Designing for Growth

A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers

By: Jeanne Liedtka, Tim Ogilvie

Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella

Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie educate listeners on one of the hottest trends in business development: "design thinking", or the ability to turn abstract ideas into practical applications for maximal business growth. Jeanne Liedtka's recent book, The Catalyst: How YOU Can Lead Extraordinary Growth, was named a Top Innovation and Design Thinking Book by Business Week. Tim Ogilvie has been hailed as a visionary for his pioneering contributions to service innovation, business model innovation, and customer experience design.

Liedtka and Ogilvie cover the mind-set, techniques, and vocabulary of design thinking; unpack the mysterious connection between design and growth; and teach managers, in a straightforward way, how to exploit design's exciting potential. Exemplified by Apple and the success of their elegant products, and cultivated by high-profile design firms such as IDEO, design thinking unlocks creative right-brain capabilities to solve a range of problems. This approach has become a necessary component of successful business practice, helping managers turn abstract concepts into everyday tools that grow business while minimizing risk.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2011 Columbia University Press (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Audiobook requires regular book

Great, especially for persons whose application of design thinking takes place in the corporate world where tasks are assessed on the basis of consumer value.

That said, the book is not well adapted to the audiobook format. There are references to book sections throughout, and obviously long lists and tables cannot be made legible without seeing them while the text is being read. For this reason, if you get this Audiobook get it with a digital or hard copy of the book and read along. Without it, it will be difficult to absorb the information.

Also there are several assignments in the book. Be prepared to do the assignments if you want to absorb the information properly. This is a hands on project - listening to it alone won’t allow the information to stick and you won’t gain value from your efforts.

Seem condescending and shallow on the details

I felt like the first few chapters were too high level and didn’t deliver enough concrete, actionable examples quickly enough. I also felt like the book is trying too hard to make it seem that managers don’t know how to approach great leadership and that the classic tools indicate managers are incompetent in customer-driven problem solving. Overall I found after a while that I was not listening enough and decided to pursue a different book on design thinking. I would like to have seen a clear definition right up from of what design thinking is and how the book plans to give me a tangible toolset to use design thinking in my organization. Authors, perhaps putting that tangible list up front and removing some of the jargon extra jargon around managers not knowing how to think in a design way will help readers stay more engaged for the long haul.

Enjoyed listening

Inspiring for managers and consultants. Easy to follow logic. Substantial expertise is given. Easy to use tools. Would like more real Business cases examined, but I will read also the 10 examples book of the same authorised.

Relevant practical examples

loved it , enjoyed the practical experiments and flow of information, worth a read

Different versions and typos

The audio recording is different than the text version. Also reading the excerpts at times became confusing because it breaks the flow. Wondering if it could have been structured a little better

great model for design thinking

great walk through and examples used through out. hopefully I can find the templates referred to in the appendix.

good book

Quite old now with some dated examples and a little over long but still there are valuable lessons to be learned.

Excellent for product managers

excellent points raised through the product experience and really has the design thinking process down. the person read is also easy to understand and is read in an engaging manner.

One life, a missionaries lifestyle.

If you could sum up Designing for Growth in three words, what would they be?

Compelling, Delightful Design

What other book might you compare Designing for Growth to, and why?

It would be hard to compare this book to anything remotely close, other than to say methods relating to "design thinking."

Have you listened to any of Nicol Zanzarella’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Haven't come across the narrator before, but she sounds delightful.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

A reference book, to come back to and listen on many sittings to absorb empathy.