Creating space for innovation within rigorous internal processes

As businesses mature and teams grow, “innovation” often becomes a paradox. Running a business efficiently and effectively requires repeatable processes and systems. But genuine innovation can be challenging to achieve without breaking out of established frameworks and making room for experimentation.

One management style says, “No rules, no order.” Another, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Is it a binary choice, or is there another way?

Here is a story of breaking through constraints while finding room for innovation within an existing company framework.

A perennial question resurfaces

“How can we integrate design thinking into our current product development process?”

This wasn’t the first time a client had posed this question to me.

The question came from an engineer I was coaching as part of a project with a globally renowned retailer’s R&D team in China. The team’s leader had an ambitious vision: to leverage China’s robust supply chain and diverse consumer market to build the world’s leading retail R&D center. A critical step in realizing this vision was enhancing the engineers’ creativity and critical thinking, enabling them to go beyond task execution and design products that better meet consumer needs.

The leader partnered with IDEO to bolster the team’s capabilities. Building on an earlier innovation project with the client, we embedded IDEO designers into their product development process as advisors and coaches.

During one of our sessions together, the question about integrating design thinking came up.

Looking at the whiteboard, I saw the team had mapped out their four key product development stages:

1. concept discovery
2. product development
3. product qualification
4. launch

The design thinking materials they had previously encountered had, for simplicity, also described the process as “four key steps.”

“Maybe there’s a one-to-one match?” one of the engineers asked, hoping I could align each stage of their development process with a corresponding design thinking step.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t offer a universal formula. In practice, design thinking doesn’t operate as a one-size-fits-all approach.

Design thinking: not a fixed process or sequence

The design thinking theme of that day’s discussion was “prototyping and testing.” At face value, it seemed equivalent to the company’s third product development stage—“product qualification.”

“How does IDEO do prototyping and testing? At what stage should we use it? What role can it play during product qualification?” they asked.

Instead of answering directly, I decided to strike up a little game.

At IDEO, we see prototypes as tools to explore questions, not as solutions themselves. So I asked the team to write each question they wanted to explore through prototyping on a sticky note.

Before long, each engineer had a handful of sticky notes.

“Now, think about when you’d ask these questions. Place your sticky notes under the corresponding development stage on the whiteboard.”

Soon, they had filled the four stages with sticky notes in a rainbow of colors.

For example, “Can this product store spices?” was related to defining product functionality and belonged to the early concept discovery stage.

“Does the product stay stable enough during movement?” was focused on performance and fit under product qualification after creating a prototype.

As we walked through their questions stage by stage, the confusion about aligning design thinking steps with corresponding product development stages faded away.

Clearly, prototyping is a valuable tool across all stages. During concept discovery, lo-fi prototypes could help test early ideas with consumers to uncover real needs. At the product qualification stage, prototypes could help evaluate structures and materials to optimize performance.

Similarly, the design thinking phases of “gathering insights,” “synthesizing ideas,” “generating concepts,” “prototyping and testing,” and “iterating” don’t follow a strict sequence. Instead, they are tools for asking and exploring questions throughout the project.

The relationship between design thinking and product development

Back to the original question: “How can we integrate design thinking into our current product development process?”

Through the sticky note exercise, the engineers understood that design thinking and product development are not one-to-one equivalents or substitutes. Instead, design thinking can add value to the development process.

The a-ha moment that design thinking is a set of mindset and tools, rather than a step-by-step process to follow, was a powerful moment for the group, promising to unlock greater innovation and customer-centricity in their day-to-day work of creating delightful new products.

This is why we landed on the current collaboration model: embedding consultation sessions into real projects.

Our goal was not to disrupt their established development process—especially considering the complexity of cross-department collaboration and the high stakes of mass production. Instead, we aimed to expand the potential for innovation and experimentation within the existing framework, minimizing costs and risks.

Applying design thinking tools and methods to ask meaningful questions, explore solutions, and test and refine ideas naturally cultivates creativity and critical thinking. Although it’s still early in the journey, this continuous practice is already helping the engineers develop the habits and confidence they need to think more expansively, make thoughtful trade-offs, and push ideas further—skills critical to long-term innovation.