Introduction
This report describes the services provided by
Udrew
along with the organisational challenges and problems they are currently facing. This report also focuses on the concept of applying design thinking to a real case study. It classifies the purpose of design thinking, especially from a business and commercial perspective. It illustrates the step by step procedure of the design thinking process. The paper also provides a reflection of the two design thinking workshops including the challenges faced as well as the limitations and benefits of the workshops.
Group ProjectWords: Strategy, Change & Innovation Group Project Report. Haiyou Pang18200254 Kwisha Patel19004651 Abhishek Patel18736034 Nyahsa Chapereka18972896 Introduction3 Background of UDrew3 What is its purpose? - Particularly to business & commerce5 Design Thinking Steps6 Process of Design Thinking workshops8 Our process Vs. Literature10 New challenges and value proposition10 Usefulness and benefits of the workshops11 Workshop Challenges15 Limitations in the Design Thinking Workshop15 Next Time16 References18 Introduction This report describes the services provided by Udrew along with the organisational challenges and problems they are currently facing. This report also focuses on the concept of applying design thinking to a real case study. It classifies the purpose of design thinking, especially from a business and commercial perspective. It illustrates the step by step procedure of the design thinking process. The paper also provides a reflection of the two design thinking workshops including the challenges faced as well as the limitations and benefits of the workshops. Background of UDrew Udrew is a one-stop search for all building, planning, and endorsements (IBPA 2017). Tom Young is the pioneer of the Udrew who is a Geotechnical Analyst, Structural Draftsman and Systems Engineer (IBPA 2017). Udrew helps homeowners to structure their own interactive, customisable, compliant and smart building plans and get instant building approvals from the local government and council. Udrew also helps homeowners to plan and build small structures within their existing properties such as walls, fencing, driveways, pools, sheds etc (IBPA 2017). As building approvals generally take up to 4 months, Udrew has identified a vast range of latest technologies to plan and receive immediate approvals for those structures. Udrew also verifies the projects whether they meet the latest national and local building codes. With the diverse skill sets Tom and his troops possess in engineering, geotechnical knowledge, and construction, Udrew has taken the challenging building planning and approvals process into the digital era. Udrew has been backed up by Jack’s Ventures, City of Wanneroo and Curtin Ignition, who have embraced the innovative solutions Udrew offers (IBPA 2017). The City of Wanneroo will be the first Australian local government to experience UDrew’s innovative solution. Organisational challenges Every organisation has their challenges. So, how can Udrew’s organisation stay away from it? Tom Young has stated Udrews two primary organisational challenges: 1) How can they convince their stakeholders to trust in the new technology they are using (Young 2017)? 2) How can they get governments to change the way they have done the things due to the lengthy process of approving building plans (Young 2017)? There are multiple secondary challenges that Tom and his team were unable to identify. Udrew is unable to set an appropriate pricing strategy and maintain high standards in the quality of services they offer to stay competitive in the industry (Geneste 2017). They need to announce their arrival in the industry to gain market awareness, widening their scope. Remaining updated with latest innovations, technologies, and trends will keep them ahead of their competitors (Geneste 2017). They should increase awareness toward stakeholders’ necessities to gain a trustworthy relation. What is Design thinking? Design thinking refers to the method or means by which designers or innovators create revolutionary innovations to solve complex problems for clients within the market (Coleman 2016; Brown & Wyatt 2010). To shed more light on this, the Business professor of the University of Toronto Roger Martin states that design thinking originates from integrative thinking which is the ability to exploit opposing ideas and constraints to create new solutions (Ted Global 2009). “Design thinking is essentially a human-centered innovation process that emphasizes observation, collaboration, fast learning, visualization of ideas, rapid concept prototyping, and concurrent business analysis” (Benson 2014).Design thinking’s base is established from several aspects such as logic, imagination, intuition and systemic reasoning to explore possibilities of possible future inventions as well as to work on the creation of desired outcomes with the view of benefiting the end consumer (Brown & Wyatt 2010). “Design thinking implements creative disruptive to introduce a new market disruptive and improving the previous technology in its innovative wake” (Rosenzweig 2015). As seen in Figure 1. The design thinking model outlines the manner in which the concept works across five stages and clearly illustrates how it functions. What is its purpose? - Particularly to business & commerce Paying particular attention to business and commerce, design thinking’s core purpose and importance come about as the main drive behind a firm’s competitive edge. To shed more light on this, design thinking can be said to be a firm’s biggest & best intangible possession as all aspects of the firm are centered around the end user (Liedtka & Ogilvie 2011). Now, what design thinking does as a competitive asset is it seeks to create value for clients in a more efficient manner thus making the firm’s product or service more desirable to use in the consumer's eyes. Design thinking as an asset tool also pushes business to break outside the “box” and stimulates innovation and much-needed efficiency for the end user (Kimbell 2015). To explain this in greater detail, design thinking in the business context allows for businesses to break down a complex problem or challenge to the core through the extensive use of logic, imagination, intuition and systemic reasoning to explore possibilities of possible future inventions with the view of creating efficiency for clients. Kodak for example, a company that was once the global leader in the film industry filed for bankruptcy in the year 2012 because they failed to recognize the direction in which technology was moving (De la Merced 2012; Waters 2012). If Kodak had managed to make use of and apply design thinking to their core business they would have been able to stay afloat and avoided being swallowed in the digital era through creating world-changing inventions for their clients or making investments that would enable their firm to stay afloat (Ducere 2017). Design Thinking Steps The design thinking process comprises of 5 key steps which include empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping & testing. 1) Empathize As seen in figure 1, the empathizing stage can be referred to as the starting point of the design thinking process. This stage is where design thinkers put aside their personal views of what the problem might be but rather engage themselves in the shoes of the end user (client). This method allows them to experience what the client is experiencing and gain a clear, first-hand understanding to allow for accurate pinpointing the organizational problem (Liedtka et al 2013). 2) Define The defining stage of the design thinking process allows for design thinkers to put together data and findings from the empathy stage through a mass analysis process. As seen in figure 1, the analysis of data gathered during the empathy stage allows design thinkers to come up with the core issue or problem at hand which is known as the “defining”. As seen in the case by Tim Brown, at this stage design thinkers, and organizations may realize they could be dealing with a general problem of unsatisfied/ unhappy patients, however, after data analysis and the first-hand experience, design thinkers will be able to outline that the ultimate drive behind patient de-satisfaction is the inconvenient location of the clinic as people always struggle to get parking when visiting the doctors. The problem at hand would, therefore, be outlined as “Parking needs to made more convenient in order to increase our patient satisfaction”. The defining stage would also help designers to start generating ideas of how the problem at hand can be resolved (Liedtka et al 2013; Diechmann & Heijde 2016). 3) Ideate The ideating stage of the design thinking process allows for design thinkers to start coming up with solutions, means or methods that can solve the particular problem at hand. As seen in figure 1, this is the next stage that design thinkers would have already empathized with the clients and received the first-hand experience, gathered and analyzed data. The fundamental aspects that surround the ideating stage include asking key questions such as; how do we solve problem x or y through brainstorming and thinking outside the box? An illustration of the above-given example would be to use the statement “how do we make parking more convenient in to increase patient satisfaction” to start generating ideas (Liedtka et al 2013). 4) Prototype The prototype stage of the design thinking process allows for the design thinkers to start building inexpensive, smaller scale solutions to the problem identified. It is essential to keep in mind the aim of privately testing generated solutions and ultimately selecting the best solution to resolve the issue. This must be done whilst taking into consideration the end users feelings and experiences. The prototype stage includes redeveloping solutions that are brought forward and restructuring them to better suit the needs of the end user (Liedtka et al 2013). As illustrated in figure 1, the prototype stage involves internally building or creating small-scale solutions and evaluating how to, if they can be applied. 5) Test The testing stage of the design thinking process allows for design thinkers to ultimately test or try out the best-identified solutions or ideas generated in the prototyping stage. Despite being the final stage of the design thinking model, design thinkers often use this stage to learn, realize and rethink of the other problems that could have been missed or could be resulting from the newly generated solutions through an in-depth analysis of the results produced (Liedtka et al 2013).As illustrated in figure 1, the testing stage involves trying out solutions that could work and seeing how practical they are as at times a solution could be good on paper but not practical. During the testing stage, design thinkers engage clients and get feedback as to how the new solutions are doing. Now, whilst engaging clients and getting feedback, design thinkers use the testing stage to learn how they can improve or better the solution through empathizing with the clients. Figure 1: Design Thinking Process Process of Design Thinking workshops We participated in two major design thinking workshops. 1) Identifying Udrew's real challenge. 2) Deriving a new value proposition that impacts all stakeholders. The first workshop was used to identify the real challenge of Udrew by empathizing with the stakeholders of Udrew. Our group was assigned to be the local councils, homeowners, investors, and rivals. As we can see from Figure2, our first design thinking workshop was broken down into four steps. Firstly, we gathered the stakeholders’ perspective and described their daily job. Secondly, we exchanged our roles. Thirdly, we wrote Udrew’s questions. Finally, by analyzing all the questions, we diagnosed Udrew's challenge; the trust of stakeholders on technology. Figure 2: First Workshop The second workshop was to identify Udrew’s value propositions through the empathy map. Firstly, our group is based on the investor to write the empathy