Until I took this class, I never realized that I had been immersed in many different aspects of design thinking at my workplace. It was great to actually recognize that I had been working under “design conditions” and through this class learn more about design concepts which I feel will ultimately aid me in my future endeavors. Now that I am consciously aware of these design concepts, it is much easier to incorporate this kind of thinking in any project I work on.
As a Marketing Intern at HSBC Bank Canada, I have witnessed design processes and not even realize it! However, I feel that businesses and corporations are learning and taking heed to design thinking as a consequence of wanting to be more transparent in their operations. Collaboration is extremely common and to some extent, has become mandatory to attain approval from several departments in order to gain the “approval” of the corporation. For example, in any corporate communication that goes out to the public, not only may Public Affairs or Marketing write it, it needs to attain the departmental approval of Customer Journey, Diversity & Inclusion, Compliance, and Legal. Gaining all these different perspectives on the communication piece really moulds it to the voice of HSBC and allows the piece to be as accurate and informative as best as it can be.
However, it may be the nature of the marketing function which allows for more design thinking over other business units. I feel that engaging in any form of marketing really requires the use of teamwork, different perspectives, and different ways of trying to solve a problem. Marketers are often visual learners – as an example, I don’t remember the last time I read a marketing proposal or campaign in a report format at work; it has always been in the form of a Powerpoint with lots of visuals to drive the idea across. Furthermore, the idea of co-creation is especially instilled in a marketer’s process because we feel the best ideas come out of brainstorming and working off one another.
I feel that out of every campaign and project I’ve worked on at HSBC, the ideas that have came out of it to define the final product has always been a collaboration of different individuals and different teams. Personally, I find divergent thinking at my workplace so much more enjoyable than if I had to sit at my desk by myself all day and derive campaign ideas solely by myself. There are other departments at HSBC such as Data Analytics and Legal where I can see divergent thinking strategies can really be implemented in their processes. The nature of their work is largely analytical, mathematical, operational, strategic, etc. and so it may be harder to introduce divergent thinking strategies due to the efficiency that convergent thinking strategies has provided to them. However, perhaps if they did introduce divergent thinking strategies, more breakthroughs or an ability to see the problem or issue better may come out of it.