Is a design thinking approach enough to create sustainable solutions and successful products?Over the past decade, the concept of user-centered design has gained traction across the industry and amongst business executives.A solution-driven framework, with established principles, and design thinking as being in the success of organizations.But things are changing, our role as designers is getting increasingly complex, no matter where you work. There are more considerations in design decisions and processes than ever before.While Design thinking brought designers to the forefront of decision-making at the C-suite, we’ll need more than a user-centered approach to continue to deliver value.In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about systems thinking and how it applies in Design.

In 2018 McKinsey, published a report from 5-year research detailing their findings on the correlation between design and business value.It was discovered that organizations that paid more attention to design had year-on-year revenue larger than their counterparts who didn’t.

The report shows the importance of design, and the value we bring to the table.Over the years, designers now occupy a seat at the C-suite. Making decisions that impact the entire organization and the industry.

As the role of designers continues to expand so does the problem we solve.

“Designers are entrusted with increasingly complex and impactful challenges. However, the current system of design education does not always prepare students for these challenges.” — Michael W. Meyer, Don Norman

While Design thinking allows us to understand the users we are designing for, the framework does not account for the ecosystem in which users, other stakeholders, and systems exist.Nothing is an Island, everything around us is connected, and changes to one part affect other parts.Failure to understand this when building solutions creates even more problems than the ones we initially set out to solve.

So what exactly are systems thinking?Systems thinking — exploringJust like with most disciplines, the definition varies depending on the area of specialty or perception.The definition by Peter Senge, a leading scientist in systems thinking, best suits this context.

“Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static “snapshots.” — Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline (Senge, 2006)

A system is any group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent parts that form a complex and unified whole that has a specific purpose.

This diagram illustrates the different axies working together to drive this machine. Image source: catalyst consulting

Whether you are aware of it or not, you are a system within Systems. Companies, schools, churches, and communities are examples of systems we interact with constantly.

You probably Interact with countless systems daily, such as cars, planes, retail stores, markets, or ATMs.

But can we call everything around us systems? Well, no.

A system isn’t just a collection of things, systems must be coherently organized and interconnected in a way that achieves a goal/purpose.

For example, a car is made up of different parts from the engine to the chassis and the driver. The purpose of the car is to move people and things from one place to another.

3 components make up systems; the elements, interconnection, and function or purpose.

An organization for example is made up of employees, shareholders, users, infrastructure such as building as code (software) Etc. These variables all work together to achieve a purpose, depending on the organization it could be taking Humans to mars or producing and selling bottled water, etc.

The key thing to remember is that all the parts are interrelated and interdependent in some way. Without such interdependencies, we have just a collection of parts, not a system.

Systems thinking allows us to understand the relationship between the problem we are trying to solve and the solutions we create.

The process of analysis aids in understanding the interconnectedness and how each element relates to one another; systems thinking seeks to uncover relationships among elements within a system.

It’s a useful diagnostic tool for putting the problem into context. Then, before acting or jumping to conclusions, conduct a more thorough and accurate analysis of the problem.

Systems do not exist in isolation, an example of this is when we separate social activism from environmental; people who care about issues such as poverty, inequality, etc are always viewed separately from people concerned about the environmental impact we have on the planet.

We can use systems thinking to reframe problems and analyze context. Image source: RRI tools

The truth is they are not different, a person who has no food to eat cares less about his natural environment even if they want to.

Everything is connected

Take, for example, building a product similar to Uber or Bolt, the first thing would be to conduct user research to uncover the challenges of drivers and commuters.

In this example, the designer can take lessons from the shortcomings of existing platforms to inform design decisions.

But we are ignoring the larger picture. Commuters and drivers are not independent variables.

They live in a larger ecosystem of systems; these users live in the same locality, speak the same language, and probably attend the same church or mosque.

Also, consider the larger geographical environment — the country.

Commuters and drivers in Northern Nigeria behave differently from those in the west.

For a car-hailing service like this to work, the car must meet certain criteria to avoid accidents on the road (Car)

Drivers must be good driving skills (Skill)

The psychological and physiological health of the drivers has to be considered to avoid criminal and health complications while driving (Health)

The driver must use a smartphone, which means they must be able to afford one (Smartphone)

The car service can only operate in places with reliable data connections. (Connection)

Government regulations and orders (public holidays, Sit-at-home, curfew, etc) in different states and regions must be considered to avoid regulatory or sociopolitical issues (Government)

The software (algorithm) that makes the hailing service application work must consider dependencies such as the Proximity, price, feedback, etc. (Software)

The cost of petrol would affect the prices on the platform. (Cost)

In the above example, it is also important to consider the team building the product, the industry/market, and the country's economy as a whole.

What does systems thinking mean for designers?

The primary tool in a designer’s arsenal is the ability to empathize with users and provide solutions to their pain points.

So far this has proven effective at solving problems, but as the scale, velocity, and difficulty of business grows, so will the problems we’re trying to solve with design thinking.

“Using systems thinking in design means not looking at individual elements like an interface, product, user journey, or service but the whole system of which all these parts are.” — Firat Toroglu and Michelle Mulvey | Fjord

The problems we solve are getting more complex with increasing tangible and intangible interdependencies.

Platform, users, business, environmental and social constraints have to be considered when building products, it’s not enough to focus on one element/participant in the system — users.

When we fail to apply systems thinking to problems we risk oversimplifying the scenario, treating symptoms, and taking problems out of context. Which will eventually make things worse.

Zoom in and out: Systems then design thinking

Design thinking focuses on discovering the best solution for users — Zoom in, while Systems thinking explores the interdependence and interconnection between and within systems — Zoom out.

Systems and design mindset characteristics Image source: Fjord

As a designer, integrating systems thinking should not be considered a substitute for design thinking. It is to enable us to reach a wider audience with the impact of our work. At the system level, it’s all about asking much more difficult questions.

A useful framework is the 5whys introduced by the Toyota Production System, which can be effective at uncovering proot causes instead of treating symptoms.

To respond to the increasing complexity for designers we need to take the dual approach of looking at problems from the bottom-up and top-down.

Image source: RRI tools

As designers, we need to understand the existing causal relationships so that we can know which controls to pull, which dials to turn, how much to turn, and when to turn them to achieve the desired results