Design Thinking has found many applications in the finance sector within financial institutions. It should not come as a surprise as financial institutions, like any other businesses, have to focus on the customer and their needs in order to succeed.

How to use design thinking to make great things actually happen by Tim Brown and Roger L. Martin. In this great HBR article, the authors look at design thinking in Finance with two case studies, one from MassMutual and the other from Intercorp. Group of Peru.

Ever since it became clear that smart design led to the success of many products, companies have been employing it in other areas, from customer experiences, to strategy, to business ecosystems. But as design is used in increasingly complex contexts, a new hurdle has emerged: gaining acceptance (for the new solutions).

The Harvard Business Review publishes many articles (7,557) on Design Thinking. It is after all gradually being recognized as a successful way to help companies to become more innovative and to make innovation more effective by focusing on users needs.

Here are some good articles?

Significantly changed constraints create many new needs. Figure out what they are and how to serve them. Don't assume that the proposition that you've been out in the market with before, the one that sells today, is going to be there in the future.

Design thinking draws attention to the skill and craft of designers, while promoting a shared language and a set of creative tools to better address a vast range of issues. This process doesn’t turn every individual into a designer—we hold tremendous esteem for trained designers across all disciplines, and their expertise and craft are integral to successful collaboration and problem-solving.

Jerry Sternin, founder of the Positive Deviance Initiative and an associate professor at Tufts University until he died last year, was skilled at identifying what and critical of what he called outsider solutions to local problems. Sternin’s preferred approach to social innovation is an example of design thinking in action.

Are you solving the right problem?

Tim Brown and Roger Martin pretty much coined the Phrase Design Thinking back in 2003 when they realized that CEO's and Designers seemed to share a common way of thinking and solving problems. This was the moment when design and business leaderships paths crossed and lead to the development of an alternative way to solve problems to what was usually taught at business schools.