Why Design Thinking ?

Design Thinking is the most essential approach of 'Product Management' for both IT and non-IT products, in the current times of complex and dynamic customer/user needs. It is also used as a 'Problem-solving' framework, to devise solutions to any sticky business problems.

According to a research, there are over 30,000 new products introduced every year, and 80-95 percent of it fail. The key reasons for the product failures are:

a) Product doesn't solve or sufficiently solve the right problem,

b) User's experience while purchasing or using the product are poor,

c) Product awareness and promotions are insufficient, and

d) Product pricing and distribution are inappropriate.

At the root of all these reasons, lies the lack of understanding of the users' need across product lifecycle - from the understanding of the problem and conceptualization of the product, to the development and introduction of the product to the users.

"Design Thinking" is a framework, which solves this issue, by providing a user-centric integrative approach to keep users' need aligned to the product, throughout the product's lifecycle, to ensure that it never fails. This framework becomes even more essential in the current times, as the users' needs have become highly dynamic and varied, owing to the growing pace and diversity of socio-economic and technology change. "Design Thinking" is equally relevant for IT and non-IT products, and therefore being widely used by most of the successful product-based companies. It is also used by the organizations and teams to build internal systems and tools, to help them improve operational efficiency and effectiveness.

Additionally, since any Product is meant to solve a user's problem, the framework of "Design Thinking" is considered as a "Problem-solving" framework, which can be utilized in any environment, to solve complex and sticky problems, and create solutions, either as products, services, processes, or business models.