Design Thinking: New Product Development Essentials from the PDMA
Michael G. Fuchs, K. Scott Swan, and Abbie Griffin, Co-Editors
John Wiley & Sons (2015)

“We spend a lot time designing the bridge, but not enough time thinking about the people who are crossing it.” Prabhjot Singh

Years ago during separate interviews, both Jon Katzenbach and John Kotter suggested that one of the most difficult changes to achieve is changing how one thinks about change. I was reminded of that as I began to work my way through the narrative. It soon becomes obvious that developing a design thinking mindset will require using specific design thinking principles such as those that Michael Fuchs suggests: people-centric, cross-disciplinary collaborative, holistic and integrative, flexibility and comfort with ambiguity, multi-modal communication skills, and a growth mindset such as the one Carol Dweck recommends

After Luchs’s “Brief Introduction,” the other 42 contributors present their material in 25 chapters within this framework:

Part I: Design Thinking Tools (Chapters 1-7)
II: Design Thinking within the Organization (8-14)
III: Design Thinking for Specific Contexts (15-19)
IV: Consumer Responses and Values (20-22)
V: Special Topics in Design Thinking (23-25)

These are among the dozens of passages of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of the book’s coverage in Parts I and II:

o A Framework of Design Thinking (Pages 4-8)
o (Writing the Inspirational Design Brief (21-23)
o Three Pitfalls to Avoid When Writing Briefs (24)
o The Experience Mapping Process (48-50)
o Challenges in Idea Generation (59-60)
o Design Heuristics for Idea Generation (74-77)
o 77 Design Heuristics Extracted from Designers’ Concepts (81-84)
o A Design Thinking Product Development Framework (87-89)
o Design Practices and Tools for Assisting in Information Management (112-117)
o The Process: The Winding Path from Idea to Product (128-138)
o Three Team Strategies for Success (147-154)
o GE’s Menlo Innovation Ecosystem (158-168)
o Corporate Forces That Undermine Design Thinking (178-180)
o Four Pillars of Innovation for Enabling Design Thinking (180-184)
o Knowledge Management Tasks for Breakthrough innovation: From Intelligence Leveraging to Intelligence Amplification (190-194)

Those now engaged in new product development would be well-advised to keep this observation by David Kelley in mind: “The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the people you’re trying to design for. Leadership is exactly the same thing – building empathy for the people that you’re entrusted to help.”

One of the book’s primary objectives is to provide a wide range of perspectives in combination with a depth of analysis that will help prepare business leaders to achieve great success with new product development (NPD) during their organization’s innovation initiatives. The contributors succeed brilliantly. I especially commend Fuchs and his co-editors, Scott Swan and Abbie Griffin.

The abundance of information, insights, and counsel that they have organized with consummate skill will be of incalculable value to leaders in almost any organization, whatever its size and nature may be. This book was created for them, to be sure, but Singh and Kelley correctly suggest that the ultimate benefactors are not those who read this book; rather, the customers and clients whom they are privileged to serve.