Applying design thinking elsewhere: Organizational context matters

Applying design thinking elsewhere: Organizational context matters

Smulders, F.E.H.M.
Dorst, K.
Vermaas, P.E.

Industrial Design Engineering

Product Innovation Management

2014-09-04

In this contribution design thinking is taken as a transfer of design methods from product development to other domains. It is argued that the success of this transfer depends on the organisational context offered to design thinking in these other domains. We describe the application of design methods in product development and in two new domains by what we have called the IDER model, where D refers to design and I, E and R to the organisational context. Then we show that characteristics of the contexts in the new domains may determine the success of applying design thinking in these domains. Finally we focus on the transitions among design and the other contextual elements as another source that can ‘make or break’ the success of applying design thinking. We support our arguments with two cases of design thinking: social design and business-innovation design.

design thinking
product development
organizational context of design
boundary transitions

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1d8333b6-39a1-4ee3-82f8-17621009b1a9

The Design Management Institute

978-0-615-99152-8

Proceedings of the 19th DMI: Academic Design Managemnt Conference, London, UK, 2-4 September 2014

Institutional Repository

conference paper

(c) Smulders, F.E.H.M.
Dorst, K.
Vermaas, P.E.