Republic of the Philippines

PHILIPPINE STATE COLLEGE OF AERONAUTICS

INSTITUTE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES
Piccio Garden, Villamor, Pasay City

L E A R N I N G MOD U L E 6
Design Thinking and Systems Thinking

A . Y 2021-2022
1s t SEMESTER

Instructor: Mr. Noriel A. Lastrollo, LPT. MBA.

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General Directions: This is a self-directed learning module. Everything you need to navigate
your way through the lessons can be found in this module. Reference books, required
readings, and even website URLs have been provided in this module for your convenience.

Each module has been divided into “chunks” --- bite-sized pieces of lessons that are easy to
understand and learn. In completing each module, first, read the required readings, references,
or URLs, and follow the instructions indicated. Answer all the required questions and activities
only after making sure that you have understood each lesson.

If at any point, you have questions or clarifications, please do not hesitate to get in touch with
your course instructor.

Module Learning Outcomes Topic Learning Outcomes

At the end of this module, you will be able to: At the end of this topics, you will be able to:

MLO 1. Utilize design thinking and systems thinking
as tools for developing and creating innovative ideas,
products, services, processes, organizing/delivery
methods, raw materials etc.
MLO 2. Apply design thinking and systems thinking
for solving complex situational problems in various
industries.
TLO 6. Develop the concept of design thinking and
systems thinking and their processes.
TLO 7. Compare and contrast the different systems
archetypes and systems dynamics.
TLO 8. Apply design thinking and systems thinking in
developing innovative products/services.

Learning Competencies:

 Readings on Design Thinking and Systems Thinking

 Synchronous discussion of Design Thinking and Systems Thinking, Systems Archetypes, and Systems
Dynamics, Design Thinking as a human center process, empathy in design thinking, The Design
Thinking process, and the variations in the design thinking process
 Case study discussions on product/service design
 Ideation activity using design thinking and systems thinking

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page Content
General Directions
2
Module Learning/Topic Learning Outcomes
Table of Contents
3
Honesty Clause
4 Design Thinking Process
5 Design Thinking Tools
6-7 Human-Centered Design Thinking Spaces
7 Summary of Design Thinking Process Models
8 Systems Thinking
8 Systems Archetypes
9-10 Eight system archetypes and their storylines
12 Systems Dynamics
12 Entrepreneurial Exercise
12 References

I’M A PHILSCAN, PRO-ACADEMIC HONESTY!

Oppps! Before you challenge your wit, don’t forget to sign the honesty pledge below! Remember, our
course policy states that “students are expected to display the highest degree of honesty and professionalism in
their class work, requirements, and activities especially that the flexible modality offers greater opportunity for
cheating.”

I, a proud and honest PhilSCAn, do hereby promise to exercise highest degree of honesty and
professionalism as I accomplish the tasks laid before me. With this, I abhor any forms of cheating,
particularly any acts of plagiarism. If ever I committed such act and got caught, I shall submit myself
to due process as stipulated in the Student Manual. So help me, God.

__
Your Printed Name and Signature Your Parent or Guardian’s

Your Instructor’s Printed Name and Signature

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 DESIGN THINKING AND
SYSTEM THINKING

Design Thinking Process

Business schools have typically taught a rational, analytic approach to thinking. It focuses on well-
defined goals and constraints, and thought precedes action in a sequential process of planning and
analysis. The design thinking process approaches problem solving differently. Thinking and doing are
often intertwined in an iterative exploration of the design “space,” and the process uncovers goals and
constraints, rather than identifying them up front. Design thinking, broadly defined as “the combination
of tools, processes, and mindsets that designers utilize to solve problems,” has increasingly been
added to course curricula in business schools in recent years (Dunne and Martin 2006; Garbuio et al.
2018; Glen, Suciu, and Baughn 2014).

One design thinking approach that is taught at places like Stanford’s Design School and organizations
like the LUMA Institute (a global company that teaches people how to be innovative) is human-
centered design (HCD). HCD, as the name suggests, focuses on people during design and
development. This speaks to the Tim Brown definition of design thinking. Inspiration for ideas comes
from exploration of actual people, their needs and problems.
Inspiration - This entails identifying a problem or opportunity
that motivates someone to search for solutions.
Implemented
solutions evolve
from interactions
with users and from
the ongoing creation
and refinement of
possible solutions.

Ideation is the process of generating

ideas and solutions through various
techniques such as brainstorming and
sketching sessions.

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Three spaces—inspiration, ideation, and implementation—compose the design thinking
process (Figure 6.14). The process uses “spaces” and not “phases” because multiple spaces can
happen simultaneously. Design thinking incorporates experience-based insights, judgments, and
intuition from the end users’ perspectives, while in a rational analytic approach, the solution process
often becomes formalized into a set of rules.

Nesta is a UK-based innovation foundation that offers many design thinking tools and resources similar
to IDEO. Named for the acronym NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the
Arts, the organization was established in 1998 with an endowment from the UK National Lottery and
became an independent charity in 2012. Nesta’s strategy focuses on health, government innovation,
education, arts, and creative economy and innovation policy. Nesta offers a set of five criteria to
ascertain that an occupation is creative: 22

1. Novel process
2. Mechanization resistant
3. Non-repetitive or non-uniform function
4. Makes a creative contribution to the value chain
5. Involves interpretation not merely a transformation in the service or artifact
As the name implies, design thinking originates from design. As design is one of the identified creative
industries, there’s a clear connection between creative industries and design thinking. In fact, Nesta
offers inspiration and ideation exercises that are freely available for users wishing to implement design
thinking practices.

Design Thinking Tools

There are numerous design thinking tools aimed to aid or stimulate your design thinking activities.
They stem from organizations dedicated to design thinking like IDEO and Google Ventures. While
methodologies incorporate processes and techniques, tools are resources that enable such
approaches. These may be activities, or templates that facilitate the approach.

 Innovation Flowchart: A sample innovation flowchart may map out the details of the process.
The structured overview serves as an organizational tool in the development process.

 Question Ladder: A tool that helps you ask the “right” questions by refining your questions
(Figure 6.15). Asking the “wrong” questions can yield meaningless or less-than-adequate
results.

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Human-Centered Design Thinking Spaces

The Stanford Design School uses human-centered design thinking (HCD) as its design
thinking approach. HCD emphasizes the following spaces of the design thinking process:

 Empathizing: As illustrated by the human-centered approach, it is important to have empathy

for the problem you are attempting to solve. Empathy, defined, means observing and
immersing yourself in the surrounding environment to engage with and understand people’s
experiences and motivations.
 Defining: This aspect involves describing the core problem(s) that you and your team have
identified. Asking “how might we?” questions helps narrow the focus, as the ultimate aim here
is to identify a problem statement that illustrates the problem you want to tackle. “Frame Your
Design” is one such challenge in what IDEO calls its “toolkit” that works well here. Frame Your
Design asks you to write down your problem and then refine it by following specific steps so
that you end up with a design question that serves as a starting point but leaves room for
creativity.
 Ideating: This is where you begin to come up with ideas that address the problem “space” you
have defined. There are hundreds of exercises aimed at the ideation process, ranging from
brainstorming to “Five whys?” in the IDEO toolkit. The “Five whys” is a questioning method in
which the researcher, in looking for information to solve a problem, asks a respondent a broad
question, then asks “why” to get deeper into the respondent’s thinking. IDEO puts it this way:
“You’ll use this method while you’re conducting an interview and start with really broad
questions like “Do you save much money?” or “How was your harvest this year?” Then, by
asking why five times you’ll get some essential answers to complicated problems. This can be
a great method to use if you’re trying to get at the human and emotional roots of a problem.”

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  Prototyping: In this space, the entrepreneur creates and tests inexpensive, scaled-down
versions of a product with features or benefits that serve as solutions for previously identified
problems. This could be tested internally among employees, a process known as dogfooding,
or externally with potential customers. This is an experimental phase.
 Testing: Designers apply rigorous tests of the complete product using the best solutions
identified in the prototyping space.

Summary of Design Thinking Process Models

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Systems Thinking
Systems thinking is a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system's constituent
parts interrelate and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems. The
systems thinking approach contrasts with traditional analysis, which studies systems by breaking them
down into their separate elements. Systems thinking originated in 1956, when Professor Jay Forrester
founded the Systems Dynamic Group at MIT's Sloan School of Management.

Systems thinking tools are:

Behavior over time (BOT) graph, which indicates the actions of one or more variables over a period
of time;

Causal loop diagram (CLD), which illustrates the relationships between system elements. It provides
useful way to represent dynamic interrelationships. CLDs makes explicit one’s understanding of a
system structure, provide visual representation to help communicate that understanding and capture
complex system in a succinct.
Management flight simulator, which uses an interactive program to simulate the effects of
management decisions;
Simulation model, which simulates the interaction of system elements over time.

Systems Archetypes
Helps you recognize common system behaviour patterns . Archetypes
are recurring patterns of behavior that give insights into the structures
that drive systems. They offer a way of deciphering systems dynamics
across a diversity of disciplines, scenarios, or contexts. Think of these
archetypes as the storylines of systems in the world.

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Eight system archetypes and their storylines

The eight most common system archetypes are:

1. Fixes that fail—A solution is rapidly implemented to address the symptoms of an urgent
problem. This quick fix sets into motion unintended consequences that are not evident at
first but end up adding to the symptoms.

2. Shifting the burden—A problem symptom is addressed by a short-term and a

fundamental solution. The short-term solution produces side effects affecting the
fundamental solution. As this occurs, the system’s attention shifts to the short-term
solution or to the side effects.

3. Limits to success—A given effort initially generates positive performance. However,

over time the effort reaches a constraint that slows down the overall performance no
matter how much energy is applied.

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4. Drifting goals—As a gap between goal and actual performance is realized, the
conscious decision is to lower the goal. The effect of this decision is a gradual decline in
the system performance.

5. Growth and underinvestment—Growth approaches a limit potentially avoidable with

investments in capacity. However, a decision is made to not invest resulting in
performance degradation, which results in the decline in demand validating the decision
not to invest.

6. Success to the successful—Two or more efforts compete for the same finite resources.
The more successful effort gets a disproportionately larger allocation of the resources to
the detriment of the others.

7. Escalation—Parties take mutually threatening actions, which escalate their retaliation

attempting to “one-up” each other.

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 8. Tragedy of the commons—Multiple parties enjoying the benefits of a common resource
do not pay attention to the effects they are having on the common resource. Eventually,
this resource is exhausted resulting in the shutdown of the activities of all parties in the
system.

Systems Dynamics
A strategic approach for modeling complex systems and analyzing their behavior. Dynamic behavior
in entrepreneurial system can be modeled using System Dynamics Approach and dynamic
hypotheses about the system`s behavior can be proposed and tested using simulation and computer
aided tools.

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Entrepreneurial Exercise
Essay (40 points): Type in a Word file an essay describing how important a system: design and
system thinking in entrepreneurship. Minimum of 150 words. Submit until February 14, 2022

Reminder:

 Final week scope:

o Module 6: Design Thinking and Systems Thinking
o Module 7: Planning, Decision Making, and Business Plan

 Number of items: 50 points via Google Form.

 Tentative date: To be announced.

References

Kim, Daniel H., (1992). System Archetypes I: Diagnosing Systematic Issue and Designing High-
Leverage Intervention, Pegasus Communications, Inc. https://thesystemsthinker.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/03/Systems-Archetypes-I-TRSA01_pk.pdf

Kim, Daniel H., (1992). Introduction to System Thinking, Pegasus Communications, Inc.
https://thesystemsthinker.com/introduction-to-systems-thinking/

Laverty, M., & Littel, C. (2020). Design Thinking. In Entrepreneurship (p. 6.3). OpenStax.
https://openstax.org/books/entrepreneurship/pages/6-3-design-thinking

Retrieved from internet: System Archetypes https://www.saybrook.edu/unbound/systems-

archetypes/

Retrieved from internet: System Archetypes https://medium.com/disruptive-design/tools-for-

systems-thinkers-the-12-recurring-systems-archetypes-2e2c8ae8fc99

Retrieved from articles: System Dynamics

http://www.ijsom.com/article_2161_5af48f362bf6cc6454a3a9ac32588dab.pdf

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