Design thinking in consulting

Consulting is an art, not a science. Design, on the other hand, goes beyond art; it is about pragmatic compromise, not perfection. Design thinking in literal terms means thinking as a designer would. Design Thinking as a method is empirical in the sense that it is both experimental and experiential, it is an approach to innovation that is powerful, effective and broadly accessible, and can be integrated into all aspects of products, services, business and society. Design thinking in products is proven, design thinking in services is evolving, and design thinking in consulting is radical.

Design thinking perspective

The concept of design thinking was developed by social scientist and Nobel laureate Herbert A. Simon, who argued that “Everything designed should be seen as artificial as opposed to natural”. In the business context, design thinking was adapted by David Kelley who started a new program at Stanford, and later founded IDEO, a firm that pioneered the contemporary and current view of Design Thinking. According to Tim Brown, CEO IDEO, “Design thinking is a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity”.

Design thinking, fundamentally, recognizes that design should achieve purpose and business goals, not just beauty. Design thinking shifts the focus from a business-centric engineering solution [which means that we invent a product based on a series of assumptions and we hope that it will meet our customers’ requirements], to a customer-centric solution [when we explore cultural phenomena, observe how people behave and think, gain insights into what they need, and design a product around that]. Design thinking can therefore solve problems and redesign tasks by working from the user’s viewpoint in order to come up with a new approach that addresses customers’ unmet needs.

Design thinking in consulting

How can design thinking be applied to consulting? Let us explore a new way of thinking: Roger Martin’s ‘Knowledge Funnel’, a process that enables businesses to innovate more consistently and successfully. The first stage of the funnel, in which a problem is explored, is ‘Mystery’, and in this case the problem is consulting in the context of design thinking. In the second, ‘Heuristic’, stage, a rule of thumb is generated to narrow work to a manageable size; this is an organized exploration of possibilities, in this case the principles and practices of design thinking. The third stage is ‘Algorithm’ and consists of converting general rules of thumb to fixed formulae that provide an explicit step-by-step method to help people solve a problem.

In consulting, the problem statement is derived from a problem hypothesis, which usually is an abstract synthesis of the sponsor’s and / or key stakeholder’s viewpoint, and hardly ever represents the end customer or the extended customer’s perspective. Despite this ambiguity, the stated hypothesis becomes the gospel truth in defining the objective and outcome of the engagement. This is the mystery of hypothesis; other examples of mysteries are mystery of stakeholders, assumptions, interviews, current state, target state, analysis and recommendations.

Heuristics guide us toward a solution by way of an organized exploration of the possibilities. Heuristics represent an incomplete yet distinctly advanced understanding of what was previously a mystery. Principles of design thinking are fundamental ideas or general rules that are true regardless of the circumstances; they are the propositions that serve as the foundation for design thinking. On the other hand, practices are the actions, tools, techniques or processes by which the expected outcomes of the principles are achieved. Principles of design thinking include Human-Centred Design and ‘Implement and Iteratively Improve’. Practices include Brainstorming and the Business Model Canvas. [A more extensive list of the principles and practices of design thinking is given at the end of the article.] The matrix of such principles applicable for consulting in its entirety, along with associated practices, is the ‘Design Grid’, the heuristic for consulting.

Algorithms distil an approach to achieving the desired solution into a formula or a set of rules.  The design grid is the starting point for the algorithm. Given that each of the consulting phases is unique, the generic design grid, i.e. the pattern from the heuristic, needs to be evaluated further to derive the phase-specific design grid. This involves the identification of principles applicable to the consulting phase and the evaluation of all practices associated with the identified principles in order to short-list those practices that are relevant to a specific consulting phase. The phase-specific design grid is further studied to understand the nuances for each of the consulting segments as applicable, a process that taken collectively becomes the formula or algorithm for design thinking in consulting.

An example

Consulting Phase – Understanding Context; Design Thinking Principle – Human Centered Design; Design Thinking Practice – User Personas; Consulting Segment – IT Strategy Consulting

In IT strategy consulting, user personas can play a critical role in better addressing business drivers. Consider a task like achieving a business goal to reach new customer segments, say for example a bank attempting to attract millennials. In order to accomplish this goal, the conventional approach would mandate a study of the existing customer segments, the evaluation of current products and the extrapolation of the characteristics of the segments / products to specify a customised product for the new segment. On the other hand, developing a user persona would mean identifying the characteristics of a typical millennial and what his / her banking needs would be, not in isolation but by interacting with millennials directly in their environment. The user persona thus developed will provide insights like, for instance, millennials’ preference for internet or mobile banking as opposed to on premise banking and a preference for products that make e-Commerce purchasing easier.

The Algorithm and the Design Grid thus serve as a sandbox to experiment with design thinking in consulting and also as a force-multiplier to sustain your success in the IT consulting space.

Key concepts

Relevant consulting concepts:

1. Consulting Cycle, the phases of a typical engagement starting with Understanding Context, moving on to Current State Assessment, Target State Definition, Analysis & Findings, and culminating with Report & Recommendations;
2. Consulting Spectrum, the IT Consulting Segments: IT Strategy Consulting, IT Architecture Consulting, IT Portfolio Management, IT Process Consulting, IT Governance Consulting, IT Infrastructure Consulting, IT Outsourcing Consulting and IT Transformation Consulting.

Relevant principles of design thinking: Human centered design, Embrace ambiguity & diversity, Openness to radical collaboration, Co-create impactful solutions, Implement & iteratively improve.

Practices of design thinking include: Empathy maps, User personas, How might we, Storyboarding, Interviewing techniques, Brainstorming, Business model canvas, Journey maps, Affinity diagrams, Raskar’s hexagon, Morphological analysis and Value proposition canvas

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Mohan Kancharla is an experienced Management Consultant with over three decades of experience in Information Technology & Consulting. Recognized by CEO Today as one of the ‘Top 100 Global Management Consultants’ and awarded ‘CEO Today Management Consulting Award 2018’.

You can reach him at mohan_kancharla@ymail.com