Design Thinking: Innovative Approach for Solving Complex Problems
Design Thinking — a human-centered approach to solving complex problems — is not a Buzzword, it has made a real difference in the lives of people, communities and companies around the world. From transforming the lives of poor rural women in Bangladesh and across other third world countries (through Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank) to giving lives and future to kids in slum areas in Nigeria (through Otto Orondaam’s Slum2School initiative), its application has made a real difference in people’s lives. In Malaysia, Design Thinking has helped achieve mind-blowing results in reducing small crimes and giving former criminals a future to look forward to.
How Design Thinking Birthed a Wildly Effective Solution to Petty Crimes in Malaysia
Towards the end of the first decade in the Millennium, the Malaysian government noticed a disturbing social problem: high rate of recidivism — the possibility of a convicted criminal committing the same offence multiple times. This was especially so among petty criminals. Meanwhile, the problem was bigger than some young adults getting rearrested and imprisoned multiple times for the same offence. Among others, it exposed citizens to high security risks, cost taxpayers huge sums in prison expansion and constituted serious source of worry for the families of the people who were having hard times breaking out of crimes.
To solve the problem, in 2010, the government of Malaysia organized a week-long summit involving a diverse group of people: ministers, head of agencies, community leaders, former offenders, current inmates, prison managers, youth groups and so — to deliberate and think of a solution. At the summit, efforts were made to get into the heads and minds of the inmates to understand them, without judgments (but instead), with lots of empathy. The Summit was followed up with series of further consultations.
In the end, an unconventional solution emerged: using idle land at military bases across the country to serve as Community Rehabilitation Program (CRP) for petty criminals. The idea was first tried at few large army bases in the country, and then subsequently scaled up when it became clear that it was yielding desired outcomes. First, CRP Centers made it possible to separate petty criminals from the hardened ones, and hence prevented the former from being negatively influenced. At the Centers, inmates are trained on several important vocations especially on trades such as fish farming and staple crop production which have high market demand.
Within a few years of implementation, the country recorded heartwarming breakthroughs. As recounted by Renee Mauborgne and W. Chan Kin in their Bestseller, Blue Ocean Shift, since the introduction of CRP in 2011, recidivism (among petty criminals) has reduced by 90%. In terms of cost of maintenance, results show that CRP is 85% cheaper to construct and 58% cheaper to manage, compared to a conventional prison. Overall, through CRP, Malaysian government is expected to save more than US$1 billion of taxpayers’ money by the end of 2020. What’s more? The lives of many former inmates have been transformed dramatically. With the dignity, hope and tools offered by the CRP, they are able to restart their lives and become valuable members of the society.
Spaces and Steps in Design Thinking
All these were made possible by the application of Design Thinking methodologies. The methodology which has become increasingly popular among Silicon Valley startups works to find a solution that satisfies three criteria: deep human desire, clear capacity on the part of the promoters to deliver the solution, and verifiable ability of the solution to achieve viability or be self-sustaining. To achieve results, as illustrated in the CRP story, design thinkers go through 5 key iterative spaces, some call it steps, but we prefer to refer to it as “spaces” because they are not meant to be straightforward. Based on insights, one can (and should) always walk back to previous steps and iterate. It’s essentially a Discovery-Driven Methodology.
Practical Application of Design Thinking in Problem-Solving
Empathy: interact with the people, stakeholders and communities who are directly affected by the problem you are trying to solve. Don’t just listen to their words, but more importantly, observe their behaviors, put yourself in their shoes and see the world through their eyes.
Define the problem: do adequate research to know the real problem, its dimensions and root causes. Separate symptoms from the actual problems. Do a root cause analysis using ‘5 Whys’.
Ideate: generate as many possible solutions as you and your team can. It helps to work with a team whose members come from diverse backgrounds. Engage in productive brainstorming: encourage wild ideas, don’t judge ideas as they are coming in and use more visuals to present ideas. Select ideas that score high on desirability, feasibility and viability tests. Walk back to ‘empathy’ and ‘problem definition’ stages to be sure the selected solution is suitable.
Prototype: once a solution is selected, take action immediately. Don’t wait until the solution is fully developed. Try out the solution barebones — what they call Minimum Viable Product in Silicon Valley — and gradually improve it as you learn. In the CRP story, the solution was implemented at few military bases (without many of the current elements) before it was finally launched full scale.
Test: as you do a full scale launch, be on the guard. Learn fast — learn what is working and what is not — continue to iterate, question everything and make adjustments to the solution. Walk back through all the previous stages, especially the empathy stage and make sure that the solution is addressing the problem as effectively and efficiently as it should.
How Design Thinking Works
By and large, Design Thinking works with the simple notion that you cannot have someone’s hair cut in their absence. Solution to any problem must begin and end with a deep understanding of what Clay Christensen calls ‘A Job to be Done’. Design Thinking rests on the believe that when you understand, in an empathic way, the progress that customers or communities want to make and the obstacles that currently hold them back, and you are ready to try different options (and not afraid to fail), you are in a better position to come up with a highly innovative solution. Thus, to solve a problem, it is important to exhibit these design attitudes: listen actively to everyone (not just with your ears, but with your eyes, mind, and heart), have an open-mind, delay judgment, be optimistic, be action-oriented and connect the dots. That’s Design Thinking. It works!
