Defining design thinking in terms of service management

In previous chapters, we have discussed formal service management as being a specialized organizational capability (an internal consultancy, of sorts, on how best to provide products and services). Service management frameworks, though having some scientific aspects, are far more of an art form than a science, given that it is the people, the culture, and the governance that are all critical to the success of the service provider. Recall that any service management framework on its own is not enough, and not intended to be the only ingredient, to foster an optimized service management capability. It is the integration across multiple approaches that makes the difference – hence, the concept of design thinking.

For clarity, understanding the difference between design thinking and systems thinking (the subject of the next chapter) makes sense. Systems thinking, as a holistic approach, is used to analyze the relationship...