About
Who is the guy behind the “Design Thinking Institute”?
As you might have noticed on the frontpage my name is Ralf Beuker. Some of you might be familiar with me and my interests since I run the weblog ‘Vol.2: design-management.de’ for more than two years now. While I will decribe the purpose of this blog and the ‘Design Thinking Institute’ in the paragraphs below you will find information about myself here on my blog. Thanks for your interest :-) Finally my specials thanks go to my wife Astrid for supporting me to develop the brand new logo.
What is this blog and the “Design Thinking Institute” (DTI) about?
Well, this new blog has been on my agenda for a while now. I’ve been reflecting on the name, content and format ever since I’ve read about the term ‘Design Thinking’. I’ve somehow felt attracted to the topic by the believe (of myself and others out there) that the impact of Design can go beyond ‘simply’ creating a visual design for products or services. There must something more in the application of ‘Design’ for organisations who recognise that ‘Design’ starts far earlier in the value chain of organisational activities. My perspective on ‘Design Thinking’ is to uncover this ‘value chain’ in a generic way by collecting as much data, insights and cases as possible in order to create a bigger picture rather than a precise definition.
Consequently the organisational structures, systems and culture which enable companies to deliver great designed products and services (or as Steve Jobs calls them ‘insanely great products’) are equally important. However from the classical MBA perspective Design is only one issue among many others like Marketing, Finance, Controlling, Strategy, HR, etc. Fortunately in the meantime some of these disciplines consider Design as a variable for achieving competitive advantage more than others and I’m happy that my professional field “Strategic Management” does consider Design as a valuable resource and capability for a while now.
As said above a first step in the creation of the ‘Design Thinking Institute’ is to collect as many ‘data’ as possible on this platform. Thanks to a conversation I’ve had with Niti Bhan a while ago she framed this approach by suggesting the following steps: Collect, Consolidate, Collaborate. While this approach is not revolutionary and might occur in many contexts beside ‘design processes’ I still believe that in this case the element of ‘creative identification’ dominates over the ‘deductive method’ you see in classical scientific research. Consequently I see the process of formation of the ‘Institute’ as a way of ‘Design Thinking’.
Why an ‘Institute’ and why on a separate site?
I’ve chosen the metaphor of an ‘Institute’ because I’ve felt inspired by classical research institutes. According to my understanding an ‘Institute’ is a place where many people work on a shared field of interest from a multitude of perspectives. ‘Researchers’ might join the ‘Institute’ for a specific time in order to work intensively on their specific topic and they leave the ‘Institute’ and share their results with the community. An ‘Institute’ is a place where a topic or field of research can be explored beside the various daily constraints people are confronted with. While the value of an ‘Institute’ is created by the members (let them be temporary or permanent) and their contributions an ‘Institute’ is not necessarily owned by a ‘principal’. Formal leadership is executed by individuals who temporarily take a formal position. This position might be the result of a democratic election process or other means. However currently I see no need for such a formal representation rather than a need for as many ‘researchers’ as possible contributing to the development of the field.
One reason to move this thinking to the platform “designthinkinginstitute.com” is that there are so many places on the web where you will find great sketches and ideas on ‘Design Thinking’. Therefore this forum and blog shall bring together all these various place by collecting links and create a hub from where you can start and end your discovery journey. Finally the ‘Institute’ enables me to separate my personal thoughts on Vol. 2: design-management.de from the more collaborative process on this site.
So what is ‘Design Thinking’?
Well, to be honest: I don’t know yet! I have an idea or a glimpse from all my reading on the web (please see my thoughts in the first paragraph above), but I did not discover a clear pattern yet. Furthermore as an individual it’s not my goal to become the authority in this field. I feel more like becoming a facilitator and as said above I see this forum as a platform which I want to offer and share with those interested in the field. One of the responsibilities I’ve identified for myself is to deliver a series of postings with links which ‘Collect’ the multitude of smart thinking out there. You can support the ‘Institute’ by sending links to resources I didn’t list yet or should definitively list. Furthermore you might want to become a ‘researcher’ with guest blogger rights on this site. Feel free to drop me a note by Email to: ralf@designthinkinginstitute.com.
What’s next?
While this platform and the Institute are representations of a virtual space & organisation so far the creators of CPH127 with Hans Henrik at the lead initiated to hold a summit on design + Innovation in spring 2006 in Copenhagen. While content, format, location and date are still issues in progress this event might be a good opportunity to a) work on formulating some kind of manifesto about the DTI and its mission, vision and future development and b) get names to faces since I hope that many of people from the community will join the summit either virtually or physically.