Toolkit for Designers Working in Business Contexts

Smile. You've got plenty of reasons to be happy!

My personal Design Thinking toolkit as a designer working as a manager in a business context, includes sense of humor and happiness and a positive attitude.  As Richard Branson, Virgin CEO, in his recent post , I believe too that happiness is a great measurement of success.

First inconvenient is that some colleagues believe that being happy is just the opposite of being "professional" because  they associate value creation and professionality with being serious and arrogant: I believe just the opposite (and thank God my boss thinks the same). Being happy and smile means that you are confident about what you do and the responsibility that you are assuming. It means that you care and respect  your audience. It means that you are focus in what you are doing. It means that you are going to accept errors and unexpected situations nicely. It means that you are stating that it's ok to make mistakes, we'll solve them. I'll go further: 

I don't know of any inspiring, visionary leader with no sense of humor...Think about it.

Being transparent about your emotions isn't a weakness, quite the opposite: Emotional intelligence is widely recognized as a leadership quality, and being confident about your emotions is part of it, but leaders are expected to maintain a poker face. I rather laugh and try to make sense through laughter. 

An a piece of advise: Don't mess with a happy person...don't get it wrong...It's a very common misunderstanding believing that "happys" are weak...no, no, very wrong! Acting appropriately at the appropriate time...


Designers and innovators need mental peace (and space), time, pace and a crystal clear state of mind to look upon our world, as Proust would say, with fresh eyes and develop new ideas  and insights... But creativity is a live learning, an exhausting and arduous process and it can be a long and sometimes dangerous journey if you have gone through learning the trial and error lessons! 
I'm not going to focus this post in the difficulties but in the joy of overcoming the obstacles that gave designers the opportunity to design their way out of them and learn some valuable lessons in return. 

These are My Top Tens reasons to be happy and have a positive Design Thinking Attitude:

#1 reason to be a happy designer:  
The first and best victory is to conquer self. –Plato. 
This is a hard one but totally possible. It needs perseverance, will, empathy, modesty, forgiveness, acceptance, thrownness... This knowledge gained extends to everything you'd do. A creativity driven life needs a clear mind, free from past regrets so new ideas and insights would have space to grow.
(Ha,ha,ha...but this part was soooo difficult)

#2 reason to be a happy designer: 
Learning not letting yourself get frustrated by people. Sometimes don't fitting in a common stereotype can be so much fun! (Ha,ha,ha)

#3 reason to be a happy designer: 
Having achieve the ability to function in a hierarchy organitization while being a heterarchy at heart! (Ha,ha,ha) Haven't they noticed?

#4 reason to be a happy designer: 
Perseverance in following your intuition and imaginatively thinking and take the risk of predicting a solution. (Ha,ha,ha)

#5 reason to be a happy designer: 
Be human, be empathic. Liking and trusting people, no matter what!!!! (Ha,ha,ha)


#6 reason to be a happy designer: 
Learning the difference between being nice and being weak...and leaning to confront the great amount of people that haven't yet learned the difference. Being tough or elegant when needed (Ha,ha,ha)

#7 reason to be a happy designer: 

Cultivating patience: Learning to wait the right time, the right moment is an art. (Ha,ha,ha)

#8 reason to be a happy designer: 
Courage to fight for your ideas, your believes, yourself...Yes! (Ha,ha,ha)

#9 reason to be a happy designer:
Deep beliefs and a smiling Know-How...why not? Making sense through laughter is not weird, isn't it? (Ha,ha,ha)

#10 reason to be a happy designer:
Taking risks, failing, even making a fool out of yourself is ok...so what???? Let's try one more time...(Ha,ha,ha)


And the happiest AHA moment: 

YES!  "I made it and I'm still ME ! Isn't it amazing?" (Ha,ha,ha, ha,ha)

Let them think you are a fool and laugh! 

Happy New Year!

My inspirations:

Richard Branson: happiness is a great measurement of success 
Ranjan Malik: the fool and his kind of innovation
Reena Jana writing about John Maeda & The Art of Leadership

Jerry Seinfeld: How to Write a Joke

GK VanPatter Data Analytics meets Scrooge?

Maria Popova Brain Pickings Simone de Beauvoir on Ambiguity, Vitality, and Freedom

“The drama of original choice is that it goes on moment by moment for an entire lifetime.” by Brain Pickings

A Design Thinking Attitude

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) philosopher 

My favourite definition of Design Thinking it's got to do with finding the insight among chaos.My favorite insight  about Design Thinking is Martin Heidegger's THROWNNESS concept.

Design Thinking requires a set of professional skills grounded in operating in unstable contexts. Design Thinking mindset it's got to do with being able to coop with wildly different people from yourself and dealing with situations that are radically new... It's got to do with feeling comfortable with unexpected, unstructured and unpredictable; Design Thinking is about finding meaning and understanding out of human attitudes and mindsets that an unstable situation brings up.

Design-Thinking-Thrownnes is got to do with developing a survival intelligence applied to a constant evolving enviroment, totally focus on "think in order to act" versus think to "think some more"

Design Thinking it's got to do with THROWNNESS (German: Geworfenheit): It is a concept introduced by German philosopher Martin Heidegger to describe the interactions of the subject with its surroundings in the everyday life, that causes it to act upon instincts, immediate reactions to other people's language and actions, "flow with the situation," and immediate interpretations.
Once one accepts that not to act is also an action, Heidegger notes that one is 'thrown' into situations without being able to reflect on them first, for to reflect on them (not act) is also something that can be interpreted as an action. One therefore must rely on instinctual interpretations, and go with the flow.

Design Thinking is got to do with assuming that you are THROWN into a situation where you haven't been invited in most of the cases: It's about being ALWAYS AN OUTSIDER and feeling comfortable with it.

Design Thinking is about staying calm and focus under pressure: It's about listening to your instincts among the chaos and saying YES and NO clearly to you and the rest of the world.

Design Thinking is about finding synchronicity and serendipity. It's part of that Thrownness Mindset that needs to be on constant "alert mood", because it knows that sooner or later that knowledge is going to be needed: It is another kind of survival instinct.

Design Thinkers is about empathy: They know that they need to gain their audience trust in every single situation, therefore they need to figure out how to connect with people and creating meaningful connections.

Design Thinking is got to do with honesty. Experienced Design Thinkers know very well how to do their jobs...and one of them is understanding people and their social and emotional relationships in order to manipulate...but totally focus on an honest goal (Maybe this could be a nice definition of empathy: Being able to truly understanding other people's insights and weakness, and being respectful and honest about the use of that knowledge)


Design Thinking attitude is got to do with all written above. It's also the impossible search of understanding the DNA of millions of people...and  secretly say to oneself "I told you!"

This is a great video by Fred Collopy (Case Western Reserve University) and their project "Managing as Designing"

Delivering Unsolicited Meaning: First They Ignore You...And Then You Win

First they ignore you...by Mahatma Gandhi

What does usually happen when a design thinker delivers unsolicited meaning to an audience that is not prepared to understand nor listen to anything out of their system of knowledge?

First they ignore you, 

You'd probably find silence when sharing new ways of thinking about a situation and giving existing things new meaning.

Let's face it: Most of the innovations happen because mad designers and innovators are so stubborn! 

As a Design Thinking practitioner, I believe it's necessary to master a kind of passionate excitement about the "finding" of the idea or meaning, and the "fighting" for make it happen. It's a kind of "design thinking CORE" that, together with some others, make you say with security: 

“This is going to work”.This is the way to go. I know it.

Designers don't take a NO for an answer: It might seems at first they do, but it's just another designer's trick. It's a step back to reconsider a new strategy to try again, and again to make an idea HAPPEN. 

...Then they laugh at you, 

Too many professional still don´t know how to adapt to an ever-evolving business environment.

I understand that challenging the COMMON conceptual structure used in constructing theories is hard for both parts:

• As the "challenger", you better be ready to a "your analysis has no rigor", and a few pity faces feeling sorry for you.
• As the "challenged", please consider that rationality is necessary when analyzing any situation, but it's a part of the process of understanding, especially when trying to innovate and find meaning in a fuzzy problem.

This is why Design Thinkers are undergirded with hard-core analytical and a broader data gathering, that includes observation and sense making of society in general, people, technology, emotions and developing of insights. 

  

Most senior managers and CEOs would trust in strategic concepts and logical deductions based on their "logical data gathering": They use tools such as benchmarking, analytical data, etc., to arrive to solid conclusions. Executives construct theories using their rationality and their conceptual structure and culture. They come to conclusions that make a lot of sense for them because the sense they find is soooo similar of what they found last year, and the year before... only reinforces current knowledge and produces small improvements to the status quo. 

...Then they fight you, 

A Design Thinking approach challenges the 100% rational methods...and that is... scary?
For some analytical thinking professionals I guess it is. But it won't go away: It's a fact that there are experts (innovator, design thinkers, scientists) who are able to identify industry trends and important big ideas way ahead of the rest of the professionals and, even more important, designers know how to network with other "interpreters" – customers, suppliers, intermediaries, designers, artists - who understand and shape the markets they work in.

A new approach means redesign the business as they know it. I guess that is scary too.

...Then you win. 

The “This is going to work” is a fact...two years later, the average time leaders need to understand unsolicited meaning delivered by one of those mad designers two years before...the problem is that, sometimes, it's too late.

And just for the record: 

1. Labelling people doesn't work anymore
2. Better listen the “This is never going to work” 
3. Some leaders just never get it....
4. Any business can commit to successful design thinking

My inspirations to write this post:

Changing the Rules of Competition by  Radically Innovating What Things Mean, by Roberto Vergant
The Generation M Manifesto by Umair Haque
THE END OF BLAH BLAH BLAH – END THOSE USELESS MEETINGS FULL OF TALK By Alexander Osterwalder

Be irrationally optimistic Jeff Haden
A new era of meaning By Tim Leberecht 

Design Thinking starts at the top 

BY JOHN MIZIOLEK

Experience Design: Brands, Designers & People

Madrid, sept 2012

Designing emotions.

Designing for human complexity.

"What are the motivations of a designer?, Why designers always want more?, Why designers feel responsible for their audience?, Why designing appears to be so easy?, Is there anything in this world that is not designed?

I was asking myself these questions after a month of intensive and exhausting design work.

Experience Design is an multidisciplinar, synergistic, empathic, "humantific" and aesthetically activity that also requires a complex management of oneself and the expected and unexpected environment to create an emotional connection between everyone involved in the experience itself: The brand, the audience, the designer and the team.

Experience Designers need to understand and love their audience and need to be empathic from the heart: Empathy is a magical bond that can not be faked, otherwise there will be no emotional experience, just an exchange.

An Experience Designer also needs to developed managements capabilities with an strong focus on PR Communication skills:

Clients: Communicating complex ideas and insights to an audience/clients not familiar with creativity processes and creativity professionals.
Audience: Communication skills that would strenghten relationships between people that live the same experience and the brand

Designers need to control and manage the uncertainty of designing experiences for people as complex and unpredictable as oneself. 

Designers not only need to be able to deal with uncertainty: they need to enjoy it and include it as a vital part of their creative process. 

Experience designers have to be able to stay firm, confident about their critical thinking methodology applied in the process, and sure that the innovations that they have proposed are going to work out: They have to find out how to be able to transmit self-confidence in every decision. 

Designers have to learn how to feel comfortable working in an enviroment willing to transmit you their fears and insecurities in every stage of the process. It´s time to take control, it´s time to transmit your confidence, t's time to build trust.

Designers have to be confident leaders that create delusion in their teams; They have to pretend that what they do it´s not that difficult: If it would transcent to the rest of their team the real complexity of their management of unpredictability that involves any activity involving people's emotions, NO ONE WOULD TRY TO INNOVATE.


Management of complexity, unpredictability, and uncertainty inherent in any innovation or new model creation is what defines a XXI century designer.

When everything it's over, an experience designer reaches a nice sense of accomplishment, but onces again observes that nothing would have been possible without the participation and generosity of every person involved, and confirms that we better be humble or we will be anything at all.

And the designer moves on quickly to the next project and looks forward to the next challenge... By the way, I read that now Tim Brown of IDEO, talks about designing DNA .. . I am in! ;)

What drives designers?

It's all about people 

Global Economy: Niches' Revolution

What are your thoughts on the state of the global economy and of Spain's specifically?, John F Moore asked me as a new member of A Better People.

As a designer, this is my human-centered opinion:

The world before the determination of Markets and Brands to conquer the planet, was a set of isolated niches within other niches: Those niches were very cozy, convenient, and provided security and a nice sense of belonging as well. Isolated and easy to evangelize and control.

What happened? Markets and Brands began its growth climbing rampant with their strategy and new philosophy --- More, bigger, faster, cheaper, now --- (Umair Haque, Director of Havas Media Lab).

How? First they focussed on their targets -us-, and invented very very effective tools to get in our brains and find out what we liked and why, what we needed, what were our aspirations, what we dreamed of, etc. .., and so they launched products and more products for us to consumed, many of which have been paradigms of human progress. Others do not.

This voracity, greed of the Markets and Brand's competition raised their need of invent new ways of reaching all potential not captured up to the point and the rest of the world: They invested in research and develop tools, skills and technology and... they were again very very effective: They invented and implemented new channels and communication platforms that have achieved what they set: The whole world knows their products ... but also know everything about everybody.

The conquest of the world by Brands and Economic policies has been arrogant, inbred, lacking in values ​​and empathy, and they have also underestimate the impact that their actions would have on the future. Well, the future is NOW and what happened is Social Revolution. 

And how people lived in their role as conquered till now?

Niches were very comfortable and customized most of the times. The desire to get out was not compelling: it did not seem to be much to see out there and in many cases was not allowed.

Until they (products) began to knock at our door and showed us what we dreamed, the beauty that was waiting for us out there. We heard of people who thought like us and we had the chance to take a look at other niches like ours and empathize ... and then started the questions: Why am I here?, What is going on?, why not ...? What if I ...?,Why should a conform with...?

My conclusions:

• During the Economic conquest, means were created for the purposes of a minority. Now means would work for the majority.
• Design has spread beauty and aesthetics around the world: Aspiration to Beauty is revolutionary. As Schiller said: "The beauty is considered then the result of the fusion of the rational and sensible, and this merger is the true reality."
• The global economic conquest has led to the creation of an objective shared by the global community: through objects, ideas and aesthetics associated with the products and brands, It has managed to create a new social culture woven into our personal aspirations. Everything is not about money anymore. As a consequence, we all are freer than before. 

I summarize the aspiration of the 21st century's people as a revolutionary desire to LIVE, as Aristotle said: "Life or Being (person), who runs through ethics, aesthetics and politics".

I'll re-quote the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset, who wrote in 1921 a book entitled "The Invertebrate Spain" and that continues to fascinate me its visionary analysis of the reality of that time in Spain but that applies universally to  XXI century:

Ortega predicts a "new type of man [...] that would emerge after a therapeutic project based on the change in sensitivity (change in attitudes to life, including the exemplary respect, and above all, respect for science and intellectual discipline) ".

And for my country and the rest of the world: "Spain has to give herself a society. This is the great task of our time."

 "(...) Full of amazement and tenderness for the wonder that is the world." Ortega, O.C. T.I: 364

Design Thinking: Transforming Reality

los SAN. 44.00 ADC. Hallazgos de bastones de madera, punzones de hueso y ornamentos corporales. 

/ F. D'ERRICO / L. BACKWELL. El País

Human progress and Designers: Pioneers of Design Thinking.

One of the great paradoxes of paleontology is called the Great Leap, or sudden appearance in Europe around 40,000 years ago, advanced instruments typical of modern human creativity.

Design Thinking or "the process of a practical, creative resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result" (Simon, 1969), is not a new resource as stated in various forums in Spain: It is a procedure that has existed since Humanity became a Global Community because some of its members-designers decided not to settled for what nature had given them and dared to "reform" and therefore, change the status quo, therefore, transform reality. How could I tear the skin of an animal .. .? How can I reach the fruit of the tree ...?

It all starts with a question: Why not ...?, What if I ...? How could we ...? what would happen if I...?

The artifacts belong to the San culture, one group of African Bushmen who, by all evidence, invented the modern culture of hunter-gatherers who quickly spread throughout the world.

Nothing has changed to these days (pattern nº1) : Designs that involve a real improvement in the lives of people spread at lightning speed and have the power to alter the known reality: Is the collective consciousness of survival that we all share that matches what is needed in each historical period? Why innovations don't usually match Leaders' mindset? (Pattern nº2).

In all human groups there is always someone who believes that reality can be improved, and a majority that prefer leaving everything just the way it is: and this is invariably a conflict situation (pattern nº3) which leads to these Designers to insist and insist on their idea or dream of improvement in many cases in a quite heroic way. It takes courage (pattern 4) to follow a inner impulse (instinct?) driven to change what is known and it takes courage too to accept these innovations because most of us are concerned about any kind of change: How am I going to react?, Where does it leads?, Will I have to change too? Staying just as we are gives us a false security based on the believe that the future is going to be just as the known past ...and that's not going to happen: Future cannot be decided, the future happens: Won't it be better create it, design it? At least we have to try.

There is always someone inventing new and better ways to get things done: Is it only the passion, an inner certainty impossible to avoid, is the urge to share the finding with the rest of the world?. The impetus of changing reality by inventing new ways of understanding has been punished throughout history as we all know: "How can you be so arrogant to think you can do something to change reality? How dare you question what most assume and approve? Do you think you are better than us?" (Pattern nº5). It's complicated to explain what leads some members of a community to strive, and why they insist on their idea or dream of improvement... Is there perhaps a mandatory interior map?. Albert Einstein said he desired simply to "experience the universe as a single significant whole." Nothing more, nothing less: see the big picture and reconcile the personal with the universal. This drive to fit all the nuances of life in a big puzzle is a hallmark of creativity.


Are empaths designers? Absolutely. One certainty is that any of us is that  unique nor special: we all are persons that need other persons. The designer needs to develop a sense of global community and also needs to develop an insight.


We are all creative, but there are people who see the world as an opportunity to continue creating and designing. It is a devotion. Creating is a goal in itself. If you also have a specific purpose, creativity and their own process, Design Thinking, becomes the more accurate tool for any challenge. 


There is always someone who identifies opportunities of improvement in reality that not everybody can see...and asks questions, What if ...? and challenge themselves, and set personal goals and commit to what they have planned. Is an inner impulse. And them again, the designer will have to insist and insist and fight against skepticism and overcome the impediments of their surroundings, their time, even their own family ...

My opinion? Possibly there is an internal search of the beauty of the result, meaning that the result is the fruit of the personal growth of all written so far and the tangible "proof"  that the "big picture" designed in a designer's imagination has been captured and implemented in reality, coupled with the certainty of having improved the community they belong.
The other vital impulse I will add is also entirely personal: the fight against oneself that involves overcoming patterns nº 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 90 ... and keep on believing in yourself, despite all of them: this is the most exciting personal achievement that one can obtain.


Surely there is someone around you trying to improve what he/she sees and what he/she lives. Listen. Chances are that it will benefit you in the future.

FAQS: Design Thinkers' Personal Questions

Before taking on any project, a Design Thinker has to analyze the situation to try to get an overview and personal insight. You are not always going to obtain all the information needed, but at least make sure that you do have compiled all the information you need to know about yourself in relation to the project that you are going to face. These personal FAQS are essential for you to decided if you want to be IN this concrete project. Of course, the answers to these questions only you will be able to evaluate them positively or negatively, but it is very important that you go through this personal process because it is of great to help you consolidate how to develop, nurture and settle the skills and behaviors you are going to need to confront the proyect....and because there are always comes a time in the course of a project when you doubt everything or have a particularly moment of weakness and uncertainty when you just want to run away... then remember the personal FAQS and the answers you gave to yourself: they will remind you why you got involved in this project!






FAQS >> DESIGN THINKER PERSONAL QUESTIONS :

1.  WHY I'M GOING TO DO THIS? Have a clear goal from the beginning. Never forget the beginning: It'd give you perspective.
2. WHAT FOR WILL I GET INTO THIS? Any personal developing you want to master?What impact will the project have on you once you' are done? Is it a good project for...?
3. DOES IT TAKE ME... WHERE? Try to get an overview of the steps you have to take to develop the project and assess if you are interested
4. DO I WANT TO GO TO THAT PLACE? Be aware that becoming involved in some projects may change your current personal and professional situation
5. DO I HAVE THE MEANS? In addition to the tangible media, do you have strength, are you focused, have the time?
6. IS VIABLE? Is there involvement in the participants, are they professional, have passion about it?
7. IN WHAT WAY DOES IT BENEFITS ME? Does it make me feel good? Personal or Professional.
8. DO I HAVE ANY PREVIOUS IMAGE? Or vision, insight, intuition?. Do not forget.
9. WHAT PARTICULAR ASPECT DOES INTEREST ME DEVELOP? Are you arriving this project at a particular time in your life when you want to develop certain skills ? Human-centered?
10. WHAT SHOULD I DO IN CONSCIENCE? Do not forget your own values ​​and keep them in mind
11. IS IT A SUSTAINABLE PROJECT? Or, Can I make it sustainable?
12. DOES IT GO WITH THE  FLOW? This is something you feel or not...
13. DO I HAVE A VISION OF IT? Do you See IT?
14. WILL I BE IN CONTACT WITH MYSELF OR AM I GOING TO LOOSE MYSELF IN THE WAY THERE? No personal neglect: do not become a new person and don't forget who you are. Work just as you are. At once. 
15. AM I READY TO FACE THE PROJECT? The answer is: Yes, No, or is a complex challenge but I will give everything. I take responsibility from beginning to end.

Important note: During the process of Project's Development could occur substantial alterations from the initial approach. For this purpose are also useful Personal FAQS: they function as personal thermometer and a device that keeps the cruise speed throughout the process. If you notice significant misalignments, have to stop and analyze. If changes are not assumable, must take action.


And ask questions!


Icons by http://thisisservicedesignthinking.com/

What is Design Thinking? CEOs and Innovation

CEOs are closer to designers than they think. In addition to design professionals, scientists, artists, architects, engineers ... Who are Design Thinkers in the 21st century? CEOs and senior managers, because Design Thinking is a bridge between vision and reality.


What does a CEO do? A good CEO dreams and imagines new business models and products. Search for the market instead of in the market. Recognizing emerging patterns that any competitor hasn't yet identify as strategic. Connecting people, ideas and projects ... designing new ways of doing things, creating necessary structures with a team of senior managers-Design Thinkers  that would turn vision into reality by properly defining and conceptualizing problems and challenges through a systematic approach that includes new ways to read the qualitative data, gathering consumers' insights and effective communication of the vision obtained. Co-creation with customers is essential. A CEO needs Design Thinkers to build the bridge between vision and reality.

That is: a good CEO has to have the ability to gather, with the help of his team, all possible elements and insights to weave relevant strategic frameworks. And experience is necessary. 

The current world context:

• We live in an evolving learning society, full of opportunities for anyone who is able to see them. A world where we have to know how to handle the changes and complexities and we must learn to integrate them in ourselves and in the institutions. A manager has to "read" and "discover" the market every day, adjusting their plans according to the opportunities and reinventing new ways of designing businesses and products.
• Triumph of humanism versus the arrogance of the market. The triumph of the consumer is a fact: Companies or institutions that won't empathize or understand this fact, are out. Warning to the market:  consumers also demand honesty and values ​​and are able to detect  excessive greed.
• The ecosystem of a company: employees are no longer subjects of anyone. Professionals are well prepared, have their own opinions and are aware of the power of the group. A business plan will not succeed unless co-created in company. Focus on customers, not on hierarchical relationships. 
• Design Thinking is an intellectual process. It requires a complex understanding of the world so a higher intellectual level is needed in Management Committees. Paraphrasing the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955): Spain needs a change of acttitude in all sectors of our society: "change of vital attitudes, including respect for the exemplary, and above all, respect for science and intellectual disciplines ".

CEOs have to "deal" with two antagonistic players: MARKET and PEOPLE. External and internal audiences and a need to connect and communicate with both of them.

CEOs must be designers.

What makes a good CEO? Design Thinking


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


VIDEO ATTACHED: Managing as Designing, project by Weatherhead School of Management. ( watch 7 videos at ceosaredesigners.com)

Fred Collopy, Richard Boland, GK VanPatter in 2005 conversation. You can download the conversation for free from the NextD Archive.
http://issuu.com/nextd/docs/conv22


How the art of DESIGN can inform the practice of MANAGEMENT!.
Managing is Designing, just as it is analyzing, intelligence gathering and Deciding.
The design disciplines can teach managers About solving complex, unstructured problems. In Addition to managers and Social Scientists, the group included architects, a choreographer, a musicologist, product and software designers, musicians, and painters.


This video explore five Ideas that transfer from the world of designers to That of managers:
• The Importance of Maintaining multiple models of a design object
• The designer's 'thrownness' into a maelstrom of issues, constraints, and Desires
• The Role of Collaboration in design projects
• The need to be Comfortable with Both liquid and crystal states
• The design legacies of that great managers create.

Design Thinking and Innovation experts

Experience is essential in the practice of Design Thinking and today, experts are design professionals who have practice DT systematically, because it is a KSF (Knowledge and Skills Framework) in their professions.

Design Thinking is not a practice learned in a manual nor a textbook: It needs to be internalized through practice. Seriously: does anyone really believe that Design Thinking can be applied with a manual in hand? or maybe with a few questions predefined in a form or reading a power point presentation? Experience is essential: a few encapsulated methods are not equivalent to the insights gained and internalized from the experience and analysis of years. Nor is empathy applied to a particular purpose and neither is integrate intuition in rational processes ... for example.

Most of the information about DT is about WHAT but none about the HOW: What is the KSF of Design Thinker, which are the skills needed to become a DT practitioner? By the way, this is a lifelong learning.

• Cultivate, care for and feed your personal MATRIX (set of life experiences, experiential analysis, conclusions, visions, revelations, ideas and images).
• Analyze what you do and draw objective and personal conclusions to each case or experience.
• Defend your certainties and learn to convince with arguments.
• The more connections you find to previous experiences related to a new analysis of a situation, the more security you'll have in your intuitive decisions.
• Feed your own theories. Create personal systems of knowledge.
• Do not forget your values at home.
• Listen, observe, learn.
• Share knowledge with anyone who wants to listen.
• Practice empathy. Need to care for people.
• Learn the rules and play by them
• Project the future in order to be sustainable:  you as an individual and everything else

Passion and positive ambition is requiered