Enterprise Design Thinking: An Investigation on User-Centered Design Processes in Large Corporations

Abstract

Design thinking (DT) is considered a “human-centered” or “user-needs” process that leads to business innovation. Promising practices of DT application in real life have gained popularity in business, such as IBM’s the loop, IDEO’s 3I model, Design Council’s double diamond model, and Stanford’s d.school model. However, many existing studies have targeted DT models in a small group setting, such as a startup environment or a small group in an educational institution. The primary purpose of this paper was to investigate how large corporate environments that have multiple departments with a waterfall culture define and apply DT in real use. The first part of this paper introduces the most popular DT models used in the industry and some insights into their use in the field; the second part examines the experiences of 20 professionals who have experience with DT in the large organizational environment through in-depth interviews. As a result, this paper offers three major insights regarding the use of DT in the field. The third part of this study suggests an appropriate enterprise DT model for large corporations based on the problem-solving activities already undertaken by employees. This study is important as the first step toward understanding DT implementation in large corporations.

Keywords

• design thinking
• user-focused
• human-centered
• enterprise creativity
• problem-solving