TALK: "Design Thinking - Myths & Virtues" at UPID, Noida 👩🏼‍🏫

UPID is an upcoming design school in north India. They recently hosted a design thinking workshop. I was invited to share my perspective on how design thinking is practiced in the tech industry. I have often been skeptical of talking about Design Thinking with non designers and students. That’s because this phenomenon /method/ jargon (whatever you want to call it) now comes with a huge baggage. Sometimes it has a snake-oil-ish perception and sometimes it has a designerly snobbery attached to it. 

Instead of talking about Design Thinking’s values, this time I framed my view around its myths & virtues. I thought it’s equally important for non-designers to be sensitized about all the misconceptions clouded around it. 

While this helped me in demystifying Design Thinking a bit, I then used a few experiences from industry to talk about its virtues. Empathy, Integrated Thinking, Optimism, Experimentalism & Collaboration are the 5 smart gifts in my view, that this process offers.

Stories from my consulting gigs for airlines, banks, non-profits etc. came handy in explaining how things work on the field. I generally use short stories when it comes to such examples. Instead of talking about long format case studies I picked up tiny anecdotes from projects, client interactions, strategic thinking, design decisions etc. 

There have been some very healthy debates on Design Thinking lately across the community worldwide. Of all the debates, I love going back to Natasha Jen’s aggressive talk and Khoi Vinh’s balanced opinion to find answers about the method’s value, perception & future.

Overall it was a great experience to be back in a design school after almost a year of my break from SPA. Totally felt at home with an enthusiastic bunch of design students.

Note to self - Do this often :)