Design Thinking

Design Thinking was one of our skill development courses in the third trimester of the PGP
course at IIM Sambalpur. It was conducted by Tinker Labs and was constructed to give us
and alternate paradigm breaking down problems and coming up with innovative and creative
solutions. Having never been exposed to this kind of course. I am really rejoiced to say that it
was a much needed relief from the daily grind of our grueling pedagogy.
The first class began at the designated hour and the atmosphere was informal and conducive
for exchanging ideas and facilitating interaction. We were given a short presentation on what
the course is all about. Design thinking as the name suggests is all about making you think
creatively a habit. It sounds strange but the more one thinks about it the more one
understands how important it is in todays innovate world. The premise of the course that
creativity does not have to come in flashes but can be willfully deployed is surprising but
fascinating. This simulated interest in thinking out of the box for even normal scenarios too.
It has shown how a difficult task can be broken down to pieces of information and
enlightened us to think of attacking what kind of information first.
The classes had a hands- on approach with examples being given for every thought or
principle that was expressed. We were exposed to the process by which design thinking is
applied. It started with the journey map. Its a very useful tool in which one maps out the
different people or parties are involved in a given process. So if I wanted to make a given
problem much easier in finding solution, it is much safer to create the journey map I would
have to first identify the stakeholders. Then I require to identify the different stages that
stakeholders go through while crossing the problem. By doing this I will be able to pinpoint
what exactly is making the problem unsafe and what can be done to solve it. It goes without
saying that I would have to interact with stakeholders which in this case would I include the
mess workers, cleaners, students and campus authoritative. The journey map is a very useful
tool. This is because in most cases when we are analyzing a problem we tend to look at the
problem as whole. This process is not only time consuming but it often makes a person miss
out on the more subtle points. The journey map forces one to look at the nuances of a
problem and to pinpoint where exactly the bottleneck is. The focus should be narrow and
creative intensity high. This will result in high quality solutions which have a bigger impact.
Another refreshing aspect of the course was the process of ideation. No idea was out of
bounds. The main theme of the entire course was to bring about every bright spot from the
transom of your mind regardless of the realism of the thought. It resulted in many interesting
ideas coming from different segments and from different people. The idea were divided into
different segments like ideas one would have if one did not have a money constraint or ideas
one would have if he or she were a superhero. The surprising part was that even within the
different categories of ideas there were commonalities. It goes to show how individualism
precedes collectivism and vice versa. And another part of the story where one need to think

like children in dealing the problems, actually this segment brought us to think how a
problem can be solved with an emotional touch.
I also came to appreciate the role of criticism. A lot is said about accepting criticism about
your own work and incorporate those to improve your work. Easier said than done. A person
has to have an open mind which means accepting from the very beginning that whatever you
are doing will not be perfect. It seems intuitive but it really gets difficult.
Actually in our case of creating a solution for hygienic atmosphere in campus, it provided a
work a way solutions in handling the problem in much simpler way, where the major part of
the problem can be handled with much lower cost than anticipated and made us think about
the problem how small it is. When we handled the interview with different people we came to
know that how the problem is different for different people and how important to one another.
Even the course unique methodology of using simple cartoons for writing and new hands
experience of using sticky notes and doodles made us feel a bit creative and we enjoyed the
new experience like anything. Even the proto type making is so much fun, where we need to
make the real look alike things from scrap. And the prototyping also brought us realize how
important the team work is in making things.
I can say after having attended the workshop that it was indeed a very new experience.
Whats more reassuring is that firms are applying these cutting edge thought processes to
solve their problems. I hope that more such courses will be on offer in the future in enhancing
our skills to deal the problems in much simpler and effective manner.