Benefit N° two: speed up the process and gain quality

A designer with the appropriate design competence can shorten especially the initial phases (scoping and re-defining the problem space) of the process. Core design skills include:

• discovering and reflecting customer needs and desires through design research and analysis
• elling great stories
• structuring, visualizing and sharing complex information

From what I have observed through my participation in several Design Thinking projects, a multidisciplinary team is a great advantage when it comes to ideation. However, before the team tries to frame the right question, the members need to gain a clear understanding of the customer needs and values. The team must develop empathy for the customer. One of the ways to speed up the process is to utilize structured and shared preliminary design research. This combined with a healthy feedback culture and you will make the most of your team.

From Interviews with Design Thinking coaches it became evident, that the fuzziness and ambiguity of the synthesis phase is a critical point in the process. It's the moment when a coach needs to support the team the most to overcome the 'crisis of engagement'. That is, when people become overwhelmed by the amount of data and the process and when the 'uninformed optimism' they started with turns into 'informed pessimism'. I suggest having the designers or a small core team (a sub-group) cluster, frame and share the pile of information in synthesis, and thereby reduce the confusion – because going deep and going fast at the same time is crucial to keep up the energy of the team for the steps to follow. Speed and momentum boost the creativity of the team, which is invaluable in discovering innovative solutions. In this sense speed adds quality.