The purpose of this how-to article is to provide entrepreneurs, innovators, and creative thinkers with a fast track learning curve to understand and practice the most popular innovation methodologies of our time.
In order to do so, we will break down each methodology into the following categories: Origin, Process, Purpose and application, Principles, and lastly, my own point of view(PoV).
While the explanation of each innovation methodology is far from exhaustive, you should be able to get a high level feel for the process and the purpose of using it. Simultaneously, we will explore the commonalities and differences between each innovation methodology, and lastly, we’ll develop an understanding of when to use which methodology.
Our end goal is to learn and be able to practice these frameworks as well as understand the underlying principles that are the true drivers of innovation.
The world’s shortest encyclopedia of innovation methodologies📚
The innovation methodologies mostly applied, compared, and mutually confused are the following:
Design Thinking
Lean Startup
Agile
Pretotyping
Design Sprint
You: Holy shit! Do I really have to learn all that…?
Me: No, you don’t. But you’ll increase your chances of success if youunderstand the underlying principles and primary application of each framework.
Luckily for you, I have done the heavy lifting by reading, practising, and comparing all of them.
Now, let’s address them one-by-one and identify the common denominators and underlying principles that really matter when creating new products, services, and startups.
Design thinking🖍️🤔
Origin 🐣
Design Thinking has been slowly developing since the 1960s, when it emerged as a creative way to solve complex problems.
Back then, design was merely an afterthought of the development process and was seen as a way of prettifying what had already been developed.
The emergence of Design Thinking and its deep-rootedfocus on understanding human behavior, coupled with qualitative research, and visual thinking- and prototyping techniques has helped re-define not only what design is, but also what it can do.
As a result, more and more designers and design thinkers are nowinvolved in the entire creation process of innovation, moving away from the classic waterfall process.
Today, Design Thinking is often associated with the work of IDEO, who have popularised human-centered design and helped catapult Design Thinking into the mainstream of business and design schools.
Process👣
Design Thinking is a solution-oriented process that focuses on the collaboration between designers and users.
It’s a very iterative process by design(no pun intended) and is often described more as a compass than a map or a process.
The reason for this, is that you go back-and-forth between developing you and your teams understanding(abstract understanding) and producing and testing prototypes with users(concrete solutions) until you reach something that users wants and are able to use.
Main process:
Empathising: Understanding the human needs involved.
Defining: Re-framing and defining the problem with users needs and behavior in mind.
Ideating: Creating many competing ideas using visual thinking techniques.
Prototyping: Adopting a hands-on approach in prototyping, often co-creating prototypes with users.
The world’s shortest encyclopedia of innovation methodologies 📚
Design thinking 🖍️🤔
Origin 🐣
Process 👣