Design Thinking for Exponentials

I am harnessing the power of combining Design Thinking with Exponential Organizations (ExO) to think exponentially in exploring all possibilities.

First, let us begin with understanding the implications of exponential technologies. Today we are in the world of digitalization and digitization of IR 4.0. In the future, we will be in the world of IR 5.0 where human intelligence works in harmony with cognitive computing power enabling mass personalization. It means what we used to think impossible is now made possible by leveraging exponential technologies. For example, making libraries accessible to underserved communities by delivering books to them using drones.

Therefore, design thinking for exponentials will require you to shift your mindset from linear thinking to exponential thinking. Begin to understand the implications of exponential technologies on your business and organization. Digitize and disrupt yourself before someone else disrupts your business.

The following are the key steps that you can consider in designing for exponentials:

1. Define your massive transformative purpose (MTP)

You can begin by Defining Your Purpose and Your Emotional Needs. What do you hope to achieve for yourself personally and for your organization? What are the massive problems that you are trying to solve? Who are the people (inside and outside your organization) that you are trying to impact? Who are the people (not related to you personally) that you are trying to change? How many lives are you going to change? What drives your passion for excellence?

2. Reframe your problem statement

This step is for you to gain a deep empathetic understanding of the problems or pain points so that you can better synthesize your initial understanding of the problem. There are three ways of gaining empathy: 1. Observing people and their behaviors in the context of their lives. 2. Immersing yourself to learn the experience. 3. Engaging with the person for you to gain deep insights. You can also take this opportunity to assess the magnitude of the problem and to reframe the problem into your initial point-of-view.

3. Generate and select your idea for experimentation

You can launch into ideation by breaking your point-of-view into short questions using "How Might We?" (HMW) questions. HMW questions enable the seeding of a range of solution possibilities that you can take action. As you generate ideas, exponential thinking is needed so that you can explore ideas that leverage exponential technologies using ExO attributes to access and manage abundance for scalability.

4. Experiment with your idea

Solution ideas look good unless they fit the problem. How do you know if there is a problem-solution fit or not? After ideation, you can conduct rapid experimentation to validate or invalidate the problem-solution fit. You can plan for your experiment by first identifying your solution assumption for validation or invalidation. The solution assumption is determined based on your initial point-of-view or hypothesis. The experimentation is to evaluate the solution assumption. I recommend building a rough prototype of your solution idea so that testers can experience, touch, and feel. You can observe and engage with your testers to obtain feedback on your prototype and to validate or invalidate your solution assumption.

5. Iterate and implement your idea

Based on the learnings and insights gathered from the experimentation, you can iterate your problem-solution fit and continue to experiment until your idea becomes a workable solution. You can continue to develop your conceptual solution using the Lean Startup methodology that uses Business Model Canvas, Customer Development, and Agile Processes. Throughout the process of developing the product-market fit, you will continue to be guided by your MTP and ExO model for exponential growth.

Design Thinking is a Mindset

I helped the Government in setting up the first design thinking school in Malaysia in 2012. Since then, over more than seven years of managing, training, coaching, and consulting in Design Thinking, I am of the view that Design Thinking mindsets are critical in making Design Thinking works for you and your organizations. In fact, from my perspective, Design Thinking is a Mindset. I will explain why I say so.

Design Thinking Process

The Design Thinking process draws on the natural human intuition to recognize patterns, to construct ideas that are emotionally meaningful as well as functional, especially in solving complex problems that cannot be easily analyzed.

The process helps to dive into the problem and find new insights. The human connection with the needs and motivations of real people helps to inspire and trigger deep insights to fuel innovation efforts.

In short, the Design Thinking process is a human-centered approach to innovation. Design Thinking provides a structured approach to achieving creative confidence. I believe everyone has the potential to innovate and that everyone can learn innovation skills.

Design Thinking is a Mindset

Throughout the innovation journey, we must change our mindset to achieve creative confidence. We must shift a fixed mindset of limitations to a growth mindset of limitless.

One prerequisite for achieving creative confidence is the belief that our innovation skills and capabilities are not cast in stone. Once we open our minds to the possibility that our capabilities are limitless, we will be motivated to overcome any challenges.

We get inspired by observing, immersing, and engaging with those people for whom we are solving the problem. We engaged emotionally by listening with empathy. Propelled by intellectual curiosities accompanied by a mindset of compassion inspires us to come up with more innovative ideas.

Empathy listening means challenging our preconceived assumptions of the problems, and it allows us to set aside our sense of what we think the truth is to learn what the truth is. Starting from a different point of view can help us get to the essence of a problem. We must not be afraid to make a stand to begin our innovation focus on ideation for experimentation. During the ideation phase, we must encourage wild ideas and explore countless possibilities.

Encouraging wild ideas is a value that needs cultivation. In most instances, employees are afraid to suggest ideas in case their bosses kill their ideas. Some are not willing to share ideas in case their ideas considered stupid, not creative, or not feasible. Ideas are not bad. We must defer or suspend judgment.

Of course, please do not fall in love with our idea too soon. As part of our innovation journey using Design Thinking, we will need to experiment with our selected idea. We must be ready mentally to throw away our darlings and start all over again.

We must have a mindset to celebrate failures often because the valuable learnings from our failures will enable us to build a more human-centered compelling solution. It is the ability to accept repeated failures as the price of ultimate success. It is a mindset that encourages not just lots of ideas, but actions.

In Summary

Design thinking is a proactive mindset that takes actions throughout the innovation journey. Design thinking is an iterative process of divergent and convergent thinking. Emotionally we could be going through a roller coaster ride, and hence we will need to be prepared for a journey of VUCA.

We must be comfortable with the innovation journey. It will be a journey of high volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. It is navigating through the chaos. Notwithstanding the ambiguity, the Design Thinking process itself will eventually get you out of the chaos in search of your innovation.

Therefore, you can consider applying the Design Thinking mindset and process in your transformation or innovation journey.

Everyone can play a part in helping unemployed people

Based on the DOSM's released statistics yesterday, sale values of wholesale and retail trade rebound 26.3% growth in May as compared to a drop of 35.2%. The growth attributed mainly to the retail sales of specialized goods and motor vehicles, trade of repairs, and maintenance.

Although physical retail businesses are adversely affected, some shopping malls appear to be BAU since RMCO begins. It is, therefore, not surprising to see improvement in retail trade statistics. However, some shopping malls do not appear to be hustling and bustling malls. Many retail outlets have closed down, making these malls less vibrant and eventually maybe difficult to reinvigorate the malls.

Besides the retail industry, many industries are downsizing or closing down to a certain extent. These include hospitality and tourism, airlines, restaurants, and cafes. I am curious to find out what happens to the workforce of these industries. I would imagine that some will reskill themselves to take on new jobs, and some will leverage their skills and experience in new or adjacent surviving business sectors.

The Government of Malaysia also provided incentives to employers to hire and train unemployed individuals (including those made redundant). Such an incentive program is good to give assurance of employment and training of those unemployed individuals. The challenge remains how many employers are willing to hire new employees in times of uncertainty. I am of the view that some growing businesses can consider hiring new employees to support their growth, and some financially-strong employers can play their part to hire unemployed individuals to address unemployment-related concerns.

In other words, everyone can play a part in helping unemployed people. I am playing a small role by providing free talks and organizing events on topics around design thinking and exponential transformation. In the last three months, I am grateful that I have met many superb people from varied professions, experiences, and expertise, and I have also learned a lot from them during these events and post events.

The Challenge: Reimagine how we might reskill and hire unemployed people