Maybe you know the situation. Have you been there as well? Nowadays,
everyone is talking about digitalization and digital transformation.
Obviously, a company has to be digital in order to be competitive and
maintain this state of affairs. So the goal is clear. At least to some extent.
Because there are still a few questions left unanswered: To what extent
should the digital transformation be implemented? Is it sufficient to take
care of the internal infrastructure first? Or do we set ourselves equally
ambitious goals, such as a smart factory? How do you realize the defined
goals? Since most companies have little or no experience in this area, it
often makes sense to get external support.
Design Thinking- Heterogeneous teams
One technique for finding a solution together is that of Design Thinking.
What makes Design Thinking so special? You can use this method to solve
complex problems in all areas of life. Heterogeneous teams consisting of 5-
6 people, preferably from different departments, are involved in the
innovation process. The more heterogeneous the teams are, the more
different the ways of thinking are, for example when the engineer, the
creative person, and the controller brainstorm together. Diversity should
definitely be taken into account when putting together the teams.
In the Design Thinking Workshops, the newly founded team is
accompanied by a methodically trained Design Thinking Coach. The
Design Thinking process runs through 6 phases, each of which is iterative.
Put simply: You develop something, test, or observe this thesis/prototype in
practice and return to the last step with the new findings.
Design Thinking Process
Phase 1: Understanding

In phase 1 the exact problem is defined. For which problem do we need a
solution? The members of the team collect as much information as possible
and become instant experts.
Phase 2: Observing
The newly founded team goes directly to the place of action and observes
the user in his daily work. It is important that the observations are unbiased.
This is one of the features that distinguishes Design Thinking from
conventional working methods; the considerations are always validated in
practice.
Phase 3: Defining a viewpoint
What insights have been gained so far? The insights are bundled.
Phase 4: Finding ideas
In this brainstorming phase, everything is allowed, rockets are launched
and castles in the air are built by means of thoughts. No matter how wild,
how unconventional, how unusual – every idea is welcome as long as it
helps the user to do his daily work better, safer, or more efficiently.
Phase 5: Developing prototypes
Prototypes are then built from the most convincing ideas.
Phase 6: Testing
In the final phase, the developed prototype is tested live on-site, directly at
the user’s premises. The user ultimately also decides whether the
prototype goes into series production or not. Because regardless of how
much the project team favors the prototype, the user is at the center of all
considerations. If the user is not convinced of the handling of the design,
the problem is not solved. So you fail early on, but then you can go back to
one of the previous phases and reconsider.