BUSA8030 Chap.10 Design Thinking for Analytics-Driven Change
Design Thinking for Analytics-Driven Change
Week 7 introduces design thinking through two paradigm shifts. In business innovation, the shift runs from scientific, linear, technology-oriented and planned problem-solving toward collective, iterative, user-focused and emergent work that explores and exploits at the same time.
In business analytics, the shift runs from building predictive models and trusting that benefits appear, toward business outcomes delivered by projects, a broad stakeholder view of benefit and active management of the benefit path after the project ends.
Where the shifts meet, design thinking and agile methods help solve complex problems.
The lecture uses the definition associated with IDEO's David Kelley: design thinking is a human-centred approach to innovation that integrates people's needs, technological possibility and requirements for business success, all organised around the customer. Tim Brown adds that it welcomes constraints.
A quotation from Vidgen and colleagues links it to analytics as a source of innovation and competitive advantage. Week 8 clarifies that design thinking can serve as a product-development tool or as a change-management framework, and the unit emphasises the second.
Two foundations hold the method up. Being human-centred means putting people first, suspending assumptions and following real people in real settings.
Being problem-oriented means solutions follow needs, problems have emotional sides and several versions, and conflicts can be reframed as deeper problems. Analytical thinking narrows toward the best choice while intuitive thinking widens the options. The empathy map and the lotus blossom are the two tools the lecture highlights, and both appear as steps in the group project brief.
A reading by Beckman and Barry describes innovation as a learning process moving through observations, frameworks, imperatives and solutions.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Barriers to business innovation
- 02
Two paradigm shifts
- 03
What design thinking is
- 04
Human-centred and problem-oriented foundations
- 05
Analytical and intuitive thinking
- 06
Empathy maps and lotus blossoms
Worked example · free
AskSia practice weighting: building an empathy map from secondary data
- 1Says: power cuts interrupt vaccine refrigeration.
- 1Thinks and feels: worry about spoiled stock and blame from the health department.
- 1Does: keeps a diesel generator but rations fuel because deliveries are unreliable.
- 1Reframe: the problem is unpredictable power for cold storage, not simply a lack of electricity.
Key terms
- Design thinking
- A human-centred approach to innovation integrating people's needs, technology and business requirements.
- Human-centredness
- The principle of putting people first and studying them in real environments.
- Problem orientation
- The principle that solutions should follow a well-understood problem or need.
- Empathy map
- A tool that records what a user says, thinks, does and feels about a problem.
- Lotus blossom
- An idea-generation tool that expands a central problem into themes and further ideas.
- Benefit path
- The route by which a delivered capability produces business benefits after a project ends.
Design Thinking for Analytics-Driven Change FAQ
Why does an analytics unit teach design thinking?
Because the unit sees analytics as embedded in business activity. Design thinking helps teams find the right human problem before building analytics, and helps managers lead analytics-driven change.
What are the two paradigm shifts in Week 7?
Business innovation shifts from linear, technology-led problem-solving to collective, iterative and user-focused work. Business analytics shifts from trusting models to deliver benefits to managing business outcomes and benefits through projects.
How is design thinking defined in the unit?
Using the definition associated with David Kelley of IDEO: a human-centred approach that uses design methods to bring together what people need, what technology makes possible and what makes a business succeed.
What does problem-oriented mean in practice?
Solutions follow needs, problems carry emotional aspects, the same problem has several versions, and conflicts can be turned into deeper problems worth solving before anyone proposes a tool.
Do I need surveys or interviews for the group project personas?
No. The group project brief allows personas justified from secondary data in your research and states that primary data such as surveys or interviews is not required.
Assessment move
Practise the two tools on a small everyday problem before using them in the group project.
A quick empathy map of a classmate's commute, followed by a lotus blossom of ideas, builds fluency so that the real exercise focuses on evidence rather than on learning the format.
In the group report, show the divergence and convergence explicitly: how many ideas the lotus blossom produced, which criteria narrowed them and why the chosen solution is human-centred.
That trail is more persuasive than presenting the final idea alone.
For the diary, reflect on a moment when reframing a problem changed your view of the solution. Specific shifts like this demonstrate the critical thinking the reflection rubric rewards.
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