Managing design thinking

• Autor(a) principal: Dröge, Anne
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/29566
• topic: Design thinking; Management; Leadership; Implementation strategy; Organizational culture; Organizational structures; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Ciências da Comunicação

Over the course of the last decade Design Thinking (DT) has become a popular and successful tool in business. Many managers are interested in using DT within their organizations, but the implementation of DT is challenging due to two reasons: 1) the definition of DT is ambiguous, so oftentimes managers are unsure what exactly they aim to implement and 2) there are few resources that present the different ways DT can be implemented, therefore it is difficult for managers to choose the one that is most appropriate for their context. These two challenges result in the need for more information about the management of DT. This dissertation aims to cater this need. The exploratory study follows a qualitative research design and employs a mix of content analysis and semi-structured expert interviews as research methods. Based on the content analysis a comprehensive yet precise definition of DT is proposed. It is suggested that the aspects that make up DT can be divided into three layers according to their level of abstraction. In this sense DT is an ideology, methodology and a set of tools. The semi-structured expert interviews explore different ways of implementing DT. In total 9 interviews were conducted, with experts from a diverse geographical as well as professional background. DT can be used internally, externally (by contracting an agency) or as a combination of both. The interviews show that generally a combination of internal and external implementation is advisable. The internal implementation is more challenging, as the organizational culture and structures need to be aligned with the DT ideology. If an organization is not prepared to make these necessary changes they are advised to implement DT solely externally. The external implementation of DT is also advisable if an organization implements DT internally, due to the fact that an outside perspective is more objective.