Putting Technology in Its Place: Design Thinking’s Social Technology at Work

Abstract

Design thinking can be a critical facilitator of new technologies, but it is also a technology in its own right—a social technology that encourages more productive innovation conversations that are strategically valuable for dynamic capability building. By overcoming social and psychological barriers in innovation processes, design thinking accelerates progress on critical imperatives: allowing innovators at all levels to sense new opportunities; seize them by overcoming cognitive biases and aligning stakeholders; and transform and reconfigure resources. It accomplishes this through a set of well-recognized practices.