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61 reviews for:
Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation
Tim Brown
3.57 AVERAGE
61 reviews for:
Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation
Tim Brown
3.57 AVERAGE
A useful primer to the world of design thinking
While interesting, the book is by no means a one stop or exhaustive collection of knowledge that will teach you design thinking. Further while the examples are extreme,y compelling, I wish there were more of them, with more defined statistics and proof of their impact. The bottom line is this is a good primer, which sets you up for further study into the designers way...
While interesting, the book is by no means a one stop or exhaustive collection of knowledge that will teach you design thinking. Further while the examples are extreme,y compelling, I wish there were more of them, with more defined statistics and proof of their impact. The bottom line is this is a good primer, which sets you up for further study into the designers way...
Change by Design is an inspiring book on getting real design efforts on the hearts and minds of others. Most engineers don't understand that design is much different than what they do (I can say this because I are one ;-)
I recommend most of Change by Design to colleagues, except for last two chapters where the author puts more value on creation rather than the Creator. Took a left turn at Albuquerque...
I recommend most of Change by Design to colleagues, except for last two chapters where the author puts more value on creation rather than the Creator. Took a left turn at Albuquerque...
In part one has to take into account that this book is almost 10 years old. The context of the Design Thinking was back then, at least as far as I can gather, pretty new. Now, it is certainly more known and applied.
With that being said, the book lays out some interesting ideas. However, I feel it is not a very practical book, but rather a story about the "relevance" of Design Thinking. As an introduction to the concept it is recommended, but not more than that, I feel.
With that being said, the book lays out some interesting ideas. However, I feel it is not a very practical book, but rather a story about the "relevance" of Design Thinking. As an introduction to the concept it is recommended, but not more than that, I feel.
I’m not sure why I keep buying and reading books like this when it is obvious that I’m not the target market.
Change by Design is an instruction manual on design thinking in the same way Harry Potter is an instruction manual on magic. The reader is taken on the great successes that Tim Brown and colleagues have experienced with design thinking, barely digging into the methods used to reach those heights. It’s not really a ‘how’ design thinking transforms organizations and more like a ‘what happened’.
IDEO is a great company and Tim Brown has done a lot for the world of design, but the idealistic view of how design can change organizations is achievable only to the likes of the Browns and the Spools of the world. So, while the stories are great, they are simply out of reach for most people on the ground floor.
Change by Design is an instruction manual on design thinking in the same way Harry Potter is an instruction manual on magic. The reader is taken on the great successes that Tim Brown and colleagues have experienced with design thinking, barely digging into the methods used to reach those heights. It’s not really a ‘how’ design thinking transforms organizations and more like a ‘what happened’.
IDEO is a great company and Tim Brown has done a lot for the world of design, but the idealistic view of how design can change organizations is achievable only to the likes of the Browns and the Spools of the world. So, while the stories are great, they are simply out of reach for most people on the ground floor.
I think it reads well. If you have a little more than a basic understanding of a research driven design process you might not find a need to pick this book up. If you are new to how designers can use their talents as creative problem solvers as opposed to artifact creators—this is a great place to get started in restructuring your process.
Quite not was I was expecting. I was looking in this book, because I heard it was a "must read" and "the basis" of Design Thinking, was : methodologies, demystifying its origins and those of the famous 5 stages. In short: a more structured writing around them.
It was a good introduction on Design Thinking. And at least, I could learn that Design Thinking was not a succession of linear steps or that the 5 stages were not a magic recipe. It's a subject that worth more digging and reading.
Still, I feel that the book could have been shorter, with fewer but more detailed case studies. I was a little lost in the second part of the book, which seemed to be a list of them.
IDEO and Tim Brown have worked on wonderful projects over the years, and it's very inspiring. However, everything is successful and bright, like a "Hall of Fame"or a "Design Will Save The World" book. I would have liked to read about the downside, the projects that failed or were complicated and the lessons they learned from it.
I don't regret having read it, and I may read it again after learning more about this subject, to have another perspective.
(I read the Revised and Updated edition, from 2019)
It was a good introduction on Design Thinking. And at least, I could learn that Design Thinking was not a succession of linear steps or that the 5 stages were not a magic recipe. It's a subject that worth more digging and reading.
Still, I feel that the book could have been shorter, with fewer but more detailed case studies. I was a little lost in the second part of the book, which seemed to be a list of them.
IDEO and Tim Brown have worked on wonderful projects over the years, and it's very inspiring. However, everything is successful and bright, like a "Hall of Fame"or a "Design Will Save The World" book. I would have liked to read about the downside, the projects that failed or were complicated and the lessons they learned from it.
I don't regret having read it, and I may read it again after learning more about this subject, to have another perspective.
(I read the Revised and Updated edition, from 2019)
samenvatting: ben (extreem) kritisch en creatief, met name holistisch (uit de doos), vraag vooral vaak waarom.
zwakker van het boek vind ik dat er geen methode, of deelmethoden worden besproken.
sterk is het enorme aantal voorbeelden dat gegeven wordt.
zwakker van het boek vind ik dat er geen methode, of deelmethoden worden besproken.
sterk is het enorme aantal voorbeelden dat gegeven wordt.
Most of this is just padding and useless filler, with lots of examples that sometimes do a good job of illustrating concepts and sometimes barely relate to the topic at all. There is useful information here, but it could easily be condensed into the 50-100 page range.
I’m the co-director of a graduate program at Ball State University that’s built — in part — around design thinking. The Center for Emerging Media Design & Development trains people for that ever-undefined “21st century knowledge workforce.”
Part of that training focuses on helping people work in interdisciplinary groups to identify problems that may be embedded deeply within assumptions of an organization. To do this, groups must learn how to set aside their initial thoughts about a problem and its solution, and engage in user-centered ethnographic work, which is just a fancy way of saying these groups to sit with, talk to, and observe people using products. From there, they can construct a far more accurate way of understand the real problems people have.
That’s a long introduction to my review of Change by Design, written by Tim Brown, the current CEO of IDEO, a consulting company best known for deploying the design thinking process to solve a wide range of big problems. But that introduction was important because I wanted to explain why I picked up the book.
You see, we have two problems in our program related to design thinking.
The first comes whenever the Center’s co-director and I meet with potential partners, such as the Indianapolis Symphony. The concept of design thinking is so ephemeral that we spend a great deal of time trying to explain its steps, even when we have have willing partners. (“How is it different than regular thinking,” we’re asked quite a bit. Or “What if we don’t have any designers on staff,” we also hear.)
The second comes when we begin working with students. Design thinking is a framework for approaching a problem, not a step-by-step guide. That makes it difficult to teach students, whom we ask to spend a great deal of time working on projects so they can develop their design thinking skills.
While both problems are different, they come from the same place: understanding how a designed thinking process can help anyone approach problem solving in a more holistic manner.
Brown’s book does exactly that. Of all the books, papers, and reflections on design thinking that I’ve read, this is the best at both explaining the process that teams go through, and the reasons for using this process. The process involves using empathy to understand the needs and desires of users, divergent thinking to create strict constraint that focus the problem, transforming and prototyping a wide variety of solutions, testing and articulating the changes and final development, and understand how to make sustainable systems.
Just as importantly, Brown articulates the reasons why it’s oftentimes more important to spend a great deal of time at the start of the project identifying the actual problem. (The example I give to my students: World hunger isn’t a problem. It’s the outcome of a 1,000 small problems. You can’t “solve world hunger,” but you can figure out solutions to the 1,000 problems that cause world hunger. Design thinking helps you identify what each of those problems are in each of the areas where hunger is a problem.)
I’m a big proponent of design thinking as a process for working, creating, and solving in the modern world. It is, in many ways, the exact type of “critical thinking skills” that everyone needs, from employers down to individuals.
This is a great book for people who are trying to understand the importance and need for these processes, and for those trying to understand how to deploy these skills.
Part of that training focuses on helping people work in interdisciplinary groups to identify problems that may be embedded deeply within assumptions of an organization. To do this, groups must learn how to set aside their initial thoughts about a problem and its solution, and engage in user-centered ethnographic work, which is just a fancy way of saying these groups to sit with, talk to, and observe people using products. From there, they can construct a far more accurate way of understand the real problems people have.
That’s a long introduction to my review of Change by Design, written by Tim Brown, the current CEO of IDEO, a consulting company best known for deploying the design thinking process to solve a wide range of big problems. But that introduction was important because I wanted to explain why I picked up the book.
You see, we have two problems in our program related to design thinking.
The first comes whenever the Center’s co-director and I meet with potential partners, such as the Indianapolis Symphony. The concept of design thinking is so ephemeral that we spend a great deal of time trying to explain its steps, even when we have have willing partners. (“How is it different than regular thinking,” we’re asked quite a bit. Or “What if we don’t have any designers on staff,” we also hear.)
The second comes when we begin working with students. Design thinking is a framework for approaching a problem, not a step-by-step guide. That makes it difficult to teach students, whom we ask to spend a great deal of time working on projects so they can develop their design thinking skills.
While both problems are different, they come from the same place: understanding how a designed thinking process can help anyone approach problem solving in a more holistic manner.
Brown’s book does exactly that. Of all the books, papers, and reflections on design thinking that I’ve read, this is the best at both explaining the process that teams go through, and the reasons for using this process. The process involves using empathy to understand the needs and desires of users, divergent thinking to create strict constraint that focus the problem, transforming and prototyping a wide variety of solutions, testing and articulating the changes and final development, and understand how to make sustainable systems.
Just as importantly, Brown articulates the reasons why it’s oftentimes more important to spend a great deal of time at the start of the project identifying the actual problem. (The example I give to my students: World hunger isn’t a problem. It’s the outcome of a 1,000 small problems. You can’t “solve world hunger,” but you can figure out solutions to the 1,000 problems that cause world hunger. Design thinking helps you identify what each of those problems are in each of the areas where hunger is a problem.)
I’m a big proponent of design thinking as a process for working, creating, and solving in the modern world. It is, in many ways, the exact type of “critical thinking skills” that everyone needs, from employers down to individuals.
This is a great book for people who are trying to understand the importance and need for these processes, and for those trying to understand how to deploy these skills.
A decent overview to design thinking, in spite of being slightly dated and self-promoting.