Research. Design. Build. — The power of design thinking

By Vandana Sathpathy

As I hunched over my bathroom sink for the umpteenth time recently, I wondered why it was acceptable for most adults to bend over to about half our height multiple times a day. “Adjustable sinks – Why aren’t they a thing yet?” I thought to myself. I then went online to dig deeper and research the same question.

This is the effect internalizing design thinking has had on me. I no longer accept the status quo because it exists; I question how a product might be if I could design it on a blank canvas in a new, unbiased way that satisfies user needs.

Test driving the automotive and sports industries

This is part of an ongoing series highlighting MMM summer internship experiences.

Name: Caio Dimov
Industry: Automotive/Sports
Company: Maserati/ABInbev
Function: Strategy, Sales and Marketing Associate / Sports Marketing Associate
Location: New Jersey, U.S. and Modena, Italy / Sao Paulo, Brazil

Dual degree, dual internship. This was a busy summer!

I started my summer working for Maserati North America, then I had a short internship with ABInbev in São Paulo, Brazil, where I worked in the sports marketing division.

My internship experience at McKinsey

This is part of an ongoing series highlighting MMM summer internship experiences.

Name: Ken Yearwood
Industry: Management Consulting
Company: McKinsey & Company
Function: Manufacturing, Operations Practice
Location: Chicago, Illinois

As a Summer Associate in McKinsey’s Chicago office this summer, I was staffed on a lean manufacturing study for a global pharmaceutical client.  I was specifically responsible for improving the performance of five manufacturing lines at the site.

Moreover, I was fortunate to have joined a client study where I was able to see three phases of the project:

• Phase 1 was the diagnostic, where the team and I examined where there was room to improve performance and propose cost savings areas.
• Phase 2 was the design phase, where the team leveraged firm expertise and tools to create tailored solutions for the client.
• Phase 3 was my favorite — the implementation phase, where we took ideas we’d designed in Phase 2 and actually put them into practice at the client site.

What it’s like to be a designer at IDEO

This is the first in an ongoing series highlighting MMM summer internship experiences.

Name: Michael Chen
Industry: Design Consulting
Company: IDEO
Function: Business Designer
Location: Chicago, IL

I spent summer 2015 at IDEO and had a wonderful time designing, strategizing, and barreling through boxes of Post-It notes in efforts to rapidly ideate product and business model concepts for my projects. I was one of a few MBAs at IDEO Chicago, and I was surrounded by some of the most talented designers and engineers I’ve had a chance to work with.

Although my title was of a business capacity and I held an expertise in the “viability” portion of the diagram below, I was — at first — a designer.

This designation had two very important implications for the job.

The power of design thinking

Greg Holderfield is director of the Segal Design Institute, clinical associate professor and co-director of the MMM program. In the first of two posts, Holderfield discusses what makes design thinking so valuable.

AT ITS CORE, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE DESIGN THINKING?

I view design thinking as the core process and mindset that enables creative solution-based innovation, which is developed and iterated with a focus on contextual human behavior.

It’s critical to understand that design thinking is process oriented with a structured framework that is built on a foundation of human-centered design and empathy.