I used to make music. I wish I could say I still do, but I can’t.
When I used to make music, I used it to work out this incredibly difficult dichotomy I faced every single day. A war in my person between facts and feelings. At the risk of boring everyone to tears, the short story of my life is I was born creative and learned to be analytical. I learned to consider my natural creativity as something to tame, focusing energy on math and science.
The weird thing was that I couldn’t suppress my creative side, my intense emotions, the “feelings” of life. Despite jobs like tutoring calculus or teaching college algebra and environmental science, I found myself writing and playing ridiculous songs drawing on math and science to describe human behavior. One such song was “Scientific Method,” where I described using that system to win the love of a distant crush.
Ultimately, this obsession I had to blend these two seemingly disagreeable sides of the brain together led to the birth of Love and Science (nudge nudge). Imagine my surprise when I started to realize the work we do followed the steps of design thinking to a tee. Take a look at the comparison, seem familiar?
The Scientific Method*
- Observe
- Define
- Hypothesize
- Test
- Iterate
Design Thinking Steps**
- Empathize
- Define
- Ideate
- Prototype
- Test
Looks like DT is seriously biting science’s rhymes. If this were the music industry, science would have a case way more compelling than Marvin Gaye’s estate.
What is so fascinating about this, is Design Thinking is also referred to as “human centered design.” They’re selling us the scientific method! Rebranded, but recognizable.
Use whichever system makes you feel best. They’re both incredibly effective ways to find breakthroughs.
Humans are multifaceted. Humans are both rational and irrational. As a species, we’re incredibly predictable. As individuals, we’re infinitely more interesting than that. We’ve made our career all about the fascinating study of how people work and how brands and businesses can use this intel. Discovering, and maybe even engineering, delightful surprises along the way.
* My song referred to “seven steps” but I only used five. There are all kinds of versions of the scientific method, from 4 to 10 steps, but they all essentially agree.
**Our version of the design thinking steps is punctuated by “implement” (duh). You can also find loads of variations of this system. Again, they largely agree.
