encourage equal contribution, and the collective intelligence of the group is leveraged through structured collaboration.

Experimential

Embrace experimentation — prototyping helps you learn and think — taking action on an idea to understand it better, validating it or gaining evidence of the right solution.

Design thinking adopts a “build to think” approach where ideas are made tangible quickly through prototyping. Failure is reframed as learning through iteration, and solutions evolve through cycles of testing and refinement. The focus is on practical experimentation rather than theoretical perfection.

Iterative

Refine relentlessly — circle back, reassess assumptions, and evolve your solution through continuous feedback and learning.

Design thinking embraces a non-linear, cyclical approach where each phase informs and reshapes understanding of previous phases. Early failures guide subsequent iterations toward better solutions, and the process accepts that first solutions are rarely optimal. Continuous loops of feedback and improvement drive development.

Action-oriented

Make it real - transform ideas into tangible prototypes that can be tested, experienced, and refined in the physical world.

Design thinking prioritizes concrete action over abstract analysis with a bias toward making and doing rather than just thinking and discussing. Rapid prototyping brings ideas into the physical world, real-world testing provides authentic feedback, and the ultimate goal is implementation and impact, not just insight.

Design Thinking process

Design thinking is the way designers think: the mental processes they use to design objects, services or systems, as distinct from the end result of elegant and useful products.

(Dunne and Martin 2006)

Design thinking results from the nature of design work: an interdisciplinary and projectbased work flow around “wicked” problems.

• Solving complex problems
• Holistic perspective
• Consideration of the interests of as many stakeholders as possible

(Dunne and Martin 2006)

The process

The design thinking process

 

 

 

Designers can imagine the world from multiple perspectives – those of colleagues, clients, end users, and customers (current and prospective).

(Brown et al. 2008)

Emphasize

We want to guide innovation efforts, find out everything about our customer or user and understand their problem as well as uncover even latent needs and desires.

We can use Stakeholder Mapping and Why-How Laddering.

Emphasize — Stakeholder Mapping

Stakeholder mapping is the process of identifying a system of parties involved and interested in a particular outcome or product and their relations to one another.

Stakeholder maps create a solid foundation for user-centered design as they

• visualize and communicates the different parties involved and
• show hierarchies, key relationships, interests, problems, perspectives, etc.

Start with a simple brainstorming and organize your results in a comprehensive map.

Emphasize — Why-How Laddering

Why-How Laddering is a powerful technique used to explore both the deeper purpose (the “why”) and practical implementation (the “how”) of concepts or problems.

• Moving up the ladder (why questions):
  When you ask “Why?” you move up to more abstract, purpose-driven thinking.
• Moving down the ladder (how questions):
  When you ask “How?” you move down to more concrete, implementation-focused thinking.

Let’s start with a middle statement: “We need to increase electric vehicle adoption.”

Moving Up the Ladder (Why?)

• Why do we need to increase electric vehicle adoption? –> To reduce carbon emissions from transportation

• Why reduce carbon emissions? –> To mitigate climate change

• Why mitigate climate change? –> To ensure a sustainable future for humanity and ecosystems Moving Down the Ladder (How?)

• How do we increase electric vehicle adoption? –> By making electric vehicles more affordable

• How do we make them more affordable? –> By reducing battery production costs

• How do we reduce battery production costs? –> By investing in battery technology research and scaling manufacturing

For each need, ladder up by asking why until you reach an abstract need. Climb back down the ladder asking how to address the need.

This helps you to connect tactical actions to strategic purpose, identify whether you’re solving the right problem, reveal assumptions that might need challenging and provide multiple entry points for solution development.

Example: We need to increase electric vehicle adoption.

If I had one hour to solve a problem, I would spend the first fifty-five minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking of the solutions.

Albert Einstein

Define

We want to synthesize findings from the previous step, identify a specific and meaningful challenge to tackle, and create an actionable problem statement.

We can use a Point of View (POV) Madlib to synthesize our findings into a problem statement that defines the challenge, and then transform this into How Might We (HMW) questions that open up opportunity spaces for ideation throughout the design process.

For further tools see bootcamp bootleg (Plattner 2010)

Define — POV Madlib

[USER] needs to [USER’S NEED] because [SURPRISING INSIGHT].

Use a whiteboard or scratch paper to try out a number of options, playing with each variable and the combinations of them.

The need and insight should flow from your unpacking and synthesis work.

For example, instead of “A teenage girl needs more nutritious food because vitamins are vital to good health” try “A teenage girl with a bleak outlook needs to feel more socially accepted when eating healthy food, because in her hood a social risks is more dangerous than a health risk.” (Plattner 2010)

Define — How Might We (HMW)

How might me [ACTIONABLE PIECE] for [USER] in order to [NEED]?

The POV statement keeps you anchored to the core problem, while HMW questions open up thinking about potential solutions without losing sight of that problem.

1. Begin with your POV or problem statement (user and need)
2. Generate as many potential HMWs as you can
3. Group and theme HMWs
4. Vote and/or select the top HMW question to anchor your project

The ideate phase represents a process of “going wide” in terms of concepts and outcomes — it is a mode of “flaring” rather than “focus.”

The goal of ideation is to explore a wide solution space both a large quantity of ideas and a diversity among those ideas (Plattner 2010).

Ideate

We want to progress from defining problems to exploring solutions, spark creativity and innovation, move beyond the expected, and exploit the multiplicity of perspectives in your team.

We can use different brainstorming and brainwriting methods to create and evaluate ideas.

Ideate — Visual Brainstorming

Visual brainstorming uses visualization as a tool to organize information, capturing ideas by using something like a mindmap.

1. Write your problem statement in the middle.
2. Write all your ideas around it can connect it to the statement like in a mind map.
3. Continue ideation phase — go back through all of your ideas and write down every thought you have in connection to them, how they maybe relate to each other, support them with visuals, expand upon them etc.
4. Go through each of your ideas again and try to determine elements that are sticking out and color them.
5. Organize your ideas. E.g., create a summary in form of a text document, a more organized mind map etc.

Prototype

We want to learn and eliminate ambiguity, fail quickly and cheaply by testing a number of ideas, refine solutions with users, and inspire others by showing your vision.

We can use multiple methods such as paper prototyping, physical prototyping, click-dummies or even tools like LCDP.

Test

We put our ideas into the appropriate context to improve and understand the variables, evaluate and refine the idea, and receive constructive feedback

Methods such as pitch, lean startup, surveys (quantitative and qualitative), 4-quadrant test and many more are suitable for testing our ideas and prototypes.

Aim of todays workshop

Narrow down the problem space of your challenge

1. Iterate through the emphasize, define, and ideate phases.
2. Get answers to your questions (11.00 am).
3. Use the tools and templates presented or find others online.
4. Briefly present your POVs and HMW questions (4 minutes)
   (2.45 pm; group by group in Creative 3, please book slot on Moodle).
5. Get initial feedback (4 minutes).

We spend a lot time designing the bridge, but not enough time thinking about the people who are crossing it. Dr. Prabhjot Singh, Director of Systems Design at the Earth Institute

If you can dream it,
you can do it. Walt Disney

Q&A

Literature

Brown, Tim et al. 2008. “Design Thinking.” Harvard Business Review 86 (6): 84.

Dunne, David, and Roger Martin. 2006. “Design Thinking and How It Will Change Management Education: An Interview and Discussion.” Academy of Management Learning & Education 5 (4): 512–23.

Plattner, H. 2010. “D. School Bootcamp Bootleg. Institute of Design at Stanford.” Stanford.