You’ve done your research, and you know the best way to generate and test ideas for innovation is to take the human-centric approach Design Thinking brings. You’re ready to find the best Design Thinking partner for your team, but before you can secure the necessary resources you need to answer one key question for yourself and for your management team:
How long will it take to bring on a Design Thinking partner and get the work started?
As with many design based questions the short answer is “it depends”. As many of you are aware, there are often multiple moving parts which need to align when trying to get any effort started. With so many different variables to keep in mind, it’s impossible for us to give you a concrete answer that will apply to all scenarios.
Instead, we’ve examined the stages (and overall timing) our clients go through when trying to secure a Design Thinking partner. Typically, these are:
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Research: There is a lot happening in this stage. You are taking all the actions necessary to find potential partners (searching online, reaching out to your network, etc), and you’re also considering what criteria the potential partner will need to succeed when working with your team. In addition, you’re starting to gather information you’ll need to secure management buy-in, finalizing the details of the internal team who will work on the project, and defining high-impact project constraints.
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Outreach: At this point you’ve found several potential partners to follow up with and interview. While evaluating these partners against the criteria you set in the Research stage, you’re also communicating project status with your management and internal teams while further defining project goals & success factors.
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Partner Secured: Now it’s time to check potential partner references, introduce candidates to management and the internal team they’ll be working with, get the legal contracts together, and negotiate and sign the papers.
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Onboarding: The contracts are signed and the team is sold, you now need to download any company and industry information to your new Design Thinking partners. This is also a heavy logistics phase. You’ll need to secure meeting space, travel, and gather workshop materials.
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Project Kickoff: Finally, it’s time to get started! All the resources are in place and the teams are ready to go. As you ensure the teams understand the process, you plan on being heavily involved and continuing to update your management along the way.
Depending on many factors (the speed of securing internal resources, the number of players who are involved, any other company politics at play) we’ve seen this process take a minimum 3 months and sometimes last for a year or more.
So, the question remains: how can you make the process more efficient?
You can’t control others. What you can do is be as prepared and informed as possible, and take action in the above stages wherever you do have control. Here’s a list of steps we’ve seen others take to speed up the start of a Design Thinking sprint:
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Research and learn more about Choosing a Great Design Thinking Partner. Doing this can help make your research and outreach phases much more effective.
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Learn more about Selling Design Thinking to Management in order to gather the proper information and have it ready when the time comes.
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Figure out who from your organization should be included and start reaching out to them as early as possible. This can help decrease internal team on-boarding time.
By taking control of the areas you have influence over you tip the scales in your favor in regards to lessening the time it takes to get started with a Design Thinking Partner. You won’t be able to change everything and everyone, but you will be able to better set yourself and your team up for success.
We’d like to hear from you!
What’s been your experience in hiring a Design Thinking partner? Was the process you went through different? Are there steps or insights we didn’t mention hear that you think are important? Please let us know in the comments!
*Photo by Danielle MacInnes.
