DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

J.N.T.U.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING PULIVENDULA

Design Thinking & Product Innovation-

II B.Tech- IISem
UNIT - II

Dr. Y.RAMESWARA REDDY

Asst. Professor ,
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING,
J.N.T.U.A COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING PULIVENDULA.
 Unit-III
• Systematic approach to product development:
Design Thinking, Innovation, Empathize Design
Thinking as a systematic approach to Innovation,
• brainstorming, visual thinking, design challenges,
innovation, art of Innovation, strategies for idea
generation, creativity, teams for innovation.
• Solution finding methods: Conventional,
intuitive, discursive, methods for combining
solution, decision making for new design.
 DESIGN THINKING

• Design is a realization of a concept or idea into

a configuration, drawing or a product.
• Design thinking is cognitive and practical
processes by which design concepts are
developed by designers.
• Innovation is a new idea or a new concept.
• Product development is the creation of a new or
different product that offers new benefits to
the end user.
• Design Thinking believes (and has been proven) that the
people who face problems are the ones who hold the key
to their problem’s answer.
• Design Thinking is Humancentered problem solving tool
which emphasize on Empathy, Collaboration, Cocreation
and Stakeholder feedback to unlock Creativity and
Innovation, which devises feasible and viable Big
Idea/solutions.
• The key to the process is empathizing with the users
(citizen) to uncover unmet needs by understanding their
beliefs, values, motivations, behaviours, pains, gains and
challenges and to provide innovative solution conce pts
• Design thinking is a methodology that designers use to brainstorm and
solve complex problems related to designing and design engineering.
• Design thinking is used extensively in the area of healthcare and wellness,
agriculture, food security, education, financial services, and environmental
sustainability, to name a few.
• Design thinking has helped in the digital space, contributed to the
development of physical products, spurred social innovation projects and
much more.
• It is not just a strategy to come up with feasible solutions to a problem,
but also a method to think of unimaginable solutions and then trying to
make them not just feasible, but also viable.
• Design thinking is a blend of logic, powerful imagination, systematic
reasoning and intuition to bring to the table the ideas that promise to
solve the problems of the clients with desirable outcomes. It helps to bring
creativity with business insights.
 Features of Design Thinking
• Such problems require multidimensional
solutions. Design thinking helps in this regard.
It not only assists a professional to come up
with a solution, but it also helps the
organization to gain a competitive edge over
its rivals. Following are the benefits conferred
by design thinking. These are incidentally also
the distinguishing features of design thinking.
• Finding simplicity in complexities.
• Having a beautiful and aesthetically appealing
product.
• Improving clients’ and end user’s quality of
experience.
• Creating innovative, feasible, and viable
solutions to real world problems.
• Addressing the actual requirements of the
end users.
• Most of the challenges in the world do not get
solved because people trying to address those
problems focus too much on the problem statement.
At other times, the problem statement is overlooked
and there is too much stress to find a solution.
• Design thinking helps to gain a balance between the
problem statement and the solution developed. A
design-oriented mindset is not problem focused, but
solution focused and action oriented. It must involve
both analysis and imagination. Design thinking is the
way of resolving issues and dissolving problematic
situations by the help of design.
 Use of Design Thinking
• How to optimize the ability to innovate?
• How to develop a variety of concepts, products, services,
processes, etc. for end users?
• How to leverage the diverse ideas of innovation?
• How to convert useful data, individual insights and vague
ideas into feasible reality?
• How to connect with the customers and end-users by
targeting their actual requirements?
• How to use the different tools used by designers in their
profession for solving your customers’ problems?
 Design Thinking - Applications
• Business
• Information Technology
• Education
• Healthcare
 Principles of Design Thinking
• According to Christoph Meinel and Larry Leifer, there are
four principles to design thinking.
• The Human Rule - This rule states that all kinds of design
activity are ultimately social in nature.
• The Ambiguity Rule - This rule requires all design thinkers to
preserve ambiguity in the process design thinking.
• The Re-design Rule - The re-design rule states that all designs
are basically examples of re-design.
• The Tangibility Rule - The tangibility rule states that making
ideas tangible always facilitates communication between
design thinkers.
Design Thinking process
 INNOVATION:

• Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that

result in the introduction of new goods or services or
improvement in offering goods or services.
• Innovation is often also viewed as the application of better
solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs,
or existing market needs.
 Product Innovation
• When people think of innovation, often, they are thinking of
product innovation. Product innovation can come in three
different forms.
• 1) The development of a new product, such as the Fit bit or
Amazon’s Kindle.
• 2) An improvement of the performance of the existing
product, such as an increase in the digital camera resolution
of the iPhone 11.
• 3) A new feature to an existing product, such as power
windows to a car.
• Drivers of product innovation might be
technological advancements, changes in
customer requirements, or outdated product
design. Product innovation is generally visible
to the customer and should result in a greater
demand for a product.
 Process Innovation
• Process is the combination of facilities, skills, and technologies
used to produce, deliver, and support a product or provide a
service. Within these broad categories, there are countless
ways process can improve.
• Process innovation can include changes in the equipment and
technology used in manufacturing (including the software
used in product design and development), improvement in
the tools, techniques, and software solutions used to help in
supply chain and delivery system, changes in the tools used to
sell and maintain your good, as well as methods used for
accounting and customer service.
 Business Model Innovation
• Business model innovation does not necessarily imply
changes in the product or even in the production process, but
in the way as it is brought to the market.
• When talking about business model innovation, without a
doubt, names like AirBnB, Uber, or Spotify will come up. These
are perfect examples of fast-moving companies that were able
to disrupt age-old markets (hotel taxi, music) by tweaking or
inverting their industry’s traditional business model.
 Empathize:
• This step involves putting oneself into the shoes of
the customer or the end-user of our solution. We
need to understand the problems faced by the
customer and we, as design thinkers, need to
empathize with the customer.
• This step is carried out in the form of requirement
gathering, which involves interviews and sometimes,
even field visits. This step involves the process of
analysis, the one which we discussed in the previous
sections. There are a few points to be considered
while interviewing the customer.
• The interviewer must brainstorm for the questions beforehand
and must be fully prepared for the interview.
• The questions being asked must be open questions. No such
question should be asked for which the interviewee can answer
only in Yes or No. Such binary questions must be avoided.
• The interviewer must have plenty of ‘why’ questions. Here, the
‘five whys’ method can help.

• The themes of the questions must not be intermingled. The

themes must be arranged properly and questions pertaining to
a theme must be asked together.

• The questions must be refined thoroughly so that no trace of

ambiguity is left in them.
• Let’s take a deeper look at this section using the
example of DT’s problem statement. To fully
understand DT’s problem, we need to engage in
an interview with DT employees, those who are
working and even those who are leaving.
• It is important for us, as design thinkers, to
observe, engage, and listen to the interviewee.
To create meaningful innovations, we need to
understand the needs of the customer and
know how it feels. Following can be few of the
questions that can be asked to the employees.
• Regarding Motivation to Work
• What motivates you to come at the
workplace?
• What is the thing that drains you off energy at
workplace?
• Is the factor for demoralization related to
company policies or your peers?
• Regarding Leaving the Company
• What are your aspirations?
• How is the other company fulfilling your
aspirations?
• Is your decision related to something other
than workplace motivation?
• Regarding Time of Leaving
• How does this time suit your decision to leave
the organization?
• Does your decision has anything to do with
appraisal? If yes, how? The following
questions must be asked to DT’s management.
• Regarding Employee Attrition
• Has any pattern been observed between the
employees leaving the organization and their
appraisal ratings?
• What are the issues that the employees have
complained about in the past regarding their
workplace?
• Regarding Knowledge Transfer Mechanism
• What does a knowledge transfer program
constitute of?
• How much money goes as expense of knowledge
transfer program?
• What is the current methodology of knowledge
transfer program and how effective is it?
• How can the budget allocated to knowledge
transfer program be increased or decreased?
• What are the indispensable resources and pre-
requisites for a knowledge transfer program?
• Once these questions have been answered,
we can proceed to the further steps with more
clarity. This way, a design thinker will be able
to cover all the necessary details related to
the problem, gather all the requirements and
think of the solutions with an exhaustive set of
facts and information in hand. This will help in
converging at a solution that takes into
consideration the answers to all the questions.
 Define Stage

• Now, we have learnt the problems of our customers and the

context as well. It is time to define our problem and arrive at a
problem statement. This statement will give us the necessary
direction to proceed towards the issue faced by the customer.
• As a design thinker, we need to cover all the points and the
answers that we got in the ‘empathize’ phase.
• The first step towards defining a problem is to find who the
user is, what is his/her/their needs and then develop insights
from the answers. Think of ‘How might we?’ questions.
• For example, ‘how might we motivate the
employees in DT?’,
• ‘How might we address the concern on the
connection between appraisal ratings and attrition?’,
‘How might we reduce the cost of knowledge
transfer program without compromising its quality
and the mandatory pre-requisite resources?’ and
many other questions along the similar lines. But
how do we generate such questions. In short, “How
might we generate the ‘how might we’ questions?”
The following guidelines will help a design thinker to
come up with such questions.
 Amplify the good:
• A design thinker must think how to amplify the
positive aspects of the customers’ needs. For
instance, we can think of how to boost the morale of
the employees who are not leaving the company or
how to increase the quality of knowledge transfer
program in DT.
 Eliminate the bad:
• Design thinkers need to remove all the bad
elements observed in the problem. In case of
DT problem, we must remove the problem of
high costs of knowledge transfer and the lack
of motivation in the company. We also need to
remove the negative effect that appraisal
ratings have on employees.
 Explore the opposite:
• Design thinkers need to brainstorm on how to
convert the problem into an opportunity. In the
case of DT, we can think of how the lack of
motivation can become an opportunity for
employees to ideate and suggest a way to bring
more motivation and energy in the workplace.
 Question the Assumptions:
• This step involves questioning the assumption at
hand. It is assumed that DT needs knowledge
transfer for its new employees. Is it indispensable to
have this knowledge transfer process in place?
 Identify the Unexpected Resources:
• Design thinkers should try to find whether some
other resources not mentioned by the customer can
be leveraged? In case of DT, think of how we can use
some other resources to train the employees or to
• motivate the employees in the organization.
 Create an Analogy:
• Design thinking also involves, among many
other things, how to create connections
between the problem at hand and unrelated
images. DT can think of similar cases or
situations where such problem of knowledge
transfer and motivation of people is at stake.
DT can think how problems had been solved
there.
 Break the Problem into Pieces:
• This is where again analysis comes into picture for a
short while before the problem definition can be
synthesized. The points discussed from ‘empathize’
section can be broken down into elementary
fragments to make the work easier.
 BRAINSTORMING:

• Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which

efforts are made to find a conclusion for a specific problem
by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its
members.
• In other words, brainstorming is a situation where a group of
people meet to generate new ideas and solutions around a
specific domain of interest by removing inhibitions. People are
able to think more freely and they suggest as many
spontaneous new ideas as possible. All the ideas are noted
down without criticism and after the brainstorming session
the ideas are evaluated.
 Steps in Brainstorming:

• Set a time limit – Depending on the problem’s complexity,

15–60 minutes is normal.
• Begin with a target problem/brief – Members should
approach this sharply defined question, plan or goal and stay
on topic.
• Refrain from judgment/criticism – No-one should be negative
(including via body language) about any idea.
• Encourage weird and wacky ideas – Further to the ban on
killer phrases like “too expensive”, keep the floodgates open
so everyone feels free to blurt out ideas (provided they’re on
topic).
• Aim for quantity – Remember, “quantity breeds quality”. The
sifting-and-sorting process comes later
• Build on others’ ideas – It’s a process of association where
members expand on others’ notions and reach new insights,
allowing these ideas to trigger their own. Say “and”—rather
than discourage with “but”—to get ideas closer to the
problem
• Stay visual – Diagrams and Post-Its help bring ideas to life
and help others see things in different ways.
• Allow one conversation at a time – To arrive at concrete
results, it’s essential to keep on track this way and show
respect for everyone’s ideas.
 Following is one of the techniques to
brainstorm for ideas
• Mind Maps
• Mind map is a diagram that helps to observe
and study information in a visual manner.
Mind map is created around a single problem
statement and all the ideas to solve the
problem are written around it. The problem
statement usually is written at the center of a
blank page as a hub and branches shoot out in
all directions representing the solutions.
• The ideas can be represented as text, images,
trees, and even smaller mind maps. The entire
map looks like a top view of a tree, with the
problem statement as the trunk and the
solutions as branches. It is also known by the
name of spider diagram.
• However, mind map is not a mere haphazard
diagram. It is a well-structured organized
diagram meant to aid the thinking process and
to streamline the analysis and synthesis
process.
 Guidelines to Create Mind Maps

• Begin with the problem statement at the center

of a blank white page.
• Use images, different colours, symbols,
caricatures, abbreviations and codes to depict
your ideas. Text can be boring, but different
depictions can add an altogether different
charm to your mind map.
• Keywords must replace long statements. The
mind map must give a hint to the design
thinker about an idea quickly. Reading a long
statement is waste of time.
• Each and every word written in the mind map
must be connected to the central hub by some
or other line or set of lines.
• Use multiple colours for visual stimulation.
• Use radial hierarchy and make use of
emphasis, italics, and underlines to stress on a
point.
 Visual Thinking:

• Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is a teaching

method that improves critical thinking skills through
teacher-facilitated discussions of visual images.
• VTS encourages participation through a group
problem-solving process. It uses art to teach
thinking, communication skills, and visual literacy.
• Ways to use visual thinking, and some tips on how to get the
most out of them, and use them better.
• Brainstorming
• They are probably the most popular form of visual thinking.
Brainstorming is a way in which we can separate ideas into
themes and see connections not seen before.
• Presentation slides
• Another form of visual thinking commonly used is
presentation slides. They allow us to ensure that our
audience understands us coherently, and keeps
everyone on the same page better than speech alone.
The focus here is not on the presenter, but on how the
audience takes in a presentation.
• Visual thinking can also act as a way to ensure that
misinterpretation is avoided. Ensuring that
presentations are kept clear and concise is another
way in which visual thinking can prove successful. You
can keep your presentations clear every time with a
slide library, and good design.
• Whiteboard
• Use a whiteboard when you are working with
your team to come up with an idea, or even
use it to keep the minutes of a meeting. This
will allow your team to see connections not
clear before, and keep everyone on the same
track if they accidentally zoned out 10 minutes
in in a simple and clear way.
• Post it
• Sticky notes can be more than simply a
reminder. They can also function as a great
way for us to organize our thoughts, plan our
roadmaps, and see connections between
ideas we haven’t seen before.
• Sticky notes can be used by us alone to plan
ideas, or can serve as a great team working
tool.
• Flowcharts
• Flowcharts are another form of visual
thinking, they allow us to be explicitly clear
about processes, without having to worry that
a step has been mis-communicated, or lost in
translation. They work brilliantly when
onboarding a new team member on a project,
as they can be a constant and clear reminder
of the processes which go behind everyday
tasks.
• Roadmaps
• Last but not least is using maps in your visual
thinking. We’ve probably all seen a company
roadmap at some point or another. Maybe
even one with doodles around it and a fancy
‘You have reached your destination’ sign. But
this type of visualization can be a great tool to
force you and your team to make difficult
decisions, and see if you’re taking on too
much.
 DESIGN CHALLENGES:
• Material Selection
• Properties of the material- suitability
• Skilled labour
• Complexity of model design
• Availability of simulation tools
• Should have sufficient acceptability to get
penetrate into the market.
 ART OF INNOVATION
• Ten Steps in Innovation:
• Make meaning: of the product
• Ex: Apple democratize computers, Google making information
available to every one, Ebay, Youtube.
• Make a mantra: why your meaning should exists.
• Ex: Nike- just do it,
• Jump to the next curve:
• Ex: Ice business 1.0 ( Ice harvesting), Ice 2.0 ( made at
localized area) and ice 3.0 ( made in refrigerator)
• Roll the dice: great innovation is deep, Intelligent, complete.
• • Don’t worry- be crappy: you will definitely have some
crappy things in any object don’t wait yourself for the
perfection.
• Let 100 flowers Blossom: let define what costumers do use
the product of what they want not for what is made for.
• Ex: Mobile having features- GPRS, camera….
• • Polarize people: split people like one group loves HD and
one not