THE DESIGN THINKING fakeness - LESSONS from Co-create EU project presentation at MILAN Design Fair

We want to share our vision on Fake Design Thinking. In end of the article an example is given from yesterday Co-create EU project Pitch presentation at Milan Design Fair 2018, but first let me make same personal initial statements on the Fake Design Thinking issue!

I love when you do non DESIGNERS, people who NEVER DESIGNED (just learned a few tools) have the nerve to SAY and WRITE that for example one of the todays best DESIGNERS and DIRECTOR of one of the best Design AGENCIES of the WORLD (Pentagram): ... "She knows nothing about DESIGN Process ... popularised as Design Thinking ".... i get mad!

REALLY?

Really?.. this fast learners, consultants of anything that moves and smells of money and who have found a way to hide that they no longer have subject and knowledge to" Consult "... are full of BULLSHIT ....

These PARASITES live in the shadow of areas of knowledge that do not dominate minimally, are the reason why the DESIGNERS community begins to instigate against "False appropriations of DESIGN", not because they are made by Non- Designers, but, because they are a "bad copies" of what in essence is THINKING, CREATING AND MAKING DESIGN .....

Enough of this Parasitas, specialists of everything but in their essence are specialists of NOTHING ....!

Doing design processes without having critical experience of doing and designing in Design it can be called anything but it is not a DESIGN process ... Why don't they say that they help making innovation, for example ...

Let me be even clearer: To Parasites of DESIGN .... consultants with a hand full of nothing, meaning no real experience and deep Design knowledge, I ask:

• In your portfolio, how many products have you created?
• how many brands have they created that changed mindsets, redesigned business models, and helped make society evolve?
• how many hours have passed close to the people of organisations and territories to perceive their contexts, difficulties, points of view, for example?
• how many jobs helped keep fruit from the success of the creations?
• how many hours spent in factories, graphs, logistics warehouses to really understand systems and processes?
• how many hours have you invested to deeply research what each step, every step, every significant and every signifier that the design process entails involves?
• how many hours have invested in realising what kind of tool works best for each challenge typology or for each group of people with whom we co-create?

If it is not ZERO it will be close to ZERO! mostly these PARASITES, learned ONE method, ONE set of tools and became Evangelists, Turbo Teachers in every SHOWOFF BUSINESS school, or even they are hired by "fashionable" Companies that made the hiring decisions based on "family" names or "schools" background more then by the merit of real life Curriculum...

My point is that they should: At least quiet, low profile...but NO, They even STATE that "Designers don't know about Design Thinking and process"....

The main issue is that this Parasites are Selling a full product by its Label: DESIGN THINKING, but they only master the "front cover of it". They master a stereotyped fixed product: "Design Thinking a la IDEO", but they don't have a clue about the critical parts of the real process and praxis of Design.

Yesterday, at Milan Design Fair, my company GUDA could evaluate in real life context this GAP: WE GUDA facilitate in Portugal a European Project focusing and empowering CO-CREATION via Design Thinking focused on innovation networking between Traditional and Creative Industrial.

We did it following the Deep understanding we have on Design Process crossed with co-creation approach, so the Portuguese project presented real co-creative product concepts, new to the world, born from the process itself and the junction of two mindsets, experiences, and attitudes that we force them to start the design process by debating their vision of the world, trying at all times to reach possible consensus and based on them find the INSIGHTS to start the ideation for innovation processes....

We were proud of our TEAM's pitch, consistence of arguments and coherence between the insights and the final product IDEAS and DESIGN...BUT

Most of the other countries of the EUROPEAN project, stated that they based their process on DESIGN THINKING method, but the co-creation projects their TEAMS presented were only old IDEAS that the companies previously had, some of them were even already in the market for years... Others presented University Students ideas that, according to their pitch" didn't find other ways to have opportunities in the getting to the Industries"....

Is now more CLEAR what we are talking about the "FAKE Design Thinking Evangelists and Parasites".... in the given example DESIGN THINKING was just a "brand name" an UMBRELLA to justify BAD project processes not based on DESIGN but based on "pathways to push existing ideas to the market" ....

To reinforce this awaking call to, another example from the FAKE DESIGN THINKING Parasites: before the pitch presentations, a keynote speaker on Design Thinking was presented. First it wasn't a Designer his a Marketeer!... In the speech presentation stated that: "Design thinking isn's about Post-its, bla, bla..." then he asked the audience to make groups, use his Design Thinking toolkit. The tool was only about using post-its :)! and he wanted the groups to create a Service Innovation in 45 minutes!!!

Come on, can someone stop this Nonsense and Bullshit please!!!

BRING BACK DESIGN TO THE CENTER OF DESIGN PROCESSES AND THINKING!

Americo Mateus - GUDA give you design art Partner and Creative Director - HEAD OF RESEARCH DELLI-DESIGN LUSÓFONA LISBOA