Design Thinking has been the most potent pitch of design to business in history. Despite its woolliness, the snappy message has entered the C-suite lexicon like few others. Plan was approached by a client to help codify what Design Thinking meant for their business and pilot a new way of working at the front end of innovation.

Kicking off with an internal conference, we invited external experts and delegates from other companies successful in applying design thinking to candidly share their principles, approaches, successes and failures. With an audience of senior leadership from across marketing, R&D and design present, these inputs kick-started a workshop to define the brand’s design thinking principles, and devise an action plan for implementation.

Soon afterwards, the Design Thinking philosophy proved its worth when the client used the same innovation principles we helped them refine to solve a critical business challenge. Design Thinking is now recognised as a critical foundation of the company’s approach to innovation, with a programme to familiarise innovators from across the business with a ‘designerly’ way of working.