Real thoughts on thinking like a designer

With programs like Canva and the endless content creation tools available, design can be easily executed by anyone these days. Design thinking, on the other hand, is a concept that is a bit less easily accessible.

So, what is design thinking? Maybe it's easier to start by considering what it’s not.

Design thinking isn’t just about "thinking like a designer"— because what does that even mean? I asked a friend from outside the design or creative industry, and he said, "I dunno, like maybe think outside the box, be bold, go and be weird?" He’s not entirely wrong, but those statements don’t really give us much to work with.

There’s a really great article by professor Sarabeth Berk Ph.D. who says “Design thinking is not thinking like a designer, it’s channelling personas”. It’s about playing a role playing game whereby you put on a few different hats in order to refine creativity.

She defines these personas as:

The Detective (Empathy, problem definition): The gatherer of information from an objective, detailed and curious way.
The Inner Child (Empathy, ideation): The young, carefree voice who doesn’t hold back.
The Alien (Ideation, problem definition): A foreign perspective whereby everything is new and never been experienced before. The alien is in search of making meaning from the obvious.
The Magician (Ideation, prototype): The magician believes the impossible is possible.
The Nerd (Problem definition, test): The nerd is analytical and organises chaos into order with data and evidence.
The Crash Test Dummy (Prototype, test): The crash test dummy takes risks, continually testing and breaking things to learn from the experience and improve on them over and over again.

Now imagine all those personas attending the same party. Congratulations, that’s design thinking at its finest! It’s a hot mess of constantly trying to find clarity in the madness and applying it in a way that answers a question.

As a seasoned designer, I personally resonate with every persona Dr. Berk describes. Design thinking is fluid—it moves quickly from technical problem-solving to applying empathetic, thoughtful creativity, and everything in between.

On a somewhat unrelated note, it probably helps that my sun sign is Pisces and my moon sign is Virgo. I won’t get too deep into it, but if you know, you know! Essentially, my Pisces side is the imaginative, curious dreamer, while my Virgo side thrives on organising that chaos into something actionable. It’s this dance between two contrasting energies that makes exploring creativity feel like a life well lived—or a career truly worth pursuing!

AI has been a hot topic lately, and as most creatives would probably agree, the big question is: where’s the heart? I do believe AI has its place in making our jobs easier—and I’ll admit, I’ve clicked that generative expand button a few times and been genuinely impressed. Yes, we can code it to follow the design thinking process, but at the end of the day, only we have the power to create design that truly connects with an audience. AI can’t do that – at least not yet.