Interpretations of design thinking across a large organization

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openAccess

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Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa

Date

2019

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Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

10
33929-3928

Series

PROCEEDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING DESIGN, ICED19, Proceedings of the Design Society : International Conference on Engineering Design, Volume 1, issue 1

Abstract

Design thinking has a prominent role as established corporations ramp up innovation efforts focusing on user needs. Current literature provides a plethora of definitions for design thinking with variations in tools, methods and cultures. This study aims to identify differences in perception and maturity of design thinking across different contexts within a large corporation. The results are based on a thematic analysis of nine semi-structured interviews with industrial and user experience designers in the case company, operating in different countries and three different organizational contexts: lone designers of a region, unit-embedded design team managers and global-level design managers. The results echo the literature in finding no uniform definition of design thinking. Instead, it was seen as a continuous scale of practices, cognitive approaches and mindsets aiming for stronger user-centrism in the organization. Practices and maturity varied between contexts, indicating that to strengthen the role of design in an organization, a deep understanding of the context is crucial for a successful implementation.

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Keywords

design practice, design management, organizational processes, design maturity

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Citation

Kosmala, M, van der Marel, F & Björklund, T 2019, ' Interpretations of design thinking across a large organization ', Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design, pp. 3929-3938 . https://doi.org/10.1017/dsi.2019.400