The Designing for Growth Field Book

A Step-by-Step Project Guide

Jeanne Liedtka, Tim Ogilvie

• Publisher: Columbia Business School Publishing
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9780231537087
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Decision Making
• Index: Business

In Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers (D4G), Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie showed how design can boost innovation and drive growth. In this companion guide, also suitable as a stand-alone project workbook, the authors provide a step-by-step framework for applying the D4G toolkit and process to a particular project, systematically explaining how to address the four key questions of their design thinking approach.

The field book maps the flow of the design process within the context of a specific project and reminds readers of key D4G takeaways as they work. The text helps readers identify an opportunity, draft a design brief, conduct research, establish design criteria, brainstorm, develop concepts, create napkin pitches, make prototypes, solicit feedback from stakeholders, and run learning launches. The workbook demystifies tools that have traditionally been the domain of designers—from direct observation to journey mapping, storytelling, and storyboarding—that power the design thinking process and help businesses align around a project to realize its full potential.

The Steps

Step 1: Identify an Opportunity

So that’s it! Four simple questions. And we’re ready to get started. We’ll begin by making sure you’ve got the right kind of problem to work on.

As you identify your growth opportunity, it’s important to consider whether design thinking is a fit for solving it. Design thinking is an approach to solving problems especially suited to conditions of high uncertainty. It is a set of methods that manage risk by placing small bets fast. This approach is not suitable for every challenge. In many cases, more linear methods may work better. For operational challenges where the required change is more incremental and where we have good data from the past that allows us to predict the future, we often find traditional analytic methods to be more resource efficient. The table shown at right will help you choose an opportunity that is suited to the unique methods of design thinking.

Think about Zipcar, the innovative car-sharing service. The original creation of Zipcar was an ideal fit for design thinking. The firm set out to create a new category of transportation service: car rental by the hour, with an element of social responsibility through resource sharing. More than a year after Zipcar proved its model in the dense urban context, it sought to extend its service into small university towns. This follow-on challenge could be addressed with more linear analytic methods, since the year-plus of operating data from urban markets could help eliminate many of the unknowns.

So, as you choose where to play, use the six questions as a guide to find your opportunity.

Write down an area of opportunity you think you might like to explore:

Now ask yourself the following questions:

Question	Design thinking is appropriate if …	Linear analytic methods may be better if …
Is the problem human-centered?	Deep understanding of the actual people (users) involved is both possible and important	There are few human beings involved in the problem or the solution
How clearly do you understand the problem itself?	We have a hunch about the problem and/or opportunity, but we need to explore and get agreement	We understand the problem clearly and are sure we’re solving the right one
What’s the level of uncertainty?	There are many unknowns (large and small), and past data is unlikely to help us	The past is a good predictor of the future
What’s the degree of complexity?	There are many connecting and interdependent facets of the problem; it’s hard to know where to start	The path to solving the problem is clear, and analytic methods have succeeded in solving similar problems in the past
What data is already available to you?	There is very little relevant existing data to analyze	There are several clear sources of analogous data
What’s your level of curiosity and influence?	I’m excited to explore more and can get a group of people willing to help me	The problem feels routine to me, and I have to follow existing processes and systems

Step 2: Scope Your Project

Framing a project and refining its scope are crucial for effectively pursuing new opportunities. Use the framework on the facing page to expand (or focus) your thinking about your project.

Start by thinking about your project in terms of the area of opportunity you want to explore, and write that in the center box. Try to start your statement with an action verb. (For example, if you’re working to improve online ordering for a clothing retailer, your initial statement could be something like, “Help people buy clothes for work.”)

Then, explore your project from both broader and narrower perspectives. Is there a higher-level challenge out there that might unlock more opportunity? (“Help people look and feel great.”) Is there a more focused project that would address a specific barrier that needs to be addressed? (“Help people ensure that online purchases fit.”)

Even when your project definition seems really clear, it’s worth exploring the reasons and barriers to make sure you’re aiming at the right opportunity. Once you’ve looked both broad and narrow, select a project scope that feels actionable, with enough possibility to make it interesting and enough traction that you can do something about it.

Step 3: Draft Your Design Brief

A well-constructed project process is rooted in a design brief that clarifies the scope of the project, its intent, the questions it hopes to explore, and the target group of stakeholders—internal and external—that it wants to explore them with. The design brief keeps you focused on your business objectives and the strategic opportunities and vulnerabilities your project is meant to address.*

We spend time carefully thinking through our plans and ambitions because even though our environment is full of uncertainty, the management of our design project doesn’t need to be. Since some key elements of the design process are uncontrollable, it is all the more important to drive ambiguity out of the management of the project itself. That is the role of your design brief—to help you get as much clarity, control, and transparency into the management of your project as possible. It should also be useful for keeping important stakeholders (your boss, your partners, etc.) informed.

The design brief should be limited to two pages so that it is concise and simple to update as the project moves ahead. Here is a template you can use.

As we move forward, we want to keep in mind that the design brief is always a work in progress that may change as our understanding of the problem evolves.

Design Brief
Project Description	What is the problem or opportunity? Describe the project in a few sentences, as you would in an “elevator pi...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Using Your Field Book
• Contents 
• The Four Questions
• The Steps
• The Tools
• Templates
• Resources
• An Example Project
• Acknowledgments