1. What is design thinking?
Design thinking is an idea and a method for solving complicated problems in a user-centered manner. It concentrates on obtaining actual outcomes and solutions that are:
they are technically feasible: they can be turned into valuable items or processes.
economically viable: The company can afford to put them in place.
user-friendly: They cater to genuine human needs.
Design thinking is based on the idea that in order to come up with unique solutions, one must think like a designer and approach the problem from the user’s point of view. On the other hand, design thinking is all about getting your hands dirty; the goal is to turn your ideas into concrete, tested objects or processes as soon as feasible.
2. How has design thinking influenced a product I use?
My everyday dream is a washable keyboard. I bet every computer science major would sell their soul for this keyboard since it is hard to keep it clean when you leave it in front of your computer. In theory, this task does not seem impossible, and its potential is huge.
3. What are the connections between opportunities and planning?
To start planning, you have to identify opportunities. One of the markers of a good entrepreneur is to notice the environment’s change that the majority of people tend to be blind to see. After you identify the opportunities is time to start planning. It implies identifying a product’s offering strategy, developing the necessary value chain activities, and identifying resources and capabilities.
4. What opportunities have I missed?
Something that does not let me sleep sometimes is the number of masks and medical gloves that were sold in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID pandemic. Missing on investing in providers of those was quite a loss along with the bitcoin in the 2010s, Netflix, and Tesla. All of these companies’ thriving futures are pretty predictable if you slow down for a while, look around and analyze the change in the environment around you. You do not have to be a genius to assume that people would need masks during the pandemic. You do not have to be a genius to notice that in the late 2010s, people slowly quit attending movie theaters and swiped them with streaming platforms subscriptions.
5. Can a successful venture be unethical?
Based on the definition of a successful venture, it cannot be unethical.
When you consider the behavior you expect of yourself in both your professional and personal lives, you’re having a philosophical conversation with yourself about the norms of behavior you want to uphold—your ethics. You might decide that you should always speak the truth to your family, friends, customers, clients, and stakeholders and that if you can’t, you should have very solid reasons why. You also have the option of never defrauding or misleading your business partners. You can also decide that while you want to make a profit in your business, you don’t need all of the money that comes in. Instead, there may be enough profits to allocate a portion of them to other stakeholders besides yourself, such as those who are essential because they have assisted you or are affected in some way by your business. Employees (profit sharing), shareholders (dividends), the local community (time), and social causes or charity are examples of stakeholders (donations).