Design for Bloch

Faculty, staff and clients benefit from an innovative and proven process

By Patricia O’Dell

At a fall 2019 event in Bloch Executive Hall, Jason Gaikowski asked the audience to think like a designer.

A nationally recognized expert on brand building and human-centered design, Gaikowski is the global lead for brand and business design at YMLY&R. Among a standing-room-only crowd, he engaged participants to consider the effectiveness of traditional business problem solving methods.

“Eighty-nine percent of companies say they compete on customer experience. Eight percent of customers say they get a good experience,” Gaikowski said. “Design thinking can solve that gap.”

Bloch has been mindful of the value of design thinking as the school continues to evolve. For example, flexible classrooms and labs incorporate some of the physical aspects of design thinking, which encourage designing for innovation.

In that spirit, the school is providing tools that incorporate design thinking to help individuals and companies through its undergraduate, graduate and executive curriculums.

Evolution by design

While it may be the current fad in business circles, design thinking is not new. IDEO, a global design company, began to formalize the process that originated in 1978 with its founder David Kelley.

Two years later, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs asked IDEO to develop a mouse for a new computer. Rather than reworking the existing and expensive design, IDEO responded with a more easily manufactured device that kept the customer experience top of mind. The technology they developed is still used in most mouses produced today.

With that, a culture and process of humancentered design was born and its design thinking methods began to spread.

Gaikowski identified the elements of design thinking as defined by IDEO: empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping and testing with end users in mind. This process creates a cycle of divergence and convergence through defining the problem, testing solutions, identifying opportunities and creating prototypes and solutions. The key is to resist being quick to define the solution — which can be a challenge for both people trying to take advantage of an opportunity and those who are more comfortable relying on known solutions.

“Most companies approach problems in the same way,” he said. “Define the measurable objective, research the problem, make decisions and identify the most proven solution.”

This process, notes Gaikowski, often creates a focus on what an organization has to lose. And aversion to loss does not drive innovation.

“Everyone wants to be a leader,” he said. “But no one wants to go first.”

Risk and reward

Scott Helm, Ph.D., the director of the Executive MBA program who practices and teaches design thinking in Bloch’s Executive Education program, thinks the process is having a moment because of some of the work that is coming out of the Stanford d.School. incorporate some of the physical aspects of design thinking, which encourage designing for innovation.

In that spirit, the school is providing tools that incorporate design thinking to help individuals and companies through its undergraduate, graduate and executive curriculums.

To be sure, design thinking isn’t just for business. One of the most popular classes at Stanford is “Designing Your Life,” taught by professors and authors of the namesake book, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.

What Helm sees as new is that design thinking — which has been traditionally applied to product development, marketing and consumer interfacing — is now being applied to traditional management. “Product innovation has been doing this for 60 years and this is very much a product innovation model,” Helm said. “Car companies build cardboard prototypes. Architects have been doing this for some time.”

Helm sees the innovation as a broad application of these approaches. He notes that this difference in these approaches is distinct. The more familiar deductive reasoning refers to drawing a conclusion based on a previously known or accepted fact or situation. Inductive reasoning involves using initial observations to identify the most likely solution.

“If you’re looking for a needle in a haystack, you don’t need the best needle. You just c hoose the first needle that will do the trick,” Helm said.

However, abductive decision-making as applied to design thinking uses the same principles and allows organizations to be more nimble. Helm noted that intellectual conception, or “ideating,” is the greatest value in taking something from invention to innovation. It’s about shaping ideas, testing, then adjusting.

He notes that entrepreneurs inherently apply this philosophy.

“They are already disrupting. They’ve already seen a new way to do something or do something better. They are taking a risk, whether it’s based on instinct or knowledge. They are poised to do something differently,” Helm said.

Brian Daly, managing director of Bloch’s Executive Education programming, applies design thinking to the work they do consulting with and developing learning programs for external clients, who are usually receptive.

“It’s really a mindset,” Daly said. “The whole process is focused on problem solving. There are tools that help along the way, but it’s not really about sticky notes and white boards. It’s about asking a lot of questions and being curious.”

Still, he meets resistance. Part of the process is to think out their roles and preconceptions. “That’s when we have the opportunity to help them practice getting from ‘What’s in it for me?’ to ‘What’s in it for the organization?’”

The purpose of process

It is not only the client who benefits. Bloch students are also stretching their mindsets in the consulting process.

Andrew Roth, who was a participant in the 2019 Bloch Strategic Leadership Program, was part of a four-person team who worked on a real-time design thinking problem involving KCUR, Kansas City’s public radio station operated by UMKC. Like most of public media, KCUR has relied on the same revenue streams for decades: listeners’ contributions, underwriters and grants. They were interested in identifying new sources of revenue and determining if they could monetize their digital content.

Roth, who is director of product management at Fike, a company that designs industrial safety products, was familiar with design thinking. Roth’s Strategic Leadership team included three other people who brought different perspectives to the project. He found the process energizing but had to be disciplined not to draw conclusions from the start.

Initially, the team went straight to problem solving. Then they realized they were making assumptions and had a limited understanding of the station’s true problems.

“It was difficult not to jump directly to ideate as a team,” he said. “Over the course of the project, we had to step back and spend more time in the research phase to understand KCUR’s business.”

Resetting the process, they went back to research the underlying issues though a survey of KCUR employees. The data helped the team address the station’s needs.

“We ended up coming up with better solutions,” said Roth.

Jeanne Rooney, business and fiscal operations manager at KCUR, was part of the process and found it interesting to talk with people who did not know much about the station.

“Honestly, we really didn’t know what to expect, but we couldn’t have been part of a

NEW DESIGN THINKING CERTIFICATE PROGRAM STARTING IN 2020

Ideal for both organizational decision makers and day-to-day problem solvers, the new design thinking certificate program will go in-depth into the methods introduced in this story. In the four-month program, participants will engage with experienced design thinking practitioners and work alongside the Kansas City Urban Youth Academy to support their mission and create opportunities for the youth of Kansas City. In addition, customized design thinking programs are available for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. For more information, contact Brian Daly at dalybr@umkc.edu.

better group,” Rooney said. “We let them know that we did not need feedback on journalistic content, but we were very interested in digital strategy, audience engagement and revenue generation.”

Daly notes that KCUR’s experience exemplifies the benefit of applying design thinking concepts to issues that an organization can think are insurmountable.

“They need to find the place where they can potentially change their influence on the business,” Daly said. “The design thinking process can be very beneficial for this. It enables them to ask deep questions, to really listen and use their brains to get past spreadsheets and into people.”