At the Rotman Business Design conference, there was a lot of talking about using design thinking. There wasn’t a lot of discussion about what design thinking actually *is* in any definitive way. If we’re going to use design thinking to transform business as usual, then that’s a problem…we’re reduced to hand-waving.

At the same time, defining design thinking is its own kind of rat-hole, a semantic siren call for people to set the agenda through defining the language and vocabulary we use. So how do we get something concrete enough to work with, while avoiding endless debate?

Instead of trying to define design thinking in a top-down way, describe design thinking, its characteristics, methods, and mindset. That bottom up approach won’t give a tidy definition, but it gives us a good start. Dan Saffer has already taken a first pass at description, here’s my thoughts to add to the mix:

• Observation+Behavior
• Narrative+Scenarios
• Systems Thinking
• Prototyping+Iteration+Failure
• Possibilities+Intersections
• Synthesis
• Humility
• Lowfi first