When Cognition Interferes with Innovation: Overcoming Cognitive Obstacles to Design Thinking

Many organizations have become enamored with design thinking. As breakthrough innovation becomes the default mode for corporate growth, design thinking offers a structured methodology for generating innovation—a clear process that begins with ethnographic research to develop empathy and define user needs, then moves to ideation to explore possible solutions for improving the user experience, then refines concepts through an iterative process of prototyping and testing. Proponents such as IDEO founder David Kelley suggest that design thinking means innovation need not be the sole domain of the creative genius (Kelley and Kelley 2013). The appeal is easy to see: the design thinking approach can empower mere mortals to generate disruptive breakthroughs.