Exploring the use of design thinking in large organizations: Towards a research agenda

In managerial debates, design thinking (DT) is promoted as a user-centered approach to innovation, suggesting that any firm could learn from the practice of designers. Still, it is unclear how DT relates to design in general, and to the design profession in specific. Previous work on DT is mainly theoretical, and empirical investigations of how DT is used in organizations are needed in order to better understand the concept in relation to existing theories.This paper reports the findings from an exploratory study of the use of DT in large organizations from four industries: software, product, service and healthcare. Based on qualitative interviews with key informants in 16 firms, a wide spread in terms of how DT was perceived and used in a variety of organizational settings is described. This puts focus on the use of DT as well as the importance of the local context.The paper contributes to an increased empirical understanding of DT, and proposes a research agenda.