From Acquaintances to Partners in Innovation: An Analysis of 20 Years of Design Thinking's Contribution to New Product Development

Abstract

Scholars have suggested that design thinking (DT) should form an integral part of the new product development (NPD) process. However, the contribution of DT to NPD over the past years is yet to be synthesized. In this article, we develop a conceptual framework categorizing how DT contributes to NPD, and present a map to visualize how research in the area of DT in NPD has evolved over the past 20 years. A systematic analysis of 89 journal papers published between 2000 and 2020 helped to generate a conceptual framework, which provides a typology for discussing the growing state of the art of DT in NPD. The study enhances the academic debate by providing a holistic perspective on how DT contributes to the NPD ecosystem and offers directions for future research for the next 20 years.

Mapping Study of Design Thinking on Product Development in The Last 10 Years

“…Another view, presented by Cooper et al, is that design thinking is seen as a reflective practicethat is, regarding mindset/mindset (Roth, Globocnik, Rau, & Neyer, 2020). Whereas in recent research it was found that design thinking is a tool to help a company create value and vision (de Paula et al, 2021). From this point of view, it means that design thinking helps organizations to find and apply the best user-centered mindset to find hidden needs that have not been touched as well as the creation of new business models.…”

“…Discourses that support the use of design thinking as an organizational resource in recent years have gained a lot of traction, especially in the fields of design and management. The possibility that design thinking can do is expand the ability to innovate in organizations because that ability can encourage collaboration and the development of a user-centered mindset (de Paula et al, 2021). For the sake of creating innovation and economic growth, support is needed to investigate how design thinking can be used as an organizational resource to improve all product development processes (Magistretti et al, 2021;Neri, Cagno, Lepri, & Trianni, 2021).…”

“…The results of a recent study presented by Appleyard that the relationship between design thinking and dynamic capabilities to examine how Siemens incorporates design thinking values into the R&D team aims to gain the title of leader in the market (Robbins & Fu, 2022). I, about the application of design thinking it is useful for realizing itself as a multifunctional tool that can also be used for making artifacts as a problem-solving activity (process) or also for reflective practice (mindset) (de Paula et al, 2021). Studies that are in line with the theme of this discussion provide a statement that the implementation of different design thinking can have the potential to be useful in the process of various product development methods (Lages, 2022;Laptev & Shaytan, 2022;Lichtenthaler, 2020;Silva et al, 2020;C.…”

“…The topic of design thinking has become an interesting discussion and has also increased drastically among practitioners and academics, which has also expanded in practice (Carlgren, Rauth, & Elmquist, 2016;Knight, Daymond, & Paroutis, 2020;Magistretti, Ardito, & Messeni Petruzzelli, 2021). This raises the perception of how products can be specially developed in various parts of the world (de Paula, Cormican, & Dobrigkeit, 2021;de Paula et al, 2023;Veflen & Gonera, 2023). Talking about.…”

Design thinking for innovation: context factors, process, and outcomes

“…Our review complements previous reviews by a more holistic approach. Previous reviews focused on the characteristics of DT (Micheli et al ., 2019), on DT and organizational culture (Elsbach and Stigliani, 2018), and recently on DT and new product development (De Paula et al. , 2022).…”