| | MARCH 20219different contexts - it's not just about developing the next digital product. Nor is it limited to design teams; more and more businesses are using design thinking as a way to foster innovation on a companywide scale. Though organizations, entrepreneurs and leaders follow different processes, yet all variants of design thinking embody the same principles, which were first described by Nobel Prize laureate Herbert Simon in The Sciences of the Artificial in 1969. Let's see at the five-phase model proposed by the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, which is also known as d.school. The reason behind choosing d.school's ap-proach is that they're at the forefront of applying and teaching design thinking. The five phases of design thinking, according to d.school, are as follows: Empa-thize - with your users, Define - your users' needs, their problem, and your insights, Ideate - by challenging as-sumptions and creating ideas for innovative solutions, Prototype - to start creating solutions, Test - solutions.It is important to note that the five phases/stages/modes are not necessarily always sequential. They do not have to follow any specific order and can often occur in parallel and repeat iteratively. Given that, you should not understand the phases as a hierarchical or step-by-step process. Instead, you should look at it as an overview of the modes or phases that contribute to an innovative project, rather than sequential steps.Is it only for Entrepreneurs?Tim Brown the renowned British industrial designer and the Chair of IDEO emphasizes that design think-ing techniques and strategies of design belong at ev-ery level of a business. It is not only for designers but also for creative employees, freelancers, and leaders who seek to infuse design thinking into every level of an organization, product or service in order to drive new alternatives for business and society.ConclusionThe beauty of design thinking is that it works best un-der conditions of uncertainty - when you really don't know where to start. It's a methodology that is very messy in practice but does allow for a systematic ap-proach to creating new opportunities. At the heart of design thinking is the intention to improve services, products and customer experience by analyzing how users interact with them and investigating the condi-tions in which they operate. Not just that but, design thinking offers us a means of digging that bit deeper to uncover ways of improving user experiences. Hence, it is highly imperative for every entrepreneur to add this skill in their list. Thinking out of the box and com-ing up with new ideas requires focus, investment, and more importantly, methodology. And design thinking will help them achieve exactly the same.
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