Diversity and Partnerships in a new digital age

Design thinking is a structured problem-solving methodology that any business or profession can use for solving complex problems.

This method is not just limited to the design industry and can be applied in almost all industries. Design Thinking works as a great tool to

• identify opportunities,
• unlock innovation, and
• improve businesses

as it provides methods and tools to

• empathize with people (customers/end-users),
• create human-centered solutions, and
• de-risk failure through prototyping.

This method helps individuals and companies to understand the problem better and design fit for purpose solutions with a strong focus on the end-user/customer before implementing it. Organizations like e.g. Apple, Uber, IKEA, Tesla, Spotify, BMW, Airbnb, the Gates Foundation, and many others use design thinking.

Systems thinking is an approach that can be combined with design thinking.

It is a way of helping a person to view systems from a broad perspective that includes seeing

• overall structures,
• patterns,
• connections, and
• cycles in systems,

rather than seeing only specific events in the system. Implementing design thinking requires designing the system itself. What is inside the system? Partnerships, business activities, resources, cost structure, revenue models, pricing, finance, marketing, branding, sales, operations, metrics, and the innovation strategy.

In this workshop you will learn how to use these 2 methods to overcome the challenges in future cities and society. In the end we need to work with both methods, integrate strong Public-Private partnerships with a diverse and inclusive representation of:

• Digital Citizen
• Academia
• Corporates
• Governments
• NGOs
• other Public Institutions
• Startups

Catia Fonseca
Roche

Alain Bindels
Roche