Page 224 - The Design Thinking Playbook

KEY LEARNINGS

Understand complexity

with systems thinking

• Define the system, system boundaries, and factors that influence the system.
• Map out the relationships—within and outside the system boundaries.
• Make sure that all stakeholders in the system are listed.
• Look at the problem holistically; assume that it is complex per se.
• Even a complex, multidimensional, nonlinear, dynamic problem can be mapped and modeled as a system in a
simplified way.
• Start with the simple stuff and go from rough to detail.
• Begin with the search for a solution once you have understood the problem (or aspects thereof).
• Always think in variants when searching for a solution.
• A graphical system representation helps to understand the problem and communicate the solution.
• Consider your first system picture to be a prototype that will be continuously tested and improved.
• Use a wide range of concepts, methods, and tools.
• Take different views and perspectives. Only one view is surely the wrong one.
• Combine systems thinking and design thinking into a common mindset.

223