101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization

A step-by-step guidebook on deploying design thinking for innovation

Design thinking is a mindset and method that can be applied to nearly any innovation challenge or endeavor. Using structured methods for observation, reframing, ideation, prototyping, and planning, design thinking can be used to develop innovative solutions in a wide range of business scenarios and social reform.

101 Design Methods is the first step-by-step guidebook for successful innovation through design thinking. Unlike other popular titles, 101 Design Methods approaches the practice of creating new products, services, and customer experiences as a science, rather than an art, providing a practical set of collaborative tools and methods for planning and defining successful new offerings. Exploring the “mindset” and “methods” for each, the modes of thinking covered include:

• SENSE INTENT
• KNOW CONTEXT
• KNOW PEOPLE
• FRAME INSIGHTS
• EXPLORE CONCEPTS
• FRAME SOLUTIONS
• REALIZE OFFERINGS

Strategists, managers, designers, and researchers who undertake the challenge of innovation, despite a lack of established procedures and a high risk of failure, will find 101 Design Methods an invaluable resource. Novices can learn from it; practitioners can structure their work; managers can plan with it; and executives can make decisions based on it.

VIJAY KUMAR is a professor at the IIT Institute of Design, the graduate school of design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he leads the Strategic Design Planning and the Design Methods programs. Kumar has taught, published, consulted, and lectured throughout the world on using structured methods, tools, and frameworks for conceiving reliable human-centered innovations and turning them into strategic plans for organizations. He has consulted for Autodesk, Motorola, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, SC Johnson, Steelcase, Target, T-Mobile, and many others.