The Design Thinking Life Playbook: Empower Yourself, Embrace Change, and Visualize a Joyful Life

by Michael Lewrick, Jean-Paul Thommen

Design Thinking has been used widely in business to bring a disciplined approach to innovation, but it can be just as easily applied to your personal life and career with amazing results. This inspirational book, drawing on design thinking and positive psychology, will help you imagine new possibilities for your life, test them in the real world, expand on what works, and move on from what doesn't. With hundreds of creative 4-color images, the authors present a mix of design thinking methods, coaching tools, and systemic advice for personal development. If you appreciate new ways of working, desire a better work-life balance, or need a career change to make better use of your skills and capabilities, this book, and design thinking, will you launch your own spiral evolution.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Psychology, Self Help

272 pages, Paperback

Published May 19, 2020

Reviews

[Puty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the Kindle version and I have to say that I didn't like the overall experience. I was aware that the book originally has landscape layout, though.

Content wise, this book is quite practical. It allows us to see design thinking as a framework to plan our life. It adapts the step by step of design thinking framework: understand -> observe -> define POV -> ideate -> prototype -> test. (I would say that the 'understand' to 'ideate' steps do make sense, although none was groundbreaking. Yet the 'prototype' part seemed a bit forced to fit in.)

However, I still found some frameworks, charts and templates useful here 😁 If you need a book to rethink about your life and your future, you may find this one interesting.

[Tetiana Dubovyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Якщо не знаєте де знаходитеся.
Не вмієте чи не можете себе прочитати, проаналізувати, залізти в свій мозок та побачити, що ви хочете, де та з ким ви там хочете бути - книга для вас
+насправді практичний посібник. З сторінками для вправ та завдань

[LUTING CHEN · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as much new useful information as I expected. First chapters are better.

[Books & Notes · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I appreciated the author’s approach of guiding us readers through a personal journey of self-discovery and empowerment using the design thinking technique, I felt that something was missing. Probably, above everything else, I believe life cannot be designed using any particular technique or scientific method. Sometimes, the way to live is to fail and experience, which actually really aligns with design thinking, but it did not really stand out in this book. Particularly, the section where we’re supposed to draft our self-image and seek feedback from others was particularly problematic. It’s not a reliable process, and it could potentially trigger personal insecurities.

All in all, I believe this book can still be helpful to some extent, but I wouldn’t recommend it as the go-to guide for designing one’s life. I’ve always been a fan of books that dive into design thinking methods, but I must admit that this particular one falls short in terms of practical application.

[Ruth McAvinia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I find the popularity of design thinking bizarre in that anyone who has ever improvised goes through all the steps naturally. Also it was pretty insulting that their example story involving a successful young woman revolved around her trying to bag a man by behaving less like herself. Is this really what young leaders are learning?

[Quang Huy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Một cuốn sách sẽ giúp bạn đưa ra những quyết định quan trọng của cuộc đời mình một cách an toàn, vững tin nhất. Thay đổi cuộc đời bạn với sự lựa chọn phù hợp với điều kiện, hoàn cảnh của bạn. Để mà viết review thì mình cũng chả biết viết gì nữa :')

[Axmed Bahjad]

Okies.

[Huỳnh Hữu Tài · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to read and apply in our life

[Wen Zhe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty awesome book that introduces you to design thinking. Interesting to apply the techniques, not on products, but on your self development!

[Eugene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical book to with designed pages for practice. Takes time to reflect and do the activities.
Suggest to read whole book once, then do the practices pace by pace

[Uliana Kashepa · Rating 4 out of 5]

методологія зрозуміла і дієва, але моментами складно пояснена

[Sandra Matos · Rating 3 out of 5]

only those who really know and love design thinking would be able to take benefits from this book. some parts are useful, but others a bit forced

[Rina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

[Sorrowka · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you have your life Ideal, but God said...
good news, you endeavor your best and embark the meaningful life for you.
__________________
This book is very user friendly, full of pictures, quotes, and straightforward (especially if you're busy folks!).
Will help you groundbreaking and building self-efficacy of your life aspects.
╔═════ ∘◦ ✾ ◦∘ ══════╗
Meet Stevan and Alex, who are just graduated and deter to pick either professional career or postgraduate.

Meet Sue and John
Who are success in career and have a good living but still feel insufficient. Perhaps love life? Passion?
╚═════ ∘◦ ❈ ◦∘ ══════╝

I'm reading the 2nd part recently. If you have read book for dummies series, yes this kinda similar. But way more brief and not overwhelmed with information.