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DESIGN THINKING: PAST, PRESENT AND POSSIBLE FUTURES 121 Design Thinking: Past, Present and Possible Futures Ulla Johansson-Sköldberg, Jill Woodilla and Mehves Çetinkaya This paper takes a critical look at the design thinking discourse, one that has different meanings depending on its context. Within the managerial realm, design thinking has been described as the best way to be creative and innovate, while within the design realm, design thinking may be partly ignored and taken for granted, despite a long history of academic development and debate. In the design area, we find five different discourses of ‘designerly thinking’, or ways to describe what designers do in practice, that have distinctly different epistemological roots. These different discourses do not stand in competition with each other but could be developed in parallel. We also observe that the management discourse has three distinct origins, but in general has a more superficial and popular character and is less academically anchored than the designerly one. Also, the management design thinking dis- course seldom refers to designerly thinking and thereby hinders cumulative knowledge con- struction. We suggest further research to link the discourses. Introduction independently of each other. This might be possible, but is hardly plausible. ‘ esign thinking’ is a concept used both in It is therefore easy for the temporarily inten- Dtheory and practice. In the management sive discourse to be dismissed as hype or a fad realm it is so closely related to practice that (Johansson & Woodilla, 2010), thereby imply- some researchers say that there is no theoreti- ing that design thinking is not an enduring cal body, a comment frequently heard at the concept to be used in academia or the manage- 2011 Cambridge Design Management Confer- ment world. This path seems even more ence. Certainly there is an extensive literature, certain as some of the more prominent proph- both academic and practitioner-oriented, in ets of design thinking have renounced the books, journals and the news media, and concept, like Professor Bruce Nussbaum of recently the popular press and semi-academic Parsons – The New School of Design, formerly literature has displayed a zeal for the concept associate editor at BusinessWeek, who has as if ‘design thinking’ is a panacea for the turned away in favour of ‘creative intelligence’ economy. Turning to the academic literature (Nussbaum, 2011); Professor Fred Collopy of for a more reasoned treatment, we find, to our Case Western Reserve University, who has surprise, there is no sustained development of become increasingly ‘bothered’ by the term the concept. And even though there must be (Collopy, 2009), and Dean Roger Martin, some relationships between the academic dis- Rotman School of Management, University of courses of design(erly) thinking and the man- Toronto, who continues to explore different agement discourse based on the same varieties of executive thinking. Continuing in concepts, there are seldom references linking this way, however, would be to make a messy the two. It is as if design theorists such as situation too easy; instead, we propose step- Richard Buchanan (1992) and management ping back and surveying the field to explore writers such as Roger Martin (2009) coined the the roots and development of the discourse. label of ‘design thinking’ to describe the The paper is structured as follows. First, we thought processes of designing completely discuss the demographics of the discourse, © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Volume 22 Number 2 2013 10.1111/caim.12023 122 CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT how it has grown and what types of literature some sources from the literature base were have been published, followed by the descrip- ignored as not directly related to our interests tion and characteristics of the two main dis- and others were added because they were key courses, the designerly and the management references for sources from our original list or discourses of design thinking. We identify five written after our original search. sub-discourses of the designerly thinking dis- Identifying the Populations course and three origins of the management discourse, and critically review their content The literature base consists of 168 items, of and contributions. Finally, we discuss relations which more than 80 per cent date from after between the two discourses and suggest pos- the year 2000. It includes books (31), academic sible research directions. refereed papers (48), professional/practitioner articles (28), refereed conference papers (7), magazines and newspaper articles (39) and The Demographics of the Literature web blogs (15). The numbers gradually increase by year, starting from Simon’s (1969) In our previous work we observed two dis- foundational work about the nature of design, tinct discourses on design thinking: one in the then design theorists’ publications beginning design-based, scholarly literature, and the in the 1980s, becoming more numerous other in the widely accessible business media around 1999, and reaching a high point in (Johansson & Woodilla, 2010). In this article 2009. Management scholars first showed an our research questions centre around relation- interest in links between business and design ships between the two discourses and their in the mid-1980s, followed by scholars in other sources: the types of literature, rather than the areas. The subject gathered popular media specific content. We searched the literature attention starting around 2004 and peaked in until we were satisfied and had reached the 2009. The development of the broad field is level of saturation. shown in Figure 1. Here the literature is We started with questions like, ‘What is the divided into three genres: (1) books (black literature on design thinking? What are the column), (2) substantial articles in academic discourse streams and relative strengths, and (peer-reviewed) and respected practitioner What is different about the presentation in journals (dark grey column), and (3) short the different media?’ We were interested in pieces in the business press and online media uncovering trends, recognizing important (light grey column). Appendices A and B authors to follow, and appreciating differences elaborate on the base literature list by catego- in how the concept has been treated in the rizing the entries. academic and non-academic press. We antici- Books provide an elaborated argument pated that there would be different discussions where the author demonstrates proficiency in about the use of design thinking in education the field. Some books are theory-driven (e.g., and empirical work with potentially different Simon, 1969): the early books tend to be of this methodologies. We were also interested in nature due to the publication norms of the uncovering what has been forgotten and field at the time. Other books present cases themes that had potential for further and examples that elaborate and develop development. theory (e.g., Rowe, 1987), or are ‘recipes’ for Our initial scoping search using academic ‘how to do design thinking’ for practitioners electronic databases, journals, book publish- (e.g., Leidtka & Ogilvie, 2011) or textbooks for ers’ lists and informal methods such as Google students (e.g., Ambrose & Harris, 2010), with Scholar cast light on the structure and differ- simplified arguments, diagrams and check- ent streams in the overall discourse. We lists, but little theory development. Most searched for ‘design thinking’, ‘design’ or recent books are of this nature. ‘thinking’ in the title, subject, abstract or key- Articles in scholarly or academic journals words, and reviewed the findings with a and respected practitioner or professional subject-matter expert. The resulting literature journals are the foundational ground for any base provided the history of the development subject. We located articles that discussed the of the design thinking discourse. Later, when development of the design discourse, exclud- examining the character and structure of ing those with an industrial or computer engi- various sub-discourses, we refined the list by neering technical focus because, as scholars in selecting academic and practitioner journal ‘design management’, we were unprepared to articles, and refereed conference papers avail- evaluate them appropriately. Not surprisingly, able in the public domain that included most of the articles developing theory on ‘design thinking’ in the title, abstract or key- design thinking were in design journals, in words, and books that were referenced fre- particular UK-based Design Studies and quently in scholarly papers. For this article, US-based Design Issues. Some academic man- © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Volume 22 Number 2 2013 DESIGN THINKING: PAST, PRESENT AND POSSIBLE FUTURES 123 Figure 1. Timeline of Publications by Type agement journals included conceptual articles The Nature of the Two Discourses: related to design thinking, while professional Designerly Thinking and journal articles tended to be explanations Design Thinking or case studies of successful practice. Two, Harvard Business Review and Design Manage- A simple way of discussing the discourse of ment Review, deserve special mention: the design thinking is as two distinct discourses: former for its prestige among US executives and managers, and the latter for its long- • One we call ‘designerly thinking’. This standing focus on ‘demonstrating the strategic refers to the academic construction of the role of design in business’ (www.dmi.org).