Design Thinking Toolbox

How to use the Design Thinking Tools

A practical guide to make innovation happen

The Design Thinking Toolbox explains the most important tools and methods to put Design Thinking into action. Based on the largest international survey on the use of design thinking, the most popular methods are described in four pages each by an expert from the global Design Thinking community. If you are involved in innovation, leadership, or design, these are tools you need. Simple instructions, expert tips, templates, and images help you implement each tool or method.

• Quickly and comprehensively familiarize yourself with the best design thinking tools
• Select the appropriate warm-ups, tools, and methods
• Explore new avenues of thinking
• Plan the agenda for different design thinking workshops
• Get practical application tips

The Design Thinking Toolbox help innovators master the early stages of the innovation process. It’s the perfect complement to the international bestseller The Design Thinking Playbook.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Lewrick (PhD) had different roles over the last years. He was responsible for strategic growth, acted as Chief Innovation Officer and laid the foundation for numerous growth initiatives in sectors that are in the digital transformation. At the moment he advises internationally the most inovative companies with his concepts and frameworks about design thinking for business growth, innovation and success.

He is a motivational international speaker and teaches Design Thinking as a visiting professor at various universities. With his help, a number of international companies have developed and commercialized radical innovations. In his international bestselller, “The Design Thinking Playbook”, he postulated with his colleagues from Stanford University a new mindset of converging approaches of Design Thinking in digitization. In 2020 he published together with Larry Leifer and Patrick Link "The Design Thinking Toolbox" outlining 50 of the most valuable Design Thinking tools. In addition, he published "The Design Thinking Life Playbook", which applies the design thinking mindset for personal change and career planing. His latest book "Design Thinking for Business Growth" focusses on the design of business ecosystems completing a series of books for applied design.

Patrick Link (Switzerland) is a lecturer at the University of Applied Science in Lucerne, Switzerland, teaching product management, marketing and collaboration management. He has12 years of practical experience as head of product management and in strategic planning, market analysis, strategic projects and as process engineer and project leader.

Larry Leifer (Palo Alto, CA) is a professor of engineering at Stanford University and has been a key contributor to the design thinking movement in Silicon Valley and globally, though teaching and consulting, and through the world-renowned design firm IDEO, which was founded by one of his students. Larry’s design thinking work is focused on tools to help design teams understand, support, and improve design practice and theory.