A Systems View Across Time and Space
Table 1 Major differences between DT and LS
Aspect | Design Thinking | Lean Startup |
|---|---|---|
Scope and focus | Scope extends to general innovation, without bounds to the purpose or subject | Strongly focussed on high-tech product or service innovation and BM innovation within startup companies |
Ideation | Has ideation as a key part of the iterative process, the project starting with a challenge, not the idea | Assumes the idea comes with the founders’ vision |
Qualitative methods | Strong focus on qualitative methods with ethnographic research, observations, empathic research, etc. | Focusses less on qualitative research in favour of quantitative methods |
Quantitative methods | Focusses less on qualitative research in favour of qualitative methods | Strong focus on quantitative methods including metric-based analysis, matrices, innovation accounting and metrics for the ‘engines of growth’ (viral, sticky and paid) (Ries, 2011), etc. |
Business model | Does not focus on BM creation and would only assist with BM innovation if specifically utilised as such | BM creation and BM innovation are strong focus points of LS |
Adaption of deployments | Does not focus on adaption of deployments | Looks back to its roots at Toyota and draws form the famous ‘Andon Chord’, which allowed any worker to ask for help as soon as they identified a problem; stopping the entire production line, if necessary (Ries, 2011). Five Whys method is used to identify the cause of failure and enable rapid rectification |
Hypothesis testing | Practitioners may use hypotheses as part of the process; however, the cycle begins with a challenge, or ‘wicked problem’ rather than the hypothesis itself | The Build element of the BML Feedback Loop is based upon a hypothesis, therefore the Measure and Learn steps are the testing of this hypothesis |