Last month, I was delighted to be asked back to speak at our LGPS officers’ conference in Edinburgh. At last year’s conference, I built a chatbot live on stage (risky!), but I think everyone is suffering a bit of A.I. fatigue. So, this time around - in line with the overarching theme of creating better outcomes for stakeholders, I chose to deliver a session looking from the other end of the spectrum.
So, no artificial humans this year, but real ones, with the focus on putting the human perspective (rather than data, technology or organisational perspectives) at the centre of the design process.
In a world increasingly shaped by complexity - an environment in which adaptation and agility is required to meet stakeholder needs - there is an ever-greater need for organisations to innovate.
Paradoxically, the world is also increasingly defined by processes, standards and prescriptive regulation, which are deliberately designed to reduce or entirely remove risk.
Unfortunately, this inherent risk aversion can act to suppress the ability of organisations to innovate. As a result, delivering real value to our various stakeholders can feel like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube… blindfolded (although - to be fair - I personally don’t require a blindfold to find that particular task challenging).
So how can we square this circle? How can we manage risk, while continuing to innovate and evolve our effectiveness?
Challenging? Yes. Impossible? No.
There’s a framework that can help us approach these balancing acts with a greater sense of clarity, creativity and purpose. It’s called “Design Thinking".
This is an approach that’s well suited to the challenges faced by LGPS officers, fund managers and councillors navigating complex decisions in a rapidly changing environment. It’s driven by empathy towards the ultimate users of products and services and developed through iterative design, testing and learning.
At first glance, the term might conjure up images of Post-it notes and brainstorming sessions in Silicon Valley tech start-ups. But, in reality, Design Thinking is less about beanbags and whiteboards — and more about taking a structured approach to problem solving.
So, what exactly is Design Thinking?
Design thinking is, at its heart, a human-centred approach to innovation. It helps us understand the people we're designing for, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create effective solutions—often through rapid testing and iteration.
An example of Design Thinking in action is the creation of the Apple iPhone. Before the iPhone, most mobile phones were clunky, keypad-heavy and designed primarily around engineering limitations rather than user needs. Apple, under Steve Jobs’ and Jony Ive’s leadership, applied a deeply human-centred approach to rethink what a phone could be. Rather than start with technology, they started with consumers.
The process itself is generally broken down into five stages:
