Design Thinking is a methodology and approach that can be very useful for enterprises of all sizes and sectors. As mentioned by several participants, Design Thinking services allowed them to gain new views and aspects on their businesses, allowing, thus, for a transformation not only for products but also for internal operational procedures.
Nevertheless, Design Thinking is still developing and, especially for Greece, it is still an unknown field. The business support experts, mechanisms, and organisations are not yet aware of its benefits, leading not only to limited resources or funds towards its application but also to a rather low level of expertise engagement.
Through the pilot action under DSC-iSMEs project, KEPA had the opportunity to conduct a small-scale experiment on the benefits stemming from the supported application of Design Thinking methodology and tools. Due to the limited time of project duration, KEPA selected a type of Design Sprint, called Design Customised Mentoring as the service to be tested and suggested to experts in the field. The experiment showed that Design Thinking was very useful and effective, when provided and supported by expert Designers, as opposed to the non-provision of any additional support apart from the general guidelines and presentation of respective tools.
In this regard, the general conclusion, is that the service as such is effective and can be profitable for both experts and SMEs.
Design Thinking is a developing process and methodology, adaptive and considerate of all the changes that might occur. Especially in ages of great uncertainty and massive circumstances, as the COVID era is currently producing, it is very important to have tools that allow for different perspectives and innovation.
On what concerns the experiment method; meaning the RCT approach for the collection of information and data, it was a remarkably positive experience for KEPA. It is a method that KEPA will seek to use again given the opportunity. The lessons learned from this process and experience are related mainly to the target groups and the sample of the experiment. In order to get reliable and useful, qualitative and quantitative data, the sample has to bear specific common characteristics:
- The SMEs should be part of the same sectors and sub-sectors where applicable
- The SMEs should be of the same size
- It will useful for the challenges to be limited to one or two, in order to reach reliable conclusions
- The indicators researched should be defined before the selection of the sample, in order to guarantee the provision of the necessary information.
