Project management with Design Thinking

Have you ever heard of Soft Skill? Stakeholder, Coping or Benchmarking? There is a multitude of terms in English that are involved in the area of projects, right? In this sense, "Design Thinking", more than a new term, is today a key piece for innovation.

But what do you know about Design Thinking? After all, what does this have to do with project development?

In this article, you will stay on top of everything on the subject. Are you ready?!

What does Design Thinking mean?

The term emerged at Harvard and Stanford Universities and consists of a creative development model that seeks innovative answers, to the problems identified. It's an approach that suggests improvements based on design concepts and your sensitivity.

Design Thinking is already expected to involve a lot of brainstorming and visual elements and visual elements. To get even better, people are the center and focus of these projects.

That's Design Thinking. It's the famous thinking "out of the box" while delivering a lot of value to the customer.

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How to apply this concept?

Design Thinking does not comply with a rigid sequence of processes for its application. Thus, what exists today are some fundamental steps for the design of projects aligned with this creative approach. Check out what these steps are:

1. Identification

The beginning of Design Thinking is the complete understanding of the problem in question. The project itself can be problematic or there may be some specific weaknesses. Market research, customer meetings, interviews and benchmarking can help you recognize these opportunities for improvement.

2. Ideation

Knowing at what points the project can innovate, the question is now about how to do this. At this point, the project team must bring together people from different areas to enrich the brainstorming generated. The main objective is to create new ways to solve the challenges and thus, innovate.

3. Prototyping/experimentation

Here there is the validation of what was proposed through tests. The best idea suggested in the previous phase is put into practice and evaluated. In fact, new insights can emerge to improve the original idea.

4. Implementation

After the relative success of the tested idea, it's time to apply it. Let's say that the problem identified was the delay in deliveries and the solution thought was to create a schedule. This one would be available in an application for each of those involved in the project. Now is the opportunity to get all this to work! Just don't forget to define the responsible and indicators to evaluate what is being done.

"Okay, I understood the whole procedure. But what do I get from it?" Let's get to the benefits then!

Benefits of Design Thinking

Compared to other design models, Design Thinking stands out as a means of filling the gaps in more traditional processes. According to Aldo Pires, Master Professor of Systems and Computing and electronic engineer: "Empathy, co-creation and prototyping are specific points to capture these gaps and discover the real needs of the client, which consequently generate projects with value for them".

Thus, the advantages of Design Thinking are competitive. Innovating is an arduous but essential task for market differentiation and this is where this creative approach makes all the difference.

A project that makes use of it, is much more likely to have a well-aligned scope, fail and correct faster and offer much greater added value to the customer.

The proposal is that the opportunities for improvement be analyzed together with the people who will be directly impacted by them, that the prototypes be built and tested even during the process and that the experiences generated in the project be as good for customers as they are for those who perform them.

And now, ready to innovate?

Gaining time, resources and quality, which manager won't want Design Thinking for his projects? You won't be left out of this either, won't you?

After all that has been discussed here, give it a try, explore new paths, do different from the competition, implement Design Thinking in your projects and consolidate your place in the market.

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