“Design is really an act of communication, which means having a deep understanding of the person with whom the designer is communicating.”–Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things.

Organizations that manage to make a positive emotional connection with their customers in the digital era will experience positive results. Given the rise in the average time spent on mobile and connected devices, brands must harness emotional data and create meaningful customer connections.

So how can we identify the influencers that drive these connections?

The surge of internet users around the world is at an all-time rise. 400+ million as we talk, representing an annual growth of 10 percent. And if the trends continue, we are soon to witness some truly remarkable digital milestones as we tread into 2022.

Considering the overwhelming surge in technologies and digital platforms, the way ahead for brands is to differentiate themselves by creating deeper customer connections and garner a competitive advantage. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is by incorporating a human-centered design approach. It can help brands build trust, loyalty & customer value, which will invariably influence customer acquisition & retention. Human-centered design triggers positive customer responses, that can amplify your business performance and boost ROI.

What is Human-Centered Design?

Human-centered design is a consumer-centered problem-solving approach that prioritizes the consumers’ needs when approaching a challenge. To be able to incorporate this as part of the creative design process requires a deep perspective of the challenges users encounter and what are the solutions they are most likely to embrace.

As per research conducted by Deloitte, 58% of consumers prefer a brand for an emotional reason overriding the other rational factors. This has perhaps made it evident for brands that the customer experience can no longer inspire brand loyalty, human-centered design is ruling the digital space. When emotional data, like user behavior patterns, pain-points, purchase triggers, and motivators are integrated as part of your creative process, consumers are more confident about your brand as they are heard and understood.

Regardless of the industry, you belong to, or the designation you hold, it’s imperative to understand the human-centered design principles to ensure that this ideology can be infused into the products you develop. Click to Tweet

With the overarching objective of serving your customers better, the human-centered design approach can help to nurture and retain your current users and garner your competitive advantage.

Stages of the Human-Centered Design Process

While there are many forms of the Human-Centered Design process, it can be broadly categorized under these 5 key stages.

• Empathize – The foundation of the human-centered design process is to truly understand the people who experience a problem before you begin to design a solution to serve them. As Design-consultants, it is crucial to directly engage with the people experiencing the problem, observe the environments they operate in, ask a lot of questions and completely grasp their challenges. This is one of the most integral parts of the design thinking process as it’s not about anticipating but participating with the consumer, to brainstorm, model and prototype.

• Classify – After gaining all insights and learning about the problem, define the challenge you wish to address. As a human-centered designer/brand, it is important to define the ‘why’ behind addressing the problem. It is ultimately the problem statement that will guide you towards formulating the potential solutions.

• Ideate- This phase is about arriving at as many solutions and more preferably in a team setting. The key is to generate many ideas without judging the idea, as it inhibits the creative process. This is the best way to arrive at solutions from a wider, bottom-up perspective.

• Prototype – This phase is all about experimenting with what you’ve created, whether it is a virtual interface or system. A good practice for designers is to create multiple prototypes to experiment with the ones that meet the requirements of the consumer.

• Test & Iterate – Put your ideas to test. This phase is about testing the prototypes you created, to identify the gaps in design and areas for further improvement. In an ideal scenario, it would be best to test your prototype with a few consumers, whom you created the prototype for.

While this may seem like the end, the human-centered design process is a dynamic and fluid process, that runs until all participants are satisfied with the solution that addresses the problem. It is often not a linear process, but you can ascertain the next steps while you’re mid-way into the design process. In the prototyping stage, for instance, one might realize that the prototype doesn’t align with the defined problem statement. This requires designers to be agile, constantly reiterate, brainstorm and go through the nuances of the problem more deeply and to most importantly keep in mind the overarching objective, which is to invoke a positive emotional response that will increase the likelihood of customer acquisition and retention.

How to create a Human-Centered Design that invokes positive emotions?

Emotion is the cornerstone of the human-centered design experience, which requires customer experience strategies to influence positive consumer emotions. Click to Tweet

With effective product testing, user-research and subsequent touch-point mapping, it is easy to gauge the impact of the product on end-users and the pain points users may address while using the product. A good design will not only focus on addressing these challenges but convert these pain-points into positive emotional experiences. A Human-Centered Design can transform functional products into memorable and enduring experiences.

To create a successful product, the design elements should cover the needs to visceral, behavioral and reflective aspects, as per Don Norman’s seminal book on ‘Emotional Design’

Visceral Design

“This looks so amazing, I want it”

A visceral reaction is prompted by a preliminary sensory experience, which is an immediate, deep-level gut reaction to your product. It is the very first impression, the initial mood which sets the ground, due to which one begins to explore the product. As they say, there never is a second chance to make a positive first impression. Users are more likely to forgo faults in the future if the initial experience was overwhelming and positive. A visceral reaction can set a positive context for subsequent interactions. It impacts the perception of your product’s reliability, dependability, consistency, quality, appeal, and also the perceived ease of use.

Behavioral Design

“I can master this. It makes me feel so confident.”

A behavioral reaction is how we feel as part of being immersed in the product experience. It is the reactions and interactions with the product and the value we derive from the products we use, also referred to as the usability.

A product has to look good, feel good, and perform well. It’s ultimately about the pleasure associated with a product’s ease of use and effectiveness. A Behavioral design element focuses on how the structure or system, meets the requirements of the end-users. Invoking positive behavioral reactions allows users to feel more empowered, develop trust, reliability and invoke repeat reactions. A product will not last long if its design does not align with the user’s behavior. Here’s a fact: 77 percent of users never use an app again 72 hours after installing. Most successful apps are those which people can’t imagine life without, as a result of good behavioral design. From an emotional viewpoint, when our interaction behaviors are more familiar and anticipated, then we are in agreement and derive joy and contentment from the product’s usability. The behavioral design aspect covers functionality, performance, usability, and ease of use.

Reflective Design

“This is so much like me, I love the way it makes me feel”

A reflective reaction is about how we feel after experiencing the product. It is about whether we remember the experience and how it made us feel, which will determine if we desire to experience the product all over again. It’s about self-image, satisfaction, memories, reflecting on the experience. A positive, reflective design can invoke customer advocacy, by encouraging other users with their experiences. A good reflective emotional design captures the essence of the product, impact of thought, share-ability and the cultural impact.

For a design to have an emotional appeal, users need to feel connected to a product in a way such that life feels incomplete without it. Click to Tweet

Designers then, need to constantly strive towards creating products with a ‘personality’, something that simplifies real-life experiences; if they truly want their products/brand to be successful and meaningful.

Techniques to Augment an Emotional Impact

• Personalization— Give room for the users to feel in-control with personalization. This makes them feel a sense of ownership, which gives them the power to tailor experiences based on their preferences.

• Powerful Imagery —Use of appropriate imagery that users can connect and relate with can have a significant impact on product success. Use images, colors, animations and illustrations that invoke empathy and trigger an emotional response.

• Delight— Try to keep the element of surprise alive, let there be something fun and pleasant to look forward to. Invoke positive emotional reactions by surprising and delighting your users.

• Relatable Voice— Relate to your users in a more empathetic Express compassion, encouragement, and emotion through a conversational user interface.

• Storytelling — Help users understand the journey of the experience with powerful, relatable and engaging stories that stay etched in their memory.

• Humor — Evoke a sense of joy, eliminate room for uncertainty and fear with a good sense of humor. Laughing and glee are powerful emotions that trigger a sense of joy and contentment.

• Micro-interactions — Subtle affordances and indicators make the product interface feel more vibrant and alive, which can influence greater user-engagement and interactions.

“The customer rarely buys what the business thinks it sells him. One reason for this is, of course, that nobody pays for a ‘product.’ What is paid for is satisfaction. But nobody can make or supply satisfaction as such—at best, only the means to attaining them can be sold and delivered.” – Peter Drucker

Heuristic Principles – Why are they integral to product interfaces?

What is a heuristic approach?

A heuristic technique is any approach to problem-solving, learning, or discovery that employs a practical method not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect, but sufficient to accomplish immediate goals. Heuristic principles are most appropriate when concise guidelines do not exist. In the absence of guidelines as with UI & UX design, heuristic methods can be used as a point of evaluation for optimal design solutions. They speed up the process of finding a practical solution while easing the cognitive overload of making a decision.

Jakob Nielsen, a web usability consultant collected and released a set of evaluation principles for usability heuristics that help in identifying the problems in a user interface design to address these as part of the iterative design process. As the Human-centered design augmented the importance of the user, design processes have adapted accordingly. However though Nielsen’s principles have remained universal across all digital product interfaces.

Here are ten heuristic principles that are inspired by human-centered design and usability thought leaders. They help as guidelines for usability evaluations to identify if the UI falls short of delivering a user-friendly experience.

1.Visibility of the System Structure

The UI should always allow transparency in the system structure and make the user feel in control. Make a few elements and structures visible so that the user has a complete understanding of the context. They should be able to understand where they are and where they can head to next. When the system is transparent, the user is in control of his journey and gains incredible confidence in the product interface.

2. Immediate Feedback

The user’s action should be followed by an immediate response, which confirms that the system is in receipt of the request. Instantaneous feedback reassures the user that his response is right and reveals what can be expected next. Without feedback, the user can feel frustrated and uncertain, which can lead to an interrupted journey.

3. Highlight Errors

Barriers and dead-ends often lead to interrupted product journeys. Users are bound to feel frustrated when they find themselves in a situation that does not accomplish their needs. When a user is given awareness about the errors, it helps in immediate recognition, diagnosis, and recovery from the error. Striking a perfect balance with simple & linear communication is the key to avoiding cognitive overload. Remember, all the user needs is to understand how to solve and prevent the error in the future.

4. Ease of Use

An interactive product experience must be independent of external user guidance. Whether it is a first time experience or the tenth, the interface should accommodate both scenarios. While a seasoned user has access to a deeper systematic understanding and short cuts, the new user should experience flexibility in maneuvering the interface without being interrupted. When the UI is flexible, the user can be in control and choose a journey based on their needs and capabilities. The key is to find balance, both, a restrictive or an overwhelming interface can be a frustrating experience.

5. Universal Experiences

Create design elements that relate to common human experiences and expectations. It is important to cater to universal user expectations as we spend more time involved in digital interfaces. A “+” sign ideally expands to give more information, by tapping into easily comprehensible references like these, users will understand its purpose and the interface becomes more intuitive.

6. Minimalistic Aesthetics

Create minimal design features and eliminate elements that can interfere with the overall experience. Display data in a manner that is clear and aids easy navigation. Stick to a theme by using a layout, color, and typography, that guides the user without any distractions.

7. Prioritize Function over Form

The visual design of an interface must always begin with defined functions. Design decisions focus on what an element is meant to do, rather than emphasizing on its visual style. When the style, overall look and trends are prioritized, it may perhaps draw a lot more attention, but functionality is the key.

8. Availability of Information

Make information available to ensure users have information available on their fingertips rather than having to rely on memory. One of Nielsen’s heuristic principles suggests the designer should “minimize the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.”It’s important to keep in mind that a user experiencing an interface for the first time will not have the knowledge and familiarity with the information that the designers do. While the repetition of information may seem excessive to design experts, this is very essential for new users.

9. Maintain Consistency

As humans, we are drawn to patterns, and use them to make sense of the world. Representing information in familiar frameworks like metaphors & schemas and consistent elements helps in creating a cohesive experience that’s easily retained.

10. Reflect & Align

To ensure that the design principles and usability heuristics align with the overall purpose of the product and user needs, it is important to reflect and align periodically. It is up to the design experts to establish the best decisions for their unique use cases. All in all, if the product is human-centered and built to align with the user needs, the design and product will have a strong sense of purpose.

Conclusion:

It’s no longer enough to create products that push the boundaries of technology. What’s more important is to understand your customers’ motivations and behavior patterns, and translate this into a robust design interface to deliver customer experiences that can garner your competitive advantage, brand recognition, and growth.

Regardless of the industry you belong to, it’s mission-critical that you are aware of the process of the human-centered design process. By putting your consumer at the forefront of your creative process, you can build products that beautifully align with your consumer’s needs. When done right, it can provide optimum user experiences, maximize engagement and have a direct impact on customer acquisition and retention.

If CXOs are asked to name the one aspect which is likely to impact their future business the most, chances are ‘customer experience’ will likely rank high. Providing a great customer experience at every touchpoint is an imperative for every business across domains – be it retail, healthcare, media & entertainment, banking and more. Even enterprises in the B2B domain which hitherto did not give priority to a great design experience have come to realise their folly.

Consumers are consumers everywhere – be it as someone interacting with a beautifully designed taxi-aggregator app or a poorly designed human resources tool within the office. So a consistently good customer experience today improves chances of brand loyalty, strengthens brand affinity and may even result in brand evangelism. 81% of companies recognize customer experience (CX) as a competitive differentiator, yet just 13% rate their CX delivery at 9/10 or better. This is not relevant only for consumer-facing businesses – even enterprises which have niche B2B communities as target audience – say, healthcare professionals, logistics and more should take cognizance of these developments.

There are several sets of numbers floating around to indicate the huge market potential of IT Services. According to a report, the ‘global customer experience management’ market size is expected to reach USD 32.49 billion by 2025. The report goes on to say that the retail sector is one of the largest end-users segment of customer experience management software. However, software is only one aspect of ‘customer experience management’. In fact, digital solution providers are only a small component of the larger digital transformation market: Digital Solutions Providers, Cloud Solutions Providers, System Integrators, System Administrators, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Providers, Platform as a Service (PaaS) Providers and many more play a role. Some of the services include Cloud Computing, Big Data & Analytics, Application Development & Maintenance, right deployment of Emerging Technologies (IoT, Blockchain & Artificial Intelligence) and more.

Suffice to say that even with Digital Experiences – a small component in the overall IT & ITeS industry the full potential of how it can benefit enterprises has not been full explored or understood by a large number of CXOs. According to Forrester Wave:

A digital experience platform architecture will help to align strategies, teams, processes, and technology to meet this integration imperative with six primary themes:

• Coordinate content, customer data, and core services to drive reuse and quality
• Unify marketing, commerce, and service processes to improve practitioner workflows.
• Deliver contextually and share targeting rules to unify the “glass.”
• Share front-end code across digital touchpoints to manage a common user experience.
• Link data and analytics to add insight and drive action.
• Manage code and extensions for maximum reuse while avoiding over-customization.

As you can see there is room for diverse skill sets and offerings. However, when it comes to technology partners, many view them with the narrow lens of coders and app development teams. The B2B service companies offering such services should also take a share of the blame as many have not made the endeavour to position themselves on a higher scale…up the value chain. To be able to get the attention of CXOs, digital experience partners should empathise with the business issues they grapple with and offer to be their design thinking and technology partners. They need to pitch their offerings at a higher level and not just as mere designers and coders. Also, the distinction between design and design thinking has perhaps not been highlighted enough over the years. Many enterprises still see design as ‘how things look’ and focus on the ‘beauty aspect’ (surely an important one) and not on the more process-driven design thinking aspects.

Today, digital experience partners such as Robosoft are uniquely placed to lead process of transforming the fortunes of enterprises by implementing processes that facilitate rapid product development. It begins with an understanding of the client’s business and is designed to be an ongoing process.

This helps cut long lead times to develop digital products and helps enterprises execute faster, learn quicker and iterate to get better. The process is cyclical and hence keeps pace with changing customer expectations.

We have worked with a few leading enterprises across key domains in going beyond the proverbial tip of the iceberg when it comes to integration of product roadmaps and emerging technologies.

Healthcare

While the domain includes hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, health tech and more, our focus is in offering the benefits of blockchain in these areas:

Our team developed the mobile Clinical Trial Management System for a few leading pharmaceutical companies in the US. We have also created custom software solutions for Clinical Trials, Patients & Enterprise. A current clinical trial project integrates Blockchain, AI, ML, Mobile, Chatbots (Text & Verbal) and more. Apple is investing heavily behind healthcare where the focus is on using the ecosystem of the Apple Watch and iPhone working together to collect & share vital patient data.

Retail

Aside from blockchain, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Chatbots, Robo-advisors, & Voice Assistants, Big Data & Analytics, Internet of Things & Wearables are some of the technologies in different stages of development and adoption in retail. Here are some great examples:

Sephora introduced AR into their platform in early 2017 by way of their Virtual Artist platform, which shows customers a realistic “mockup” of how certain skin care and makeup products would look with their face shape, skin colour, and other distinguishing features.

The app for Bareburger harnesses AR technology to allow customers to “see” the menu item in front of them on their device before they order, giving them a better, more mouth-watering ordering experience.

Banking & Finance

Banks and financial institutions have a unique opportunity to use technology to create a tailored approach using empathy and automation for the delicate and sensitive nature of finance. Voice Assistant technology is one such. Aside from voice, blockchain, AI, Machine Learning and human-like interfaces are also opportunities in this segment.

The engineers at JP Morgan have created ‘JPM Coin’ – the first US bank-backed cryptocurrency

In 2018, Bank of America launched their artificial intelligence (AI)-driven virtual financial assistant, Erica, “to help clients tackle more complex tasks and provide personalized, proactive guidance to help them stay on top of their finances”

An Australian bank UBank is set to debut Mia (short for My Interactive Agent) a digital assistant with a human face powered by artificial intelligence technology.

Data Science is also a specialisation which banks tap into for use cases such as fraud detection, risk modelling, personalised marketing, predicting lifetime value, recommendation engine and more.

Enterprise Apps

Enterprise mobility applications are effecting a paradigm shift in the landscape of processes in organizations. Some of the areas in which they play a role include instant communication platform for employees, sales leads & CRM, Supply Chain & inventory management, workflows & approvals, onboarding & training to name a few. Digital experiences can play a role in boosting employee engagement too: interactive learning modules, HR operations, payroll come to mind.

To sum up, enterprises are skimming the surface when it comes to possibilities with digital experiences which can simplify lives of people. The future is exciting in this context as we discover more exciting possibilities of digital experience which delight.

In 2016, after nearly two decades in professional life, I enrolled in not just one, but six online courses offered by the reputed Interaction Design Foundation (IDF). My initial plan was to complete a course on ‘Services Design’ but I ended up completing these:

• Emotional design – how to make products that people will love
• User research –methods and best practices
• Conducting usability testing
• Information visualization – getting dashboards right
• Mobile user experience design – designing UX for mobile apps
• Design Thinking – the beginner’s guide

Completing these courses and learning something new was useful and a deeply enriching experience. The cherry on top was the email from Interaction Design Foundation about my performance: “One of our developers did a database extract of the top performers (1%) in our courses, and your name came out on that list!’’ – Mads Soegaard, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Interaction Design Foundation

After I completed these courses many have asked for book recommendations on the topic. But Design Thinking is one piece of the puzzle when it comes to solving complex business problems. Over the years, as a consultant, I have worked with several CXOs across diverse business categories and geographies. The business problems faced by each of those organizations were unique and covered a range of aspects: service delivery process, organization structure, brand positioning and many more. Aside from hands-on experience, I realized that the holistic thinking outlined in several books helped me immensely to grasp the problems at hand and offer solutions.

Among many such books, here are my 5 top picks, which would help CXOs take a 360-degree approach in solving business problems:

Book 1 – Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action by Simon Sinek

In a succinct TED Talk, Simon Sinek connected Martin Luther King Jr, Steve Jobs and demonstrated that they all think in the same way – they all started with ‘why’, the larger purpose. Nike says, ‘our purpose is to use the power of sport to move the world forward’. And they outline their mission as: “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world”.

Author – Simon Sinek

But the clincher is in defining who an athlete is: ‘if you have a body, you are an athlete’. Suddenly, Nike’s business is elevated from selling shoes & sportswear to a rallying clarion call. It is meaningful for their employees, partners and various stakeholders. You can see its manifestation in their hugely successful marketing and the famous ‘Just Do It’ tagline. I believe every organization can define such a lofty goal.

At Robosoft, our core purpose is to “simplify lives” through delightful digital experiences. We believe in simplifying every aspect of life; the way people buy, transact, pay, get entertained, bank, get insured, sell, invest, mange health, etc. We touch billions of lives through our advice, design and technology capabilities.

Such goals are best set in an inclusive manner so that employees buy into them and do not see it as a diktat from the top. Simon Sinek’s book explains the framework needed for businesses to move past knowing what they do to how they do it, and then to ask the more important question – WHY?

Book 2 – Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes by Kaplan and Norton

Author – Robert S. Kaplan, David P. Norton

Businesses are more complex than ever before. Competition comes in various shapes and from unexpected quarters. No one would have predicted taxi aggregators would change the face of urban transport across the globe. FinTech players continue to challenge traditional banks. Such complex challenges call for not just a clear strategy; but also require an implementation framework. Kaplan and Norton argue that the most critical aspect of strategy is to define how an organization is different from competition or what is the unique value proposition to customers. Organizations generally choose to differentiate themselves either on Total cost, Complete customer solution or Product innovation. E.g. Apples competes on innovation, Walmart competes on cost, and IBM competes on “one stop shop for IT”.

At Robosoft, we chose our value proposition to be “a full-service digital experiences agency” by offering digital advice, design thinking and emerging technologies implementation.

Once the customer value proposition (CVP) is chosen, implementing it in a way that ensures sustained value creation–depends on managing four key value-creating internal process perspective categories: operational efficiency, customer relationships, innovation management, and regulatory/social processes. The processes are then enabled by the learning and growth perspectives which consists of Human capital (skills, knowledge and competencies), Organization capital (culture, alignment, teamwork and leadership) and Information capital (IT applications, infrastructure and systems). This book taught me the benefit of defining the HOW?

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Book 3. The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge

How do companies become learning organizations by thinking systems and thinking holistically? Peter Senge, an American systems scientist and senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, offers 5 disciplines: A shared Vision, Mental Models, Team Learning, Personal Mastery and System Thinking.

Author – Peter M. Senge

As organizations grow in complexity and newer challenges emerge, our ability to identify the right problem to solve becomes extremely important. Systems Thinking is the 5th discipline that the book talks about; which enables us with the ability to think cause-and-effect. Once we know the core problem that we need to solve, our ability to identify, design and innovate the right solutions, products and services for the market becomes accurate.

This book enabled me to define WHAT products, WHAT solutions and WHAT services to offer to the market in a very holistic manner.

Book 4. Change by Design by Tim Brown

At the core of this legendary book is the belief that most innovations come from a process of rigorous examination and not from a flash of brilliance. Tim Brown is the CEO of IDEO and he defines design thinking thus: the collaborative process by which the designer’s sensibilities and methods are employed to match people’s needs with what is technically feasible and a viable business strategy. The chapter on ‘Putting people first’ was of particular interest to me where he outlines three mutually reinforcing elements of any successful design programme: insight, observation and empathy. Insight is about learning from the lives of others, observation is watching what people don’t do, listening to what they don’t say and empathy is about standing in the shoes of others.

Author – Tim Brown

I firmly believe that design thinking is not the exclusive realm of designers – we all can learn from others’ lives, feel their pain points and think of solutions. At Robosoft we get to partner with a diverse set of companies, domains and end-consumers. What we solve for is vastly different for a bank as compared to say, a news organisation – Design Thinking helps us straddle such extremes.

Book 5. The Knowledge Creating Company by Nonaka and Takeuchi

Despite the devastation of the World War, Japan has emerged as a global economic power and a world leader in important industries like electronics and automobiles. In this book the authors contend that Japanese firms are innovative, create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies.

Author – Ikujiro Nonaka, Hirotaka Takeuchi 

Author – Ikujiro Nonaka, Hirotaka Takeuchi 

The culture of un-learning, learning and then innovating are the key ingredients towards becoming a knowledge organization. They say, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. Our ability to not depend on past success and create a new future depends heavily on our skill to un-learn; which then opens up for a possibility to learn and create new knowledge.

Summary:

While the above 5 books are on different subjects, they all are ‘connected’ in some fashion as they are all about making a difference to the customers. Peter Drucker famously said, “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer”. What binds them all together and important for holistic business thinking could be summed up thus:

1. Identifying the larger purpose of the organization is key to success and thus “start with WHY” is the most important read for all CXOs.
2. Strategy is about differentiation, customer value proposition and answer the HOW for organizations. The design of strategy, its execution and monitoring are key to building successful companies and delivering value to shareholders, vendors, customers and employees
3. Identifying the right problem to solve is very important and thus the power of cause-and-effect is key. ‘Systems thinking’ thus becomes extremely important to solve complex problems and it also ensures that we are not solving the symptom but the actual cause. This helps us identify the right products/services for our customers and answer the question “WHAT”
4. Once we know the product/solution, it is important to design it well by being empathetic to the user who faces the problem and thus design thinking plays a very important role in innovating new products, services and processes
5. To do all the above, it is a MUST to build a learning culture that enables the organization to continuously un-learn, learn and innovate.

I look forward to your views on these books and your recommendations on other good reads on the subject of business thinking.

This article was first published on LinkedIn by Ravi Teja Bommireddipalli