You’ve seen the photos: sticky notes, Sharpies, whiteboards filled with colorful sketches. The team looks energized. The process feels creative.
But then the workshop ends… and nothing changes.
No real decisions.
No shift in how work gets done.
Just a mural of half-baked ideas and a few recycled buzzwords.
It looks like innovation. It feels like progress. But it’s theater. And it's costing you time, money, and momentum.
Design thinking was never meant to be a feel-good team exercise. At its core, it’s a powerful framework for solving real problems with empathy, experimentation, and iteration.
But somewhere along the way, it got commoditized. Diluted. Turned into a template with a smiley face.
Now? It’s often used to check a box. “Let’s run a design thinking session before we launch.” “Let’s empathize with the user.” “Let’s ideate.”
You don’t need to be a genius to know that “ideating” won’t fix your operations. Sticky notes won’t align your departments. Empathy maps won’t change your org chart.
Design thinking has become a way to feel innovative without being innovative.
And that’s dangerous.
Most of the principles behind design thinking are just structured common sense:
None of that is controversial. What’s controversial is how companies will ignore these principles for years—and then spend tens of thousands of dollars to be told them in a workshop.
Even worse, many teams walk away with new vocabulary but no new behavior.
I once worked with a client who had done several separate “innovation workshops” before they brought me in. They had personas. Journey maps. A folder full of empathy diagrams. What they didn’t have was a single decision.
No new product.
No changes to how work happened.
Just artifacts from a very expensive brainstorming retreat.
Design thinking shouldn’t feel good all the time. When done well, it forces teams to confront uncomfortable truths:
That’s why I use Design Sprints. Not because it’s trendy—but because it cuts through the fluff.
In five days, we bring the right people into the room, get crystal-clear on the challenge, explore real solutions, and actually test something. No jargon. No drawn-out phases. Just purposeful progress.
The key isn’t the stickies. It’s the tension. The pressure. The focus. The decision-making that happens under constraint.
Because innovation doesn’t emerge from comfort. It emerges from clarity, urgency, and structure.
You don’t need to abandon design thinking—but you might need to get more honest about how you’re using it.
Ask yourself:
And if you're serious about progress, stop hiring consultants to run workshops that feel good. Start working with partners who are willing to challenge your assumptions and push you toward uncomfortable clarity.
That’s how breakthroughs happen.
Design thinking isn’t magic. It’s structured common sense.
But when used as a substitute for real leadership, it becomes an expensive distraction.
Use it to challenge your assumptions, not to check a box.
Use it to move decisions forward, not to delay them.
And if your “innovation” process never makes anyone squirm a little… you’re probably not innovating.