# What is Design? The growing complexity of the world around us complicates our understanding of it and the actions required to navigate it. To make sense of a complex reality, we tend to search for simple models and try to predict outcomes for quick fixes. This reactionary process can prohibit creative and lasting solutions to problems and contradicts the very essence of innovation. Consequently, ==most things we invent are a progression of what already exists==. The magic happens when we ask the unexpected questions. Complexity is an inherent quality of nature and an unavoidable condition. Coping with complexity is nothing new, but an information tsunami challenges our previous methods of making sense of the world and making decisions about the future. In a world of data overflow where facts are not a constant, concepts of the past, present, and future have less meaning. This calls for alternative ways of leading, working, studying, and innovating. Specialization with a focus on the development of focused disciplines has increased, but the urgency and complexity of today's challenges also require multidimensional, transdisciplinary collaboration. The value of design is created through an iterative process at a human scale and from a human perspective. Therefore, design plays an important role in building a better world through innovation and entrepreneurship, acting as the glue between technology, science, and human needs. Because of this, you are required to resist the temptation to categorize, because everything is interconnected. Furthermore, your quest for resilient solutions calls for the ability to flow with complexity and resist the urge to attempt to stop it or oversimplify the condition. Instead of simply managing a path towards a single solution, you can orchestrate a world of innovations. > [!cite] > “Design is about framing and reframing. Computation and design were together to begin with. How we collect data is a design question”. > Molly Steenson, Senior Associate Dean for Research at Carnegie Mellon University # Design Allows Us To See a World That Doesn't Yet Exist In our complex reality, we tend to oversimplify in order to get as quickly as possible from point A to point B—what we assume to be the only optimal solution. While this may optimize our speed of innovation, it puts into question the effectiveness of our solution and stands in the way of creative problem solving. Transition designer Sofía Bosch Gómez argues that innovation is about rearranging existing assets into novel arrangements and gaining a new perspective. Likewise, Melissa Marsh, founder of Plastarc, talks about innovation as disruptive, and consequently, its existence must generate more than itself. Hence, the value of design is created through experimentation, generating, and regenerating in an iterative process. Through that process, design allows us to see a world that doesn't yet exist (Marcelo Coelho, Head of Design at Formlabs). All complex systems are open systems. Pioneering researcher, professor, and author Don Norman talks about 21st-century design as a way of thinking and as a way of addressing the major problems of the world (Norman, 2021). The design process accepts that we are not 100% in control and that there might not be only one optimal solution. In other words, design takes advantage of non-systemic thinking to solve problems (intuition is an example of non-systemic thinking) and looks for deeper relationships that can only be understood at a human level. Hence, design can be viewed as the pragmatic arm of complex thinking and systems. This makes it an ideal strategy to engage a problem (integrated with other disciplines, such as technology and science) because, unlike other disciplines, it recognizes that there might not even be a formal system (the difference between a machine and a human), yet manages to make it tangible. Because of this, design is effective for complex systemic and multidimensional thinking (human, political, technical, social, individual, dynamic groups, economical, ecological, scientific). There is no universal definition of design. Some view it as a process or tool for generating functional and beautiful objects. Others see it as a catalyst for change. Peter Coughlan, former partner at IDEO, views design as the creation of human responses to all sorts of needs, such as human needs. According to Paul Pettigrew, program director at MIT School of Architecture and Planning, it is a process that can more or less be applied to anything. This makes design an ideal way to approach a problem, because it is not thinking about it as a linear system. You can begin anywhere and start exploring until things start to connect. As explained by Professor Dennis Frenchman, the founder of MITdesignX: “At a certain point you know it’s working. As I explore, I have a greater and greater understanding of what is going on and it is showing me the way—showing me what to explore and how to solve.” Therefore, the basis for good design is an insightful definition of the problem and projection of people’s needs informing the design of transdisciplinary solutions. # A Solution Is an Outcome of a Design Process, Not an End Result ## Design Is a System and a Matrix Design is a system of identifiable layers and a matrix of endless combinations. While complex, it is composed of simple actions drawing on the human point of view. In essence, design is a collaborative problem-framing and problem-solving process that evolves and improves through its application and development. MITdesignX applies design as a bridge between disciplines that are needed to solve complex problems such as the humanities, technology, and science. The design process is based on and around human needs and allows for quick exploration of different transdisciplinary solutions. In particular, in situations where data alone is not enough, or data overflow clutters our vision and prevents us from developing human-centered solutions with meaningful impact. ## Design Is a Plan to Achieve a Solution Design looks at a concept from multiple points of view, and the design process facilitates (or bridges) creative collaboration between them, as well as the different points of view of those involved and their varying competencies. The design process creates meaning inside the interaction between concepts and humans and reveals the right balance between all attributes (function, aesthetics, and meaning). Therefore, design can be argued to be the pragmatic arm of complex thinking and systems. It is a practical approach to engage complex problems and foster innovation. # Idea-Driven vs. Needs-Based Approach There is no golden rule for problem solving other than the fact that you need to be able to keep an open mind, and make informed and unbiased decisions about what a proposed solution is meant to do and achieve. To do so, you need to have a clear understanding of the need or problem you are engaging with and the people involved before embarking on a solution-finding product development mission. Innovation and entrepreneurship are intriguing forms of problem-solving. Innovators and entrepreneurs have the drive to search for solutions. But where and how they enter that search can have an important impact on how successfully their ideas can develop into effective and desirable solutions. According to Peter Drucker, an entrepreneur is an individual who always searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity (Drucker, 1985). Innovation is an important tool for entrepreneurs as a source of that change. Innovation is generally defined as the act of creating new value and capturing value in a new way. One of the key reasons for innovation initiatives failing is not a lack of creativity or technical capabilities to create something new and exciting, but poor alignment between the proposed offer and the actual needs of the market. As Victor Fernandes has pointed out, value is the key word here; stressing the difference between innovation and invention (Fernandes, 2015). Furthermore, according to Forbes, misunderstanding your market is one of the worst innovation failures that a company can make. They explain that expensive market research for product and service development is not sufficient, but highlight the fact that constant rechecking of your assumptions and testing product and market fit is needed throughout the process to avoid this pitfall (Arpajian, 2019). This makes the access point critical for innovation and entrepreneurship success. Where you begin your journey has a big impact on your ability to develop solutions that can solve the problem and ensure the fit between the needs of the people involved and the proposed solution (Thorsteinsson, 2021). Starting with a fixed solution idea (product, service etc.) preoccupying your mind vs. focusing on what people really need without bias, prejudice, and preconceived assumptions often leads innovators and entrepreneurs astray. In the beginning, you will be excited about your idea will perhaps underestimate the complexity of the context in which you are working and overestimate the accuracy of your assumptions about the problem or need. An idea-based approach to innovation and entrepreneurship augments those biases, while a human-centered approach allows us to put our own assumptions aside momentarily and learn from the people we aim to serve. ![[Pasted image 20250520122746.png]] > [!Figure] ## Idea-Driven Approach Naturally, you are excited about your idea and cannot wait to build and test the solution you believe to be the one and only. The commonly used idea-driven approach to innovation focuses on ideas and concepts through vigorous product development processes with the aim of developing technology or systems. This process often takes months, or even years, with the consequent expenses. Frequently, it is only then that the outcome is tested with users and customers via beta testing after the initial version of the solution is launched. One of the challenges of beta testing is that users and customers may or may not report on the solution’s effectiveness, possible issues, or "bugs" in the solution. The most serious consequence of this approach is that often it is too late to make fundamental changes once the solution has been launched. One unfortunate possibility is that your assumptions about the need or problem you were solving were not accurate. Designing and developing a solution with unclear needs in mind can be a costly undertaking. In many cases, you might discover too late that the need or problem we were aiming to solve actually requires a different solution than you originally developed. This is one of the primary reasons why new ventures fail. ## Needs-Based Approach A needs-based or human-needs approach does not start the innovation and the entrepreneurship processes by examining a solution idea, nor does it assume an outcome of a specific solution. Instead of testing a solution at a later date, the process starts with immediate customer engagement to explore if there is a problem or need. If there is, you must then consider: Who has the need? Why does this need exist? Is the need currently being met, and if so, how? How would stakeholders benefit from and be impacted by a new solution? As illustrated in the figure above, this process is designed to be non-linear, messy and interactive, requiring innovators and entrepreneurs to focus on the problem or need they are passionate about solving rather than a solution they might have in mind. In fact, they are required to put any preconceived ideas aside. This is very challenging, but an important step to advance your understanding and inform all key decisions going forward. This is challenging because we tend to act on our own assumptions, which also prevents us from asking the hard questions. Questions like: Is there a real need? If so, is it urgent? What is required to outperform other ways the need is currently being met? How would stakeholders even access and adopt a solution? Engaging directly with stakeholders from the start allows for an informed decision-making process, and deploying a host of methods from different disciplines such as interviewing, focus groups, immersive community engagement, story boarding and prototyping. All of these allow for quick and inexpensive ways to test novel ideas, ask unexpected questions, iterate, adapt and develop parallel solutions and make informed decisions on which solutions to take forward very early in the process. Experimenting at this stage costs less and saves time later. The primary purpose of this first phase of customer engagement is to conduct an immersive needs analysis. Solving a problem, complex or otherwise, requires a thoughtful framing of the problem. Framing is a term commonly used in design to capture, explain, and describe an intent. Framing provides the initial context and structure for approaching the need or problem we desire to understand. It serves as the foundation for the development and testing of possible solutions. Careful needs analysis is a prerequisite to effectively frame a problem so it can successfully be solved. A comprehensive **needs analysis** requires the humility and patience to learn from all stakeholders benefiting from and impacted by your solution. The insights and understanding gained from Needs Analysis allow you to: - Determine if there is a need or problem in the first place, and possible root causes - Uncover the scope and urgency of the need - Identify what your solution needs to include (solution features) - Understand how your solution can create enough value for people to choose to adopt and buy our solution - Understand stakeholders' ability and willingness to access and use a solution (channel optimization and stakeholders’ savviness and knowledge levels) - Identify customers' price tolerance, which in turn will govern your cost structure and market positioning This includes asking yourself questions such as: - What is the problem or need I am really solving? - Who has this problem or need? - What drives them to use or purchase your solution? - What are the need drivers (functional or emotional)? - How does my solution create enough value for them? # Conclusion We live in a complex world, and our actions have consequences. Problem solving is at the core of human evolution, and the ability to solve problems is one of the most complex aspects of our lives. Now the human habitat is facing challenges on a scale never seen before, and the need to re-evaluate how we approach and solve problems has become more important than ever. We need to be creative. We need to work together. We need to be human. Applying the human-needs aspects and tools of the design process to frame problems and examine the integration of science, technology through the lens of design is a pragmatic way of engaging with the complexity in our lives, designing new solutions, systems, products, and services, and addressing critical challenges facing our future.