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 5 EXAMPLES OF DESIGN THINKING IN
BUSINESS

 22 FEB 2022

Esther HanContributors

 Design Thinking and Innovation

 Entrepreneurship & Innovation

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Design thinking has become a business buzzword that’s changed how
companies approach problem-solving. Countless brands, including GE
Healthcare, Netflix, and UberEats, have utilized design thinking to develop
effective solutions to challenges.

WHAT IS DESIGN THINKING?

Design thinking is a user-centric, solutions-based approach to problem-solving
that can be described in four stages:
1. Clarify: This phase involves observing a situation without bias. It leans into
design thinking’s user-centric element and requires empathizing with those
affected by a problem, asking them questions about their pain points, and
identifying what they solved. You can then use what you learn to create a
problem statement or question that drives the rest of the design thinking
process.
2. Ideate: Begin brainstorming potential solutions. Take your problem
statement or question and ideate based on patterns or observations
collected in the clarify phase. This is the time to let your imagination
and creativity run wild.
3. Develop: Develop potential solutions using the ideas you generate, then
test, experiment with, and reiterate to determine which are successful and
which aren’t. Be ready to return to the ideation or clarification stage based
on your results. Stepping back in the process is common—and
encouraged—in design thinking.
4. Implement: Finally, implement the solution you’ve developed. Again, it’s
likely you’ll have to take a few steps back and reiterate your final solution,
but that’s a central part of this phase. After several tests and edits, you’ll
have a solution that can yield positive results.
EXAMPLES OF DESIGN THINKING
What does a properly executed design thinking process look like? Examining
real-world examples is an effective way to answer that question. Here are five
examples of well-known brands that have leveraged design thinking to solve
business problems.

1. GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare is an example of a company that focused on user-centricity to

improve a product that seemingly had no problems.

Diagnostic imaging has revolutionized healthcare, yet GE Healthcare saw a

problem in how pediatric patients reacted to procedures. Many children were
observed crying during long procedures in cold, dark rooms with flickering
fluorescent lights. Considering this, GE Healthcare’s team observed children
in various environments, spoke to experts, and interviewed hospital staff to
gain more insight into their experiences.

After extensive user research, hospital pilots, and reiteration, GE Healthcare

launched the “Adventure Series.” This redesign initiative focused on making
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines more child-friendly.

For example, the “Pirate Adventure” transforms MRI machines from dark,
black holes to pirate ships with scenery of beaches, sandcastles, and the
ocean. By empathizing with children’s pain points, GE Healthcare was able to
craft a creative solution that was not only fun but increased patient satisfaction
scores by 90 percent. This also yielded unexpected successes, including
improved scan quality of pediatric patients, and ultimately saved customers
time and resources.

2. Oral B

Design thinking not only succeeds at finding effective solutions for companies
but also at putting initiatives to the test before implementation.
When Oral B wanted to upgrade its electric toothbrush, it enlisted designers
Kim Colin and Sam Hecht to help. The company’s request was to add more
functions for electric toothbrush users, such as tracking brushing frequency,
observing gum sensitivity, and playing music.

While clarifying the problem, however, Colin and Hecht pointed out that
brushing teeth was a neurotic act for many people. Users didn’t want
additional functionality and, in many cases, thought it could potentially cause
more stress. Instead, they recommended two solutions that could improve
user experience without adding gimmicks.

Their first recommendation was to make the toothbrush easier to charge,

especially while users were on the road. Another was making it more
convenient for users to order replacement heads by allowing toothbrushes to
connect to phones and send reminder notifications. Both proposals were
successful because they focused on what users wanted rather than what the
company wanted to roll out.

3. Netflix

Although many companies have successfully used design thinking, Netflix has
repeatedly leveraged it to become an industry giant. During the company’s
inception, its main competitor, Blockbuster, required customers to drive to
brick-and-mortar stores to rent DVDs. The process was the same for returns,
which was a major pain point for many. Netflix eliminated that inconvenience
by delivering DVDs directly to customers’ homes with a subscription model.

While this revolutionized the movie industry, Netflix’s real success has been in
its innovation over the years. For example, when the company realized DVDs
were becoming outdated, it created an on-demand streaming service to stay
ahead of the curve. This also inadvertently eliminated the inconvenience of
having to wait for DVDs.

Subsequently, in 2011, Netflix took its design thinking one step further and
responded to customers’ need for original, provocative content that wasn’t
airing on traditional networks. Later, in 2016, it improved its user experience
by adding short trailers to its interface. Each of Netflix’s major updates was in
response to customers’ needs and driven by an effective design thinking
process.

4. Airbnb

Another household name, Airbnb, started by only making around $200 a

week. After some observation, its founders recognized that the advertising
pictures hosts were posting online weren’t of a high enough quality, which
often deterred customers from renting rooms.

To empathize with customers, the founders spent time traveling to each

location, imagining what users look for in a temporary place to stay. Their
solution? Invest in a high-quality camera and take pictures of what customers
want to see, based on their travel observations. For example, showing every
room rather than a select few, listing special features like a hot tub or pool in
the description, and highlighting the neighborhood or areas in close proximity
to the residence. The result? A week later, Airbnb’s revenue doubled.

Instead of focusing on reaching a bigger audience, Airbnb’s founders used

design thinking to determine why their existing audience wasn’t utilizing their
services. They realized that rather than focusing on traditional business
values, like scalability, they needed to simply put themselves in users’ shoes
to solve business problems.

5. UberEats

The go-to food delivery service app UberEats attributes its success to its
ability to reiterate quickly and empathize with customers.

A prime example of this is UberEats’s Walkabout Program, where designers

observe cities in which the company operates. Some elements they inspect
are food culture, cuisine, infrastructure, delivery processes, and
transportation. One of the innovations that came from their immersive
research is the driver app, which focuses on delivery partners’ pain points
around parking in highly populated urban areas. To address this, the driver
app provides step-by-step directions from restaurant to customer to ensure
smoother delivery processes.
Understanding that pain points vary between geographic locations helps
UberEats implement effective upgrades to its service that solve problems in
specific locations.

PRACTICE DESIGN THINKING

While these examples illustrate the kind of success design thinking can yield,
you need to learn how to practice and use it before implementing it into your
business model. Here are several ways to do so:

1. Consider the Big Picture

In the examples above, it’s easy to say the solutions are obvious. Yet, try
taking a step back to reflect on how each company thought about its
customer base’s perspective and recognized where to employ empathy.

2. Think Through Alternative Solutions

This is a useful exercise you can do with the examples above. Consider the
problem each company faced and think through alternative solutions each
could have tried. This can enable you to practice both empathy and
ideation.

3. Research Each Company’s Competitors

Another helpful exercise is to look at each company’s competitors. Did
those competitors have similar problems? Did they find similar solutions?
How would you compete? Remember to walk through the four design
thinking phases.

Design thinking is a powerful tool you can use to solve difficult business
problems. To use it successfully, however, you need to apply it to problems
both big and small.

If you want to learn more about design thinking, explore our online
course Design Thinking and Innovation for more real-world case studies and
opportunities to practice innovative problem-solving in your career.