The fragility of design thinking: Applying symbolic interactionism to promote shared meaning

In 1992, the Design Thinking Research Symposium explored the connection between design research and methods from the viewpoint of design thinking. Dorst (2011) points out that various design thinking models appeared thereafter. However, it was not until 2008 that Harvard Business Review (HBR) published an often-cited article, Design Thinking, by Tim Brown, the CEO and President of IDEO, introducing a public audience to the details of the design thinking process and its benefits and applications for business. Fourteen years after Brown’s article, design thinking lacks prominence in businesses; after all, what company has an officially labelled ‘Design Thinking Office’? Indeed, some business
managers have retreated from design thinking because they have failed to control or measure the creative process (Nussbaum, 2011). Similarly, some designers claim that design thinking is not a complete and applicable design method and have distanced themselves from it (Jen,2018; Liedtka, 2018).