Design thinking is revolutionizing organizations by putting user needs at the forefront of innovation. We’ve gathered insights from CEOs, founders, and other top executives to share how they apply this methodology. The benefits of creative thinking are immeasurable. From revamping customer onboarding with empathy to upgrading the online shopping experience with customer insights, explore fourteen real-world examples of design thinking in action.
- Revamp Customer Onboarding With Empathy
- Rethink Accessibility With User-Centric Captions
- Enhance Networking With Client-Focused Workshops
- Innovate Payroll Features Through User Observation
- Boost Engagement With Data-Driven Marketing
- Redesign for Outdoor User Accessibility
- Structure Problems for Clear Project Direction
- Redesign Article Submission for Author Ease
- Simplify Communication for Client Clarity
- Improve Onboarding With Customer Satisfaction Focus
- Revamp Booking With Empathy-Driven Design
- Develop Campaigns With Customer-Focused Research
- Simplify Cultivation With User-Centric Products
- Upgrade Online Shopping With Customer Insights
Revamp Customer Onboarding With Empathy
Applying design thinking in our organization is like solving a Rubik’s Cube—systematic yet creative. A great example is our recent overhaul of the customer onboarding process. We started by empathizing with new users through interviews and feedback sessions, identifying pain points that were about as pleasant as stepping on a LEGO.
We then brainstormed solutions, prototyping a streamlined onboarding journey with visual aids and interactive tutorials. Testing these with a pilot group led to noticeably improved user satisfaction and fewer support tickets. It’s proof that a little empathy and iteration can transform challenges into opportunities, much like turning a chaotic cube into a symphony of aligned colors.
Phil Laboon, CEO, Leadstacker
Rethink Accessibility With User-Centric Captions
In our organization, design thinking guided us to rethink accessibility in media. For instance, by empathizing with users who have hearing impairments, we redesigned our captioning process. We not only focused on clarity and readability but also on how captions could enhance the overall viewing experience. This led to innovative caption formats that adapt to different user preferences, making our content more accessible and enjoyable for everyone.
Khurram Suhrwardy, CEO, Caption Easy
Enhance Networking With Client-Focused Workshops
Change By Design by Tim Brown highlights that design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation, integrating the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.
For me, design thinking is about putting ourselves in our clients’ shoes to understand their challenges and needs deeply. It’s about empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing.
In our daily grind, design thinking plays a crucial role in networking and outreach.
We regularly host workshops/webinars with our clients, where the team focuses on connecting with clients, industry peers, and potential partners. Here’s how we apply design thinking to this process:
- Empathize – Research contacts to understand their current projects, challenges, and interests.
- Define – Identify key areas where we can provide value, like helping a client simplify ESG reporting.
- Ideate – Brainstorm conversation starters and value propositions, such as sharing relevant case studies or offering free consultations.
- Prototype – Draft personalized messages or create short presentations tailored to each contact’s needs.
- Test – Reach out and monitor responses. Refine and replicate successful approaches, adjust based on feedback.
For us, the key takeaway from Change By Design by Tim Brown is:
“Innovation is powered by a thorough understanding, through direct observation, of what people want and need in their lives and what they like or dislike about the way particular products are made, packaged, marketed, sold, and supported.”
Start applying design thinking in your networking and outreach efforts today. Focus on understanding your contacts’ needs, ideate creative ways to add value, and test your approaches. Watch as your connections deepen and your impact grows.
Lokesh Bohra, Founder, SustainableX
Innovate Payroll Features Through User Observation
We make sure our solutions are always user-centric by using design thinking. When we create something, like a new feature for our payroll software, we make it a point to truly understand our users. We don’t stop at surveys and interviews; we also seek to observe our users in their natural work environments. Insights from these investigations drive the direction of our solutions.
This is in line with the user-centered design approach described in “Principles.” Of course, design thinking integrates the user perspective in the ideation stage as well. If we are to truly understand and address the problems our users face, we should understand the problems our users will face through poor interaction design. The problems might not be the same in your context, but the design thinking framework ensures you’ll uncover them.
Blake Smith, Marketing Manager, ClockOn Australia
Boost Engagement With Data-Driven Marketing
I’ve actually used data to think outside the box for design thinking. I believe that for our marketing team to break the norm and boost engagement, we first need to understand exactly what “the norm” is.
One of the best ways we do this is by diving deep into the data we already have on our customers. We mine this data for underlying insights in customer profiles, conversion patterns, and inventory management. For instance, as an online retailer, we use our point-of-sale data to target customers at every point of the sales funnel—be it awareness, interest, or decision.
In our experience, knowing the younger generation’s love for social media, our marketing team did a complete overhaul of their strategy to shift the focus to more millennial-friendly messaging. This involved a strong deviation from our core heritage. Our marketing team worked to create more personalized and relatable content by investing heavily in a strong social media presence. The result catapulted our brand to being one of the most digitally innovative marketing brands around. The insights we used from our customer profiles were a driving force behind this change.
This just goes to show that design thinking in marketing is dependent on keeping the end user in the spotlight.
Patrick Beltran, Marketing Director, Ardoz Digital
Redesign for Outdoor User Accessibility
Incorporating design thinking at Pocket Montana, we focus on empathizing with our users—adventurers seeking authentic Montana experiences. A specific application was redesigning our website’s interface. By understanding that our users often access our content outdoors and on the go, we streamlined the navigation and enhanced mobile compatibility. This change made it easier for users to access information quickly and efficiently, enhancing their on-trail experiences and interaction with our brand. The result was a significant increase in user engagement and satisfaction.
Chris Hall, Co-Founder, Pocket Montana
Structure Problems for Clear Project Direction
One of the core tenets of design thinking that we’ve adopted throughout our organization is problem structuring. Well-defined problems are ones that we can easily solve with our existing teams and procedures, while “wicked” problems are areas where we need to spend more time figuring out exactly what we’re trying to do and how best to proceed. One of the first tasks in any project meeting is defining the problem. This gives us a clear sense of how to proceed.
Nick Valentino, VP of Market Operations, Bellhop
Redesign Article Submission for Author Ease
At eLearning Industry, we apply design thinking to ensure our platform meets the needs of our diverse user base. Design thinking helps us empathize with our users, define their problems, ideate solutions, prototype, and test continuously. This approach keeps our offerings user-centric and innovative.
One specific example is how we redesigned our article submission process. We gathered feedback from our 1,400 authors about their challenges and pain points. Through ideation sessions, we developed a new, more intuitive submission interface. We then created prototypes and tested them with a small group of authors, iterating based on their feedback. This process significantly improved the user experience, making it easier and faster for authors to submit their work, ultimately increasing the volume and quality of content on our platform.
Christopher Pappas, Founder, eLearning Industry Inc
Simplify Communication for Client Clarity
At Uplift Legal Funding, design thinking is part of our DNA. It’s all about understanding our clients’ needs and pain points. We start with empathy. We talk to clients, listen to their stories, and see the world through their eyes. This helps us pinpoint what they truly need.
We noticed that clients often felt overwhelmed by legal jargon and the funding process. So, we reimagined our approach. We simplified our communication, making it more relatable and easy to understand. Our goal is to make clients feel comfortable and confident in their decisions.
My advice? Always consider the user’s perspective. Don’t assume you know what they want—ask them. Test your ideas and be ready to pivot based on feedback. This keeps your solutions relevant and effective.
Jared Stern, Managing Member, Uplift Legal Funding
Improve Onboarding With Customer Satisfaction Focus
Our organization applies design thinking regularly through innovation workshops in which cross-functional teams explore and prototype solutions. For example, during a recent project to improve customer onboarding, we used design thinking to communicate with consumers, identify pain points, brainstorm ideas, prototype a new onboarding flow, and test it with a pilot group, resulting in a 30% improvement in customer satisfaction.
Simon Brisk, Founder & SEO Strategist, Click Intelligence
Revamp Booking With Empathy-Driven Design
We embrace design thinking as a powerful approach to problem-solving and innovation. One specific example that stands out is when we were revamping our client booking process. Instead of just making incremental updates, we gathered insights from clients and staff through interviews and observations. We used empathy maps to understand user frustrations and desires, which led us to redesign our online booking platform. By prototyping and testing different versions with a select group of clients, we refined the interface to be more intuitive and user-friendly. This approach improved our booking efficiency and enhanced client satisfaction, showing how design thinking can drive practical solutions that resonate with users.
Rachel Beider, CEO, PRESS Modern Massage
Develop Campaigns With Customer-Focused Research
In my experience, design thinking is essential for developing effective marketing campaigns. For instance, when we launch a new product, we start by putting ourselves in our customers’ shoes. We do a lot of research to determine what they care about and struggle with. Then, we brainstorm many different ideas for promoting our product. We make mock-ups of our best ideas and show them to a small group of customers to see what they think.
Based on their feedback, we tweak things until we have a campaign that speaks to our audience and gets them excited. Design thinking helps us keep our focus on the customer and come up with marketing strategies that really work.
Shane McEvoy, MD, Flycast Media
Simplify Cultivation With User-Centric Products
We employ design thinking to offer effective solutions. For example, we noticed our customers often struggled with the complexity of cannabis cultivation. To address this, we adopted a user-centric approach by engaging directly with our users to understand their pain points. We prototyped a simplified nutrient kit, which was iteratively improved based on user feedback.
This process not only streamlined the cultivation process but also greatly enhanced user satisfaction. By looking for opportunities to innovate and solve specific problems, we have been able to create products that better serve our community. This focus on practical solutions has been pivotal in our product development and overall success.
Mike Drouin, Co-founder, Digital Marketing Director, Gardening & Home Improvement Expert, Reefertilizer
Upgrade Online Shopping With Customer Insights
In our organization, design thinking is integral to fostering innovation and improving customer experiences. This methodology allows us to tackle challenges creatively by focusing on empathy, ideation, and iteration. By putting ourselves in our customers’ shoes, we can better understand their needs and design solutions that truly resonate with them.
A notable instance of design thinking at Carnivore Style was when we revamped our online shopping experience. Initially, we received feedback about the complexity and unintuitive nature of our website. To address this, we engaged in a series of customer interviews and usability tests to pinpoint specific pain points. With these insights, we held brainstorming sessions to generate ideas for a more user-friendly interface. We then created prototypes of a redesigned website and tested them with a select group of users, refining the design based on their feedback.
The result was a streamlined, intuitive online shopping experience that significantly enhanced customer satisfaction and increased our online sales. This project highlights how design thinking enables us to solve problems effectively by staying closely connected to our customers’ needs.
Gabrielle Yap, Senior Editor & Culinary Entrepreneur, Carnivore Style
If you enjoyed this expert roundup, then take a look at our expert panel on how to come up with creative ideas in the age of generative AI.
