At some point in my career, I realized the difference between design—the verb—and Design—the discipline.

If you’re like me, which is to say, not a designer, you may not have given much thought to this distinction; however, if you’re like me, which is to say, curious to a fault, I think you’ll see that this distinction, and conversation around it, is relevant to whatever sort of business you run.

What you’ll also find is that any deep dive into Design Thinking will almost certainly surface literature from IDEO, one of the world’s foremost design and innovation firms, and some of the most prolific thinkers on the topic. They've also come the closest to defining what Design Thinking is.

Rather than giving it one single definition, though, IDEO frames Design Thinking as a flexible approach to problem solving. To me, it’s the discipline of using creativity and inquiry to tackle tough, ambiguous challenges.

Design Thinking is a Process

As IDEO points out, at its core, Design Thinking is a process for creating strategic, human-centered solutions. It links creativity and systems thinking to the business priorities that matter most—customer acquisition, retention, revenue growth, product diversification, even employee engagement.

The discipline requires us to center the people we’re designing for. That sounds obvious, but too often organizations jump straight to solutions without asking if they’re solving the right problem—or gathering any real input from customers. Sometimes that works. More often, it doesn’t.

Skipping this step is like breaking ground on a construction project without knowing what you’re building. Both skyscrapers and arenas need foundations, but the requirements are entirely different. Get it wrong, and the whole structure is compromised.

That’s why Design Thinking should feel familiar: it’s about creation, and creation is the common thread across industries. Whether you’re designing a product, a process, or an experience, the principle holds: before you can deliver, you have to frame the problem and define what success looks like.

Or put more simply: before you start, you have to design your thinking.

IDEO frames the challenge with questions like, “How will we grow and improve in response to rapid change?” and “How can we support individuals while simultaneously changing big systems?” The power of Design Thinking is that it gives us a toolkit for asking—and answering—questions like these.

So before your next big initiative, resist the urge to assume. Frame the challenge as a How might we…? question. You might be surprised where it takes you.