Measure your Design Thinking mindset

Design Thinking is an approach to innovation, developed around the 2000s at Stanford University, which informed a large part of the entrepreneurial culture of the Silicon Valley.

From the literature:
Design Thinking is a hypothesis-driven process that is problem, as well as solution, focused. It relies on abduction and experimentation involving multiple alternative solutions that actively mediate a variety of tensions between possibilities and constraints, and is best suited to decision contexts in which uncertainty and ambiguity are high. Iteration, based on learning through experimentation, is seen as a central task. (Liedtka, 2014)

Design Thinking is used to find a creative answer to complex problems, through a phase of analysis and redefinition of the problem, ideation and solution definition.
The three main characteristics of the approach are:

1. It places the individual at the center, both as designer and as final user, stimulating empathy and collaboration.
2. It fosters creativity and the generation of ideas.
3. It supports the quick testing of ideas through prototyping, acceptance of failure and continuous iteration.

Defining it a set of tools is limiting, what makes the difference is the required mindset.
For further information: https://designthinking.ideo.com/.

We develop and validate the present questionnaire designed to measure the DT mindset with a three phases process:

1. Literature review where out of 120 contributions dealing with Design Thinking Mindset we considered 17 papers that led to the first definition of the Design Thinking Mindset and it yielded to identify 130 items, divided into 19 factors. A panel of six global experts assessed redundancy, clarity, and readability of the scale that led to a survey composed of 87 items.
2. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the 87-item survey based on two samples (N=307) of DT professionals with different levels of experience. This resulted in a 71-item instrument to assess DT mindset, organized in 22 constructs.
3. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the 71-item survey with two samples of DT students (N=201) and professionals (N=151). The results yielded a 31-items measurement scale based on 10 dimensions which is the present survey.

For further information send us an email! oper.space@unibo.it