Designing the Future: Strategy, Design, and the 4th Industrial Revolution—An Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

This is an introduction to the special issue of California Management Review on Design Thinking (DT). This special issue joins the growing body of work exploring the idea of DT and whether DT makes a difference in terms enhancing or augmenting the impact of technology—and, as a result, innovation—in a positive way. We have chosen an interesting, relevant, and useful array of papers that provide different approaches, views, and interpretations of applied design thinking. These articles provide both management and scholarly readers with insights in how DT is used, as well as its impact and usefulness in a variety of contexts.

Design Thinking in Digital Innovation Projects—Exploring the Effects of Intangibility

“…With its ability to address "wicked," hard-to-grasp problems [14], it has drawn much interest as an approach to innovation in a range of different contexts [1], [13], [28]. Increasingly, innovation has, however, shifted to the digital realm [2]- [4], which implies specific changes in artifacts and working style-calling for adopting Design Thinking [6], [17].…”

“…Since the increasing shift to value creation in digital features forces "traditional" industries to change their strategy and embrace digital technologies [3], [4], many innovation projects, ranging from optimized internal processes to novel offerings designed to draw in new customers, may naturally lead to digital outcomes. As a consequence, the rapid introduction of digital technologies touches upon nearly every aspect of life [6], which puts it at the heart of several megatrends of our time [7].…”

“…Given the high rate of new products failing in the market [8], [9] and given that innovation is inherently a risky and uncertain process [10], [11], the recent push to start innovation projects based on user needs, instead of technical feasibility, is not surprising. A focus on user needs and the requirement of an elaborate toolset for innovation made approaches such as Design Thinking widely popular [6], [12]. As a methodology for achieving human-centered innovation by addressing actual human needs [13], Design Thinking is applicable to the type of ill-defined or "wicked" problems [14] presented by innovation initiatives.…”

“…Rooted in how designers work, Design Thinking encompasses a variety of different processes and tools [12] and is not bound to any specific application area [1], but is meant to address "wicked," that is, ill-defined and hard-to-grasp, problems in a variety of areas [12], [14]. While digital innovation provides new means to tackle wicked problems, making sure solutions address actual needs calls precisely for approaches such as Design Thinking [6]. At the same time, the development of digital solutions is a wicked problem requiring Design Thinking approaches [17].…”

“…At the same time, the development of digital solutions is a wicked problem requiring Design Thinking approaches [17]. Considering the shift of innovation to the digital realm [2]- [4] and given the general lack of research on Design Thinking in innovation [6], we raise the research question: "What are the opportunities and challenges of applying Design Thinking in digital contexts?" In this article, we help to fill this void by reporting on our experiences with opportunities This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.…”