How does the d.school's framework for Design Thinking map onto IDEO's?

Question

Here's how I'm thinking about these DT models.

The Stanford d.school describes the Design Thinking method in (5) steps: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. IDEO describes it in (3) modes that are often but not always sequential: Inspiration, Ideation, and Implementation.

I'm assuming that these models describe the same set of activities. For example, user interviews in the initial research phase are part of the d.school's Empathize step and IDEO's "Inspiration" mode.

So here's my question.

What I'm wondering is where the lines are drawn (or if they're inherently blurry). For example, does Prototype map onto Ideation, Implementation, or both? Or is my assumption am I wrong, and these models are orthogonal rather than overlapping? And if so, what is the relationship between them?

Here's what the models look like.

The d.school's model:

_{(source: kashifzaman.com)}

IDEO's model:

Answer 1

The problem with DT definitions is that if you ask two practitioners to define DT you'll get four different answers — see this discussion on the DT LinkedIn group for example ;-)

That said, since the IDEO and d.school approaches to DT have lot of the same folk involved, I'd say that these two are mostly describing the same process with different words.

• Observe & Enquire / Tell Stories are generative processes that would map onto the flare out around the empathy stage.

• Synthesis is about taking that mass of information and finding patterns, and would map onto the focus around the define stage.

• Brainstorm and Prototype map to ideate & prototype

• Introduce experiments maps onto test.

So the Inspiration / Ideation / Implementation phases would map onto the d.school something like this:

Answer 2

First of all, kudos on a well illustrated question.

The two approaches are not identical, but are very similar, and the overall architecture of the design process they articulate is the same. Practically speaking, the commonalities are far greater than the differences. Some background may help:

• d.school and IDEO were both founded by David Kelley. For a long while, he was both CEO of IDEO and a professor at d.school. He's still active with both. So they share deep ideological roots. His brother Tom is still the general manager of IDEO.
• d.school has seeded decades worth of talent at IDEO, since they are across the street from each other. So underneath the management layer there is a lot of cross-pollination still.
• IDEO was founded for several reasons, but one of the reasons was to to put in practice the design thinking and practices pioneered at d.school.

I'm not sure why they use different terminology to describe similar process, but I will note that consultancies frequently do this (e.g. different management consultancies have different terms for the idea of a "balanced scorecard") for trademark reasons.

Answer 3

This image will give you a better match! d.school 5 stages is just a subset of the all stages of IDEO 3 phases inspiration, ideation, implementation. In the image, the phases Observe and Imperatifs stages are the equivalent of the Empathize and Define new names used by d.school. The source of the image is from a french "inspiration" of d.school http://www.dschool.fr/design-thinking/