By: Justin Koga
Design thinking is a lengthy process; one at face value that may seem arduous and slow. At first, I didn’t necessarily buy into the “process”. However, it didn’t take long before I was teaching my family, friends, and colleagues about design thinking.
I really appreciate the methodical structure of the design process. Where solution-based thinking may feel like a shotgun approach, where you spray and pray to land an impactful idea, Design Thinking allows an innovator to come up with an iterative design model that is formed by his/her close interactions with various stakeholders. Solutions are not meant to be robust, rather, they are aligned with complex problems posed by one’s stakeholders.
I think that the biggest challenge so far has been the consistency of analysis from our team. We all have different perspectives and as a result, we have different takeaways from interviews, research, etc. This is great, and it just takes practice to articulate these perspectives.
My biggest impact on my team has been my ability to connect the dots. Every opportunity, experience, and deliverable is interconnected in some way. I also have encouraged a culture of reaching out to people in power, and believe that I’m decent at conducting an engaging interview.
