Design Thinking is an umbrella term for an iterative innovation process.
It focuses on a user-centered approach to develop innovation that fullfills the need of customers, users, or in the case of public service innovation, of citizien.
The value of design thinking is especially apparent for solving difficult problems, which means they are ill-defined or tricky.
Design Thinkingis often usedin software development, which uses techniques such as user-centered design and human-centered design and approaches software conceptions in an iterative manner. Nowadays,it is also employedin public administration, because the focus on the end user of a solution in the design process fits well with the principles of New Public Governance. This paradigm fosters a bottom-up approach including citizens early on in policy design.
There are very many different approaches to Design Thinking, which varies on the organization using it and goal of the process. It typically follows six phases, that are repeated until a sufficient solution is developed: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test, Assess.