Design thinking: From products to projects

Abstract There are strong motivating factors for increasing user involvement in project management. A persuasive customer focus is lauded to increase levels of innovation, reduce costs, and improve overall quality in projects. However, previous studies suggest that organizations are failing to align customer requirements with project deliverables. We posit that lessons learned from research in design thinking can help bridge this gap. Design thinking is a user focused paradigm that is lauded to frame problems, capture hidden needs, and infuse the voice of the user into processes and systems. However, insufficient empirical research has been conducted in the application of design thinking competencies in project management. There is a dearth of practical guides available to help project managers in this domain. This paper attempts to address this deficit by expanding the discussion on the perception of design thinking competencies in project management. The study analyzes the extant literature and presents preliminary findings from an exploratory study where critical design thinking competencies lauded to facilitate user involvement and customer focus are identified and categorized. Empirical data was collected from 112 project managers to help ascertain which of these competencies are most useful and relevant in practice. It is hoped that the initial results from this study will add value to project managers by enhancing the discussion in a neglected but essential area.