Have you ever heard someone at work say: “Let’s not focus on the problem; let’s focus on the solution”?
At first, it may sound like a proactive, positive and inspiring approach… However, it can prove extremely costly for your organization, and in this article, we explain why.
There is a major misunderstanding in the corporate world: “focusing on the problem” is often confused with looking for someone to blame, dwelling on failures or prolonging unproductive discussions. But it does not have to mean any of those things.
Focusing on the problem can — and should — be about understanding people and identifying the real causes. When an organization skips this stage because it is in a hurry to find a “good, quick and inexpensive” answer, it often ends up creating superficial solutions for the wrong symptoms.
The most common outcome? At the end of the process, the organization realizes that the solution was merely a temporary fix that failed to address the root cause or, worse, a complete waste of time and resources that changed absolutely nothing.
And then the cycle begins again: the organization invests in another tool, another process or another product. Money is lost, teams become exhausted and frustration continues to build.
Design Thinking is a methodology designed to transform this mindset. Its main purpose is to ensure that your organization is investing in solving the right problem before committing budgets, time and people to the wrong solution.
It may sound simple, but it is remarkably powerful. This is why companies such as Google, IBM, SAP, Airbnb and Apple, as well as hundreds of start-ups, use this approach to create more relevant solutions and accelerate innovation.
In this article, you will discover:
- What Design Thinking is and where it originated
- How its five stages work
- When it makes sense to use Design Thinking in your organization
1. What Is Design Thinking and Where Did It Originate?
Design Thinking is a human-centred approach to innovation. It is a structured methodology based on one fundamental premise: you cannot solve a problem effectively unless you truly understand it.
Although the term “Design Thinking” began gaining academic recognition between the 1960s and the 1980s, through design thinkers such as Herbert Simon and Bryan Lawson, Design Thinking as we know it today gained widespread prominence during the 1990s and 2000s.
The major turning point came through David Kelley and the renowned Silicon Valley innovation consultancy IDEO.
Kelley and his brother Tom realized that good designers never started with the product; they always started with people. In other words, when designing a chair, they would not begin by asking, “How can we create an attractive chair?” Instead, they would ask: “How do people sit? Where do they experience discomfort? What do they need when they rest?”
With this in mind, they decided to bring this way of working into the business world.
When they introduced this approach into organizations, they discovered that replacing “I think this is what the customer wants” with direct observation, listening and first-hand understanding of people’s real problems dramatically reduced the risk of failure. It also turned innovation into a repeatable, almost scientific process.
This way of thinking spread quickly. Today, global corporations and some of the world’s most promising start-ups use this approach to design strategies, lead teams and reinvent entire business models.
Unlike traditional problem-solving methods, which often begin with a solution or a particular tool, Design Thinking always begins with the people experiencing the problem, whether they are users, customers or employees.
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In practice, applying the Design Thinking methodology means:
- Breaking problems down and focusing on their root causes, without judgement or looking for someone to blame.
- Replacing “I think” with empathy: setting aside internal opinions and assumptions and focusing on the people who experience the problem every day.
- Treating hunches as hypotheses, testing them as if they were part of a scientific experiment.
- Exploring before deciding: prioritizing the quantity and diversity of ideas during the initial stages instead of immediately searching for the “perfect idea”.
- Failing early to learn at a lower cost: testing simple prototypes quickly to avoid expensive mistakes during implementation.
2. How Do the Five Stages Work?
The traditional Design Thinking model is divided into five stages. In practice, however, these stages are rarely linear: the aim is for the team to move backwards and forwards between them as it learns more about the problem.
In simplified terms, the five stages are:
- I. Empathize — Develop a deep understanding of the people who experience the problem every day, without assumptions or prejudice. Through observation, interviews and active listening, the objective is to uncover motivations, pain points, emotions and needs that may not be immediately visible.
- II. Define — Organize everything learned during the empathy stage and synthesize it into a clear definition of the problem. For example, instead of using a generic statement such as “People are not using the new software”, the problem could be defined more precisely: “Teams avoid using the new software because the platform requires several complex steps, making customer service twice as slow as it was under the previous system.”
- III. Ideate — Once the problem has been clearly defined, the team moves into the idea-generation stage. At this point, diversity and quantity are more important than perfection. A range of techniques can be used to explore multiple possible solutions.
- IV. Prototype — Give ideas a tangible form quickly and cost-effectively. This involves creating simple versions of the solution — prototypes — containing enough detail to test the central hypothesis, such as a paper sketch, a model, a role-playing exercise or a simple landing page. Instead of spending months developing a complete solution that may ultimately fail, teams create simplified versions that allow them to learn more quickly.
- V. Test — Present the prototype to the people experiencing the problem, observe what happens, gather genuine feedback and return to previous stages whenever necessary. The aim is not to avoid mistakes or defend the original idea. It is to learn early and adjust direction while the cost of making a mistake is still low.
3. When Does It Make Sense to Use Design Thinking in Your Organization?
This mindset can be transformative whenever your organization needs to:
- Improve the Customer Experience: Identify what truly matters throughout the customer journey and make the changes that will have the greatest impact.
- Develop New Products or Services: Create solutions that the market genuinely wants and adopts naturally.
- Increase Employee Engagement: Develop Employee Experience solutions that reflect the real needs of your teams.
- Solve Complex Operational Challenges: Unlock and optimize inefficient or overly bureaucratic internal processes.
Overall, the organizations that achieve the best results with Design Thinking do not use it simply as a tool, but as a way of thinking. It is this mindset that creates cultures that are more innovative, more adaptable and more focused on generating sustainable value.
Conclusion
The next time you hear someone in your organization say, “Let’s not focus on the problem; let’s focus on the solution,” remember:
- Quickly and blindly committing to a solution without understanding the root cause is one of the fastest ways to waste time, money and your team’s enthusiasm.
- Focusing on the problem does not mean wasting time complaining or looking for someone to blame. It means having the courage and humility to listen to those who understand the situation and identify what genuinely needs to change.
- The most successful teams are those that understand people’s needs more deeply and transform that knowledge into the right solutions.
Because genuine innovation does not begin with answers or brilliant ideas. It begins with the right questions.
And in your organization, are you investing in solving the right problems, or are you continuing to rely on fragile solutions?
Frequently Asked Questions About Design Thinking
What is Design Thinking, in simple terms?
A structured, human-centred innovation methodology that enables organizations to understand a problem thoroughly before deciding on and investing in a solution.
Is Design Thinking only used for product design?
No. Although it has its roots in design, it is now applied to business strategy, leadership, internal process optimization, customer experience and organizational transformation.
How long does a Design Thinking process take?
It depends on the scope and complexity of the problem. It may range from a short cycle lasting a few weeks, designed to test a specific idea, to a longer transformation programme. What remains unchanged is the need to work through the five stages before making final decisions.
Is specialist training required to apply Design Thinking within an organization?
It is not essential. However, receiving specialist guidance or training during the first applications significantly increases the likelihood that the methodology will be properly understood, adopted and implemented by teams.