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Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers

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Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie educate readers in one of the hottest trends in business: "design thinking," or the ability to turn abstract ideas into practical applications for maximal business growth. Liedtka and Ogilvie cover the mind-set, techniques, and vocabulary of design thinking, unpack the mysterious connection between design and growth, and teach managers in a straightforward way how to exploit design's exciting potential.

Exemplified by Apple and the success of its elegant products and cultivated by high-profile design firms such as IDEO, design thinking unlocks creative right-brain capabilities to solve a range of problems. This approach has become a necessary component of successful business practice, helping managers turn abstract concepts into everyday tools that grow business while minimizing risk.

227 pages, Hardcover

First published May 6, 2011

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About the author

Jeanne Liedtka

18 books25 followers
ِAn American strategist and professor of business administration at the Darden School of the University of Virginia, particularly known for her work on strategic thinking, design thinking and organic growth.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
Profile Image for Aaron Bolin.
Author 1 book9 followers
September 24, 2014
My expectations for this book were quite high -- I wanted the promised thinking tool kit for managers in a fun-to-read package as advertised in the book title.

I was a little disappointed. It is a good read, and the authors did a nice job of making the book visually compelling. I was disappointed in the depth of the content though. The authors presented what I felt was a very surface-level explanation of the design process. The primary "tool" was a phased approach to design that separated creativity from concept development from sales pitch: not exactly a revolutionary design strategy.

I am struggling a little bit with the question "who would I recommend the book to?" It is generally well-written, and the illustrative stories are also kind of interesting. In all fairness, some of the organizing outlines are also useful. However, it is too surface-level to be useful to an expert audience, and it won't really help novice designers grow in expertise.

This book could be useful as a group read. For example, I could imagine a professional design group reading this book together (like a book discussion group) as a way to explore their own thoughts about the design process. For most everyone else, I would not recommend this volume.
Profile Image for Neda.
82 reviews14 followers
December 4, 2017
طراحی، اوج هنر ذهن است. ذهنی که طراحی می کند یعنی از هیچ، چیزی می سازد. و طراح کسی ست که قدرت خلق دارد و از خلق کردن، لذت می برد.
تفکر طراحی، تکنیک نیست، روش هم نیست بلکه مهارت ذهنی است. ذهنی که قابلیت طراحی دارد می تواند میان پدیده ها ارتباط برقرار کند، نظم بدهد، پدیدههای جدید را تصور کند و فضاهای خالی ذهن را پر کند، خود را به جای دیگران قرار دهد و از منظر آنها پدیده ها را مشاهده کند، از خود منتزع شود، طرح بزند و بسازد. از متن کتاب

من طراح ام.
Profile Image for Mohamed .
19 reviews
March 8, 2021
ترجمش افتضاح بود. فوق افتضاح
Profile Image for Ehsan Karimi.
4 reviews1 follower
March 18, 2019
توقع کتاب جذاب‌تری و داشتم، کیفیت ترجمه هم میتونست خیلی بالاتر باشه
Profile Image for Chris.
261 reviews2 followers
March 22, 2018
This is one of the first book recommendations from the Singularity University that I actually jumped on. Of course, I’m super late to this party. Turns out my colleagues in Design and Visual Communication have been teaching whole courses on this topic.

That said, it has been a minute since I finished this book, and I am ALREADY adopting techniques and behaviors the book relates and it all starts with these four questions:
What is?
What if?
What wows?
What works?

These are convergent divergent and once again convergent moments in the process of innovation. The best thing is, this structure can be more or less utilized in many many contexts - in no particular order: Art, Team/Personal Projects, Teams, Self/Business Improvement, Creativity, Education, Innovation, Immersion, Artificial Intelligence. Ugh…

I love that the authors frame design as a type of future thinking. That ‘Innovation is born out of discontent,’ in the same vein as ‘Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken.’ I immediately used parts of this book in an important email, and then utilized it on a collaborative team that I was invited to join! They’re in on it- even though they shouldn’t be, but I’m not the manager or leader so I figure inviting them to this process (as teachers) isn’t bad.

The main takeaways:
-Innovation/Invention is all about visualization.
-Storytelling is key! (Supplement this with data.)
-Journey-mapping and Personas are ways to understand
-Assumptions help develop design criteria; but they need to be tested in a group
-There are tons of team building, mangagment, and interview techniques.


I’m sure there are more cool things… but you get the idea?
Profile Image for Maria.
536 reviews42 followers
August 15, 2016
ну наконец-то я тебя закончила, Откровение Капитана Очевидности

мусолила месяц, отлынивала и перепрыгивала через страницы. отметила закладками три места в книге - и это всё, что в принципе стоило бы читать (там были пошаговые инструкции некоторых процессов). всё остальное - вода, констатация общеизвестного, скучные до слёз примеры и рассусоливание. местами казалось, что авторы пишут для умственно отсталых. впрочем, знаю много менеджеров, у которых интеллектуальное развитие на уровне умственно отсталых, так что может быть реально попали в ЦА
Profile Image for Adoptry.
58 reviews
March 25, 2015
As a former management consultant, my dominant thinking is left-brained, linear, and very structured. However, through a 7+ year career post MBA, I found that I was weak when it came to generating creative yet business value generating ideas. I took up Prof. Liedtka's Coursera class on Design Thinking to supplement my arsenal of skills and found the design thinking approach in this book to be a great complement to my existing skill set.

The book is simple to read and understand; plenty of illustrative examples bring the principles to life and impart a basic understanding of how to apply principles to a real world situation. But as the book concludes, design doing is more important than merely design thinking so now to march forth and apply these in those situations which can benefit from a different problem solving approach than the B-school "case method".
Profile Image for Farhad Azadjoo.
60 reviews8 followers
August 14, 2018
كتاب تفكر طراحي در كسب و كار براي من مثل كتاب هاي برايان تريسي بود. يك فضاي فكري رو ترسيم ميكرد و به تحليل فوايد اون مي پرداخت. پياده سازي بعضي از اون گفته ها در كسب و كار در ايران سخت هست. ولي نكته جالب براي من اين بود كه تو شركت هاي چابك نا خودآگاه ميزاني از تفكر طراحي وجود دارد.
اين كتاب رو به كساني كه فراغت دارند و زمان كافي پيشنهاد ميكنم. ولي انتظار مطالب طلايي از كتاب نداشته باشين
Profile Image for Michele.
21 reviews3 followers
June 3, 2015
I'm reading this book for my online Design thinking class, am learning a lot from the course and forum thread discussions.
9 reviews
Read
June 10, 2020
The modern business conducting methodologies have definitely changed the landscape of how the industry works today. The ecosystem of combining market research with lean management techniques have come a long way in minimising the scope of error across multiple façade of business zone, around the world. Who would had thought that corporates would become so customer centric that before even launching any product, the co-creation with consumers would become such an important point that they would invite a set of diverse audience to come and judge their product long before it’s launch?

Such is the disruption in marketplace that 100% of the consumer product companies are monitoring each and every expression of the people testing their prototypes from behind the glass wall. So, essentially this is the new normal. And if this is the new normal then what would be the fate of innovation in future? What would an organization do to stand apart from the competition? How would they understand the consumer even better?

Some of such worrisome questions are being answered by the book “Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers” authored by Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie. Before hopping onto the book, it is my fiduciary duty to introduce the concept of ‘Design Thinking’ to people like me who had no idea about this technique before. Design thinking is a strategic and practical tool to innovate existing process and develop new concepts by using creative techniques to achieve goals & transform the future. In a nutshell, it is the answer to all the questions posted above.


For the complete review, visit: https://afictionaltale.wordpress.com/...
Profile Image for Ali Arabzadeh.
166 reviews53 followers
October 23, 2020
اولین واکنش من در هنگام خواندن این کتاب حس آشنایی با روش‌ها و آموزه‌هایش البته اغلب ذیل عناوین دیگر بود. در واقع به نظر می‌رسد، گذشته از سرچشمه‌های تفکر طراحی، آموزه‌هایش در بدنه‌ی کسب‌وکار به معنای متاخرش که استارتاپ یکی از صورت‌های آن است، رسوخ کرده و ما مصرف‌کننده و مواجه با آن‌ها هستیم.
زیرعنوان فارسی کتاب این است: «جعبه ابزاری برای راه‌حل‌هایی خلاق» ولی بصیرت دیگری که عاید من شد درست خلاف این است. یعنی چیزی که دست‌گیرم شد این بود که مهم‌تر از روش‌ها و ابزارهای طراحی که در کتاب درباره‌ش حرف زده می‌شود، مجموعه‌ای از رویکردها و مدل‌های ذهنی وجود دارد که با اتکای به آن‌ها هدف اصلی طراحی یعنی ساختن همدلانه محقق می‌شود و اتفاقاً این جعبه‌ابزار نقش محوری‌ای ندارد.
ترجمه متاسفانه مثل شیشه‌ی معوجی عمل می‌کند که اتفاقا فهم متن را سخت می‌کند و به نظرم مهم‌ترین مسئله‌ ترجمه‌ی تحت‌الفظی‌ست که از اشتباهات مترجمان تازه‌کار و ناآشنا با ادبیات متن است. ظاهراً ترجمه‌های آریانا پابه‌پای کتاب‌سازی‌های غیرکاربردی‌ای که مخل مطالعه می‌شود قرار است در فهم متن اختلال ایجاد کند.
Profile Image for Tony Filonov.
2 reviews
September 26, 2021
F*** this book, why I even thought I should read this or it may be useful for growing as a designer? That’s why you should add notes on “who and why and when recommended this” to every book you add to your “read later” list.

As for the book itself: just a generic description of corporate design process which pretends to be an innovative way of thinking about design at your company. But if you “know the difference between UX and UI” or/and work at a company which even tries to think of itself as of progressive one — you would waste time reading this.

Sure the ideas are not wrong, but they are dry, surface level, corporate and already generic and definitely irrelevant for anything that I do or might do as a professional. I’m too lazy to even continue listening to it in an audio format. Narrator not being the author doesn’t help either.
37 reviews5 followers
June 1, 2018
Great primer on design thinking

If you look up design thinking on Google images, you'll see something with a bunch of hexagons or circles that each represent a step in the process. That part is pretty easy to find. The not so easy part to find is what each of those steps consist of. This book will help fill that void, and will provide some tools you can use to complete each of the steps of the design thinking process. I use the word process loosely, because as with any creative endeavor, there is a certain level of flexibility required as you move along.

I would mostly recommend this for those who are newer to design thinking.
Profile Image for Mandana Nouri.
13 reviews6 followers
March 15, 2019
همون طور که روی جلد کتاب درج شده، این کتاب نوعی "جعبه ابزار" هست.
به نظرم کتابیه که یک بار باید خونده بشه و بعدا جهت یادآوری بهش مراجعه بشه (مثال های جالبی داره که یک بار خوندنشون خالی از لطف نیست) .
ممکنه کلی جرقه در ذهن خواننده راجع به طراحی خدمت و محصول زده بشه و سرنخ های زیادی رو برای مطالعه بیشتر میده. گرچه فکر میکنم اگر خواننده پیش از این هم راجع به مفاهیم بیان شده در این کتاب مطالعه داشته باشه، این کتاب به خودی خود خیلی حرف جدیدی برای گفتن نخواهد داشت.
قسمت هایی از کتاب، بعضی از مفاهیم رو چندبار توضیح داده که به نظرم یک یا دوبار اشاره کفایت میکرد و میشد که خلاصه تر باشه.
Profile Image for Andrew.
376 reviews2 followers
February 20, 2020
This is a decent overview of how to design a product with the consumer in mind. The authors don't clearly define "design thinking" but I think that's what they mean.

The authors provide a nine-step path for product development, from putting yourself in the customer's shoes to a soft launch of your product. They ask four questions along the way - what is (problem statement), what if, what wows, and what works? It seems like pretty reasonable stuff.

I finished the book without any strong takeaways...
Profile Image for Maralise.
119 reviews
February 24, 2022
I love and use the concepts of design thinking in my day-to-day. And I'm so grateful for the resources provided here and elsewhere, particularly those out of UVA Darden. I do find, however, that much of design thinking education materials are 'over designed'- meaning that most applications of design thinking are far simpler than those outlined and the perceived complexity (bolstered by how academics talk about it and how their books are written) lessens design thinking's potential impact.
Profile Image for Tommy.
8 reviews3 followers
December 19, 2017
I want to like design books so badly, but I am having a hard time. This book started off strong by describing design thinking, but got really prescriptive, really fast. In retrospect, I'm having a hard time picking out novel and useful concepts differing from AGILE thinking and Lean Startup methodology.

I do think there are a few concepts in this book--a few tools rather--that I may revisit.
56 reviews
June 19, 2019
Whoa! What a deep study of a cohesive way to structure growth with a design basis. This is the perfect framework and set of tools any leader seeking true scalable growth should be using. Wonderful information and so creatively exposed. Loved the images and colors and the way the information was displayed on the pages.
4 reviews
August 29, 2017
Read this as a supplement to the MOOC run out of Darden. The subject matter was great, and the format helped with placing the learning into action. I felt there were too many stories, and many of them unqualified, and uninteresting.
September 8, 2017
Excellent primer for your first "dive in" in Design Thinking concepts. The book scores high because it is based on successful case studies of Design Thinking. I am sure you will be able to relate at least one of them with your problem.
Profile Image for Partha.
12 reviews1 follower
June 28, 2018
I recommend that this book be read right after Tim Brown's 'Change by design'. When observed together they form a strong base for design thinking driven work. By itself this book is direct and crisp to follow.
749 reviews5 followers
December 22, 2018
Good supplement to an online course. This is just an introduction to the subject. But it does have some pointers and some tings I could try now at work. The authors suggest you start small until you get familiar with the process.
Profile Image for Juan Manuel Vera.
193 reviews2 followers
September 15, 2019
Very good, very complete

This really is an excellent book. You can learn from source of design thinking. The tools are very well explained, the home exercises help you to better understanding of concepts. I really enjoy the actual stories about design thinking implementation.
Profile Image for Satyajit Lele.
30 reviews4 followers
September 20, 2019
A great book, even if you don’t have intentions of doing design thinking, the book offers quite a lot of useful tools and techniques which we can use in our professions. You need not be working on a life changing project, the tools and techniques are pretty much practical and useful even on a routine project.
Profile Image for Sara (onourshelves).
601 reviews12 followers
April 2, 2021
This is a great read for individuals who are new to the design thinking process--It is short, clear, and explains both why and how to do design thinking. I am thinking about purchasing it as a reference book for work.
Profile Image for Stephen.
665 reviews56 followers
September 19, 2021
READ SEP 2021

Well done piece that would benefit any manager regardless of function. My focus was on how design thinking can be integrated into learning and development projects. I believe it pares well will the ADDIE model and rapid development approaches for L&D.
13 reviews
November 6, 2017
some good tools on how to practice design thinking. Also liked the model of Design for Growth .. what is, what if, what wows, what now
Profile Image for Sertac M.
100 reviews2 followers
November 6, 2017
There are very useful tools and tips for managers and designers who want to establish better relationships with managements, clients.
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