Innovation driven by design thinking: the design mindset that puts people at the centre

In an ever-changing economic and social environment, characterised by technological accelerations and increasingly complex challenges, innovation can no longer be seen as a linear process or confined to research and development departments alone. Today, innovation requires transversal, inclusive, and people-centred approaches. In this scenario, design thinking is affirmed as a methodology – or rather, as a culture – that guides organisations in creating effective, sustainable, and desirable solutions. Its potential is expressed in synergy with new technologies, which enable unprecedented methods of prototyping, experimentation and stakeholder engagement.

But what does design thinking really mean? What is the relationship between this approach and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence or augmented reality? And how can we train conscious managers and professionals with a critical, design mindset that can interpret context and act on it?

To shed light on these issues and explore the connection between design thinking, technological innovation and management training, we interviewed Stefano Magistretti, Director of the Master in Entrepreneurship and Design for Sustainability at POLIMI Graduate School of Management.

What is design thinking and why is it so central to innovation processes today? What are its distinctive characteristics, which organisations and professional fields does it involve, and why is it a strategic lever for tackling complex challenges?

More than a method, design thinking is a true approach to innovation. It is often portrayed as a process of sequential phases, but its strength lies precisely in the mindset it promotes, based on three fundamental principles: the centrality of the person, continuous iteration, and the ability to prototype and shape the intangible. Putting people at the centre is not just about focusing on the end user, but about the entire ecosystem of individuals involved in an innovation: stakeholders, teams, customers, and society. It is a strongly human-centric approach, “human-centred design,” capable of grasping the complexity of needs and relationships. Moreover, design thinking is an iterative, non-linear process: there is no precise moment at which one phase is "finished" before moving on to the next.  It is a continuous flow, where the designer’s intuition plays a crucial role.

The third distinctive element is prototyping: knowing how to materialise an idea, making the intangible tangible, both physically and linguistically, to make it shareable, testable and improvable. This approach has become increasingly strategic in a world that requires fast, adaptable, and deeply contextualised solutions. It is no coincidence that design thinking was born and developed in the world of consulting, and then spread across all sectors: from digital to sustainability, from manufacturing to services. It is a powerful lever because it allows us to tackle complex problems, characterised by uncertainty and multiple points of view, and to put in place a design thinking capable of shaping the future.

What is the relationship between design thinking and technological innovation? What technologies today enable a truly effective approach to design thinking, and what are the main impacts it can have, for example, on the evolution of products, services, and business models?

The relationship between design thinking and technology is twofold. On the one hand, technologies boost design thinking, making it faster and more effective. Think of generative artificial intelligence, which allows you to create dozens of prototypes, layouts and user interfaces, or to explore conceptual alternatives in a much more agile way. Tools like Uizard, for example, allow you to develop interfaces simply by writing a text, offering visual solutions that you can test immediately. This enables working teams and designers to engage with different versions of the same concept, facilitating discussions with stakeholders and customers.

Another emblematic example is the use of AI as a sparring partner: a tool that can challenge you, asking you to list all the reasons why an idea might fail. It's a way of anticipating pain points and improving solutions. Big data and so-called “thick data”, or qualitative data, also play a key role in feeding the empathic understanding of the user. The integration of these sources enables a deep and detailed view of real needs.

On the other hand, design thinking can be applied to make technological innovation more effective and sustainable. All too often, technologies are implemented without a real understanding of the user ecosystem: we focus on the front-end but neglects the needs of the back-end. Well-applied design thinking avoids these misalignments, enabling seamless experiences to be designed for all stakeholders. An example? One-platform digital platforms, in which the user’s perspective and that of customer service are seamlessly integrated, avoiding those paradoxes where the customer sees information that the call centre cannot view. This approach is now indispensable in every sector, not only in the more “digital” ones, but also in more traditional ones such as manufacturing, where the human-machine interface becomes crucial to operational effectiveness.

What skills and knowledge are now essential in this area? How do you train professionals in the field of design thinking effectively and what is POLIMI Graduate School of Management’s approach and training offer in this regard?

Training in this field cannot be limited to theory. On the contrary, it is necessary to “do” design thinking to truly internalise its principles. In POLIMI Graduate School of Management programmes, the approach is laboratory-based and experiential. Alongside the theoretical lessons, we include workshops, bootcamps, and project work where students work in teams on real-world challenges, often proposed by partner companies. This allows them to experience firsthand what it means to iterate, observe, understand, and prototype. It is by doing that you learn, because – as we said – knowing when to move from one stage to another is not something you can teach, but something you gain through experience.

We train managers and professionals who can think critically and take design-driven action. We do not train designers in the aesthetic sense of the term, but rather people capable of approaching innovation with a systemic, empathetic and informed perspective. The aim is to develop a mindset, rather than a method: an attitude that allows weak signals to be read, contexts to be interpreted and action to be taken in a flexible and responsible way. We do this with academics, but also with professionals and ambassadors from the world of consulting, industry and digital transformation. This combination of theory and practice is at the heart of our training programme.