Start from the problem no one has named yet, not the solution everyone already has.
Design thinking’s roots run through Stanford’s product-design program from the 1950s onward, formalised later by IDEO and the Stanford d.school into a repeatable process: empathise with the user, define the actual problem, ideate broadly before narrowing, prototype cheaply, and test against real behaviour rather than assumption. Its distinguishing move is refusing to start with a spec — the method exists because specs tend to encode yesterday’s assumptions about what the problem even is.
That’s also why it resists being reduced to a checklist. A 2021 academic study tracing its Stanford origins found the same design qualities recurring for decades: a cognitive process, a creative practice, and an organisational culture, not just a sequence of steps.
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Source: Auernhammer, J. & Roth, B. “The origin and evolution of Stanford University’s design thinking,” Journal of Product Innovation Management, 2021.