10+ Best Articles on Design Thinking
The most useful articles on design thinking from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Design Thinking Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved on design thinking by Refind users in 2023.
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
Product Strategy is About Saying No
Intercom's Des Traynor at Business of Software Conference 2013, Boston, MA talking about why Product strategy is mostly about saying no. Funny, thought provoking…
What is ...?
New to #design thinking? These articles make an excellent introduction.
What is Good Product Strategy?
“What is your Product Strategy? YOU NEED A STRATEGY.” When I replay this scene in my head, I can hear the CTO very audibly yelling (slash pleading) with our product team. He was on edge. We had been experimenting towards a very concrete goal for two months, and had made a lot of progress. We had lea
«Most companies fall into the trap of thinking about Product Strategy as a plan to build certain features and capabilities.»
Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Agile: What is the difference?
What is the difference between Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Agile?
How to ...?
How to Create an Efficient Product Strategy
A product strategy acts as a map to keep your design process on track. Click here to learn how to develop a robust and efficient strategy for your projects.
«even before you start to create something, you need to have a deep understanding of your target audience—their wants and needs. The latter is especially important.»
How To Design a Bulletproof Product Strategy
Anytime a company consistently ships product faster than the average, people will assume they are doing something heroic.
«Great product companies have four things in common: a clear product vision; a product strategy; a set of priorities; and a way to measure outcomes.»
How to apply a design thinking, HCD, UX or any creative process from scratch
This how-to article aims at providing designers, creative thinkers or even project managers with a tool to set up, frame, organise…
How to use Design Thinking & Liberating Structures for High Stakes Decision Making
Because brainstorming & group thinking is notoriously ineffective
How to Run an Empathy & User Journey Mapping Workshop
Introduction ¶ This article will teach you two popular design workshop techniques: empathy mapping and user journey mapping.
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles on design thinking—all under 10 minutes.
Minimalism is boring
Unlock your own creative taste, and splatter your experiences into a sea of blank canvases
«Designing from the inside-out starts with exploring what makes us unique. It means extracting the most important slices of our personalities.»
Using design thinking to create ideas that better meet customers' needs and desires
We usually post about design inspiration and we tend to focus on the visual side of things. We also understand that design is form plus function in harmony. So for this post we'd love to share a UX…
What is design thinking?
Design thinking is a systemic, intuitive, customer-focused problem-solving approach that organizations can use to respond to rapidly changing environments and to create maximum impact.
Product Strategy: Overview
Ultimately, empowered product teams are all about giving teams hard problems to solve, and then giving them the space to solve them. But, how do we decide which problems they should solve? Answering…
«So many of the companies I meet have a goal (like doubling revenue), and they have a product roadmap (the tactics), yet no product strategy to be found.»
8 Must-Know Insights to Conquer Design Thinking
Design thinking is essential for human-centered innovation. Learn the eight essential insights that will help you conquer design thinking and successfully apply it to your work and life.
«“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.” — Albert Szent-Györgyi, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937»
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles on design thinking.
Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong?
An approach that promised to democratize design may have done the opposite.
The Product Strategy Stack
Ravi Mehta Ravi is a Reforge Partner, creator of the Product Leadership program, and leads Product Strategy . Ravi was the CPO at Tinder, Product Dir at Facebook, and VP Product at Tripadvisor.
«Difficulty prioritizing is often a strategy issue, not an execution issue.»
From systems thinking to systems doing
A primer to apply Systems Thinking in Product Design
«Don’t solve problems. dissolve them»
Design Thinking Is Fundamentally Conservative and Preserves the Status Quo
The alternative is messier, but more democratic.
Can Design Thinking Succeed in Your Organization?
Leaders can improve the odds of design-thinking success by first ensuring that their organization is prepared for it.
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