Global by Design

4 Design Thinking from a Different Perspective

A designer’s most powerful tool is perspective. By perspective, we mean the ability to see a design challenge from multiple vantage points. Perspective on how customers would want, need, pay for, and use products. Perspective on how different disciplines—be they engineering, business, or policy—would approach solving the problem. Perspective on how a market ecosystem would support the manufacture, distribution, repair, and disposal of a product. Actively broadening your perspective beyond your own singular worldview enhances your power to innovate. Put another way, products, services, and policies only fail when they do not satisfy the design requirements demanded by the market; if innovators ...