Design Thinking: Ideas are Cheap
Do you know what the problem with new trends or disciplines is? Because they're so keen on showing off how new and radical or, dare I say it, disruptive they are they fail to see the good work that was done before they came along. .
I can relate to many of the ideas and the underlying philosophy of "Design Thinking" (TM) but unfortunately, many of its proponents are repeat offenders in the disregarding prior knowledge department. You may argue that this very often is not so much a result of the method as such but more of the way it is applied which doesn't make it any less annoying.
One of those things is the emphasis many DesignThinkers (TM) put on ideation. Dan Saffer (whose incredibly funny talk on Design Thinking should be mandatory to watch for anyone in the Design, UX, and Management department of every company) has already pointed out the importance of design doing vs pure design thinking.
Unfortunately, the messages seems to have fallen on mostly deaf ears.
Don't believe me? Well, here's a test: Take ten people who've just taken some DT training and ask them what they remember: "Ideation" Storyboarding, and playing with LEGO.
Storyboarding is a powerful tool, and Ideation is important. (Frankly, I still fail to understand the LEGO bit, but nevermind.)
However, important as it may be, ideation the easy part of the design process. It's not like this is big new because the creative profession have know this for ages.
Ask any professional writer what their least favorite question is and they will tell you it's: "Where do you get your ideas from?"
Why? Because having ideas is the easy part. Everyone has ideas, writers are only better at taking note of them. It's turning that idea into a story or book that's so hard. I would even go so far as to say that whilst having a great idea is a good starting point for a good book it is no prerequisite. You can have a good book without a particularly great idea but you can never have one with a great idea but shoddy writing.
Why do we put so much emphasis on ideation then? Maybe because its the fun part? The bit which gives us that glowing feeling of pride for having achieved something in a group through brainstorming (and playing with LEGO). Putting ideas into action is the grim, sometimes boring, and *hard* part.
I am not telling you to not to ditch Design Thinking for ideation. Go and and generate some great ideas, but remember that it is only the first step. Putting your ideas into into action is what counts. Remember to reserve enough time, energy, and creativity for the implementation. Because if you don't your great idea is going to stay just that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DkGMY63FF3Q
