Design-driven leadership is a culture based on design thinking that encourages creativity, innovation, and problem-solving. It is based on the idea that the best way to create a successful organization is to involve employees in the process. While there is a generally accepted framework and process for design thinking, many frameworks follow a similar pattern, with slight variations as needed. Let’s compare two common frameworks – The Design Thinking Framework and ADDIE to find commonalities between them, and see how different frameworks can be implemented to unlock creativity, innovation, and success.

The Design Thinking Framework

The Design Thinking framework is a five-step process for solving problems and creating innovative solutions. The steps are:

1. Empathize: Understand the user’s needs and problems.
2. Define: Define the problem to be solved.
3. Ideate: Generate ideas for solutions.
4. Prototype: Create a prototype of the solution.
5. Test: Test the prototype with users and obtain feedback.

While the Design Thinking framework can be thought of as a process, it’s more of a loop. When testing is being done, it leads the team to empathize, starting the loop over again. The process is similar to other frameworks, such as the Instructional Design ADDIE model, or a framework like Plan, Do, Check, Act.

The ADDIE Framework

The ADDIE Process utilizes the following framework, and is iterative. After the evaluation step, analysis can again lead you further down the path of innovation.

1. Analyze: Study and understand the challenge
2. Design: Informally or theoretically design a solution that could potentially work, This is not a development, but a design of the solution.
3. Develop: Develop the solution through iterative prototyping, integrating feedback from user testing.
4. Implement: Implement the solution
5. Evaluate: Further evaluate the implementation, leading to further analysis as needed, making the process iterative

Design-Driven Culture

Regardless of the exact implementation, a Design Thinking framework is a valuable tool for teams and organizations that want to create innovative solutions to problems. It is a user-centered approach that emphasizes empathy, collaboration, and iteration. 

Design-driven leaders create a culture of trust through collaboration and accountability. They empower their employees to take risks and experiment. They provide leadership, guidance, coaching, and resources as they are available. Practical strategies for implementing a design-driven culture include:

• Formal design-thinking methodologies and project management
• Design Sprints
• 10% Time
• Accountability tied to a framework designed around specific needs

Accountability Framework

The accountability framework is tied to the outcomes that a team or organization are looking for. This framework is dependent on the needs of the team or organization. This accountability framework also helps to define many processes, tools, and people needed to make the design-driven process work. This framework should be contextualized to an organization’s or team’s needs. Currently, my framework is as follows: 

• Timeliness: Projects are completed in a timely manner (by stated due dates)
• Quality
  • Instructional: Content must be instructionally-designed well and accessible.
  • Aesthetic: Content, media, and UI/UX elements should adhere to branding standards, reflect high-quality visual design standards, and be accessible.
  • Interactive: Interactive elements should reflect high-quality design standards and be accessible.
• Consistency: We must be able to consistently produce high-quality results, utilizing common processes, tools, etc.
• Innovation: While consistency is a key, we must innovate and find valuable solutions to both specific challenges, and find solutions to challenge patterns. This often requires asking the right question, then collaborating to design the best solution.
• Communication: We must communicate throughout the process, within stakeholders, within the team, and throughout the systems that we use.

These framework dimensions act as objectives, and they can be tracked as data points (with related data points), and reported on. There are specific strategies and tactics that support these dimensions as well. Being able to track your team’s or organization’s effectiveness is important, as you, as a leader, will want to evaluate your approach and make changes as needed.

Collaborative Culture

A key aspect of design-driven leadership and design thinking is collaboration. Casting a wide net and utilizing the strengths of the team as a whole allows the team to better empathize, define, ideate, and design solutions. While the prototyping, development, aesthetics, and implementation is most often done by those with specific skills, the testing and evaluation can also be done by a diverse group of individuals. 

This collaborative, human-centered and design-centered approach allows individuals to come together to design better solutions.

Examples of Design-Driven Leadership

Design-driven leadership has been shown to be effective in a variety of industries. It has been used to create successful products, services, and organizations.

GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare utilized empathy to realize that children were having a difficult time when doing diagnostic imaging such as MRIs. Taking this into account, GE Healthcare launched the “Adventure Series.” This design focused on making MRIs more child friendly by changing the design of MRI machines to incorporate pirate ships, beaches, and the ocean.

GE Healthcare increased patient satisfaction scores by 90% by implementing design thinking. Since the children were less intimidated by the process, the quality of scans also increased.

Netflix

Netflix has leveraged design thinking to become an industry powerhouse. They initially delivered on convenience and offered DVDs by mail and implemented a subscription model rather than requiring customers to drive to brick-and-mortar stores. 

As DVDs became outdated, Netflix moved to a streaming model to create an on-demand streaming service. This eliminated the inconvenience of waiting for DVDs and returning them. As the streaming model evolved, Netflix realized that they could offer unique viewing experiences through offering their own entertainment and licensing entertainment that would not otherwise have seen wide adoption.

Netflix’s interface has also evolved over the years to include short trailers. Netflix’s updates have been in response to what they recognize as needs in their users through empathy, definition, analysis, ideation, and design. 

A Focus on Design

Most of the initial a-ha moments, or initial moments of insight happen during the empathize, define, analysis, ideation, and design phases. Many insights will also be gained during the testing and evaluation phases. To take full advantage of a design-driven culture, these are the critical steps.

Oftentimes, focus is placed on the development, aesthetic design, and implementation phases of the process because they result in the prototypes, products, and processes that users interact with. But these phases of the process are made more valuable through implementation of the other phases as well. Each of these roles in the design-driven process is important.

Benefits of Implementing a Design-Driven Leadership Culture

If you are looking to create a more innovative and successful organization, then you should consider adopting a design-driven leadership culture. Some of the benefits include: 

• Increased creativity and innovation
• Improved problem-solving
• Increased employee engagement
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Increased profitability

Design-driven leadership is a powerful tool that can help you create a more successful organization. If you are looking to improve your organization’s performance, then you should consider adopting a design-driven leadership culture.