Experience Markus live in the workshop! He will show you how to overcome challenges when your creative ideas are met with doubt. We will focus on finding ways together to successfully drive your projects forward, even in the face of uncertainty.
Topic: What happens after Design Thinking
Interview with Markus Güntert
Markus is a specialist in corporate innovation and is considered our expert for product leadership and agile software development. He completed his academic career at HPI and then spent six years at a global strategy consultancy. During this time, he made significant contributions to the development and realization of digital business models in various innovation labs.
Markus is not only passionate about leading product teams, but also has a special interest in organizational development, focusing on the human factor for a sustainable corporate culture.
Markus, what does your typical working day look like?
Markus: In projects with my clients, I often focus on the follow-up processes of Design Thinking. The ideas that emerge from a design thinking workshop are full of potential, but still need refinement to become realizable. This is where I come in: I support teams in progressing from the initial idea on PowerPoint to a functioning Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This is about:
- Concretising – developing a comprehensive product strategy from an initial idea
- Validate – efficiently test the idea without making extensive investments
- Implement – turning the idea into an MVP while maintaining a balance between effort and quality
What is the most important insight you have gained so far?
Markus: Although design thinking often delivers promising results, many ideas end up being shelved too early. The challenge of integrating design thinking into day-to-day business often proves to be too great: While design thinkers strive for disruption and are willing to learn from mistakes, others in the organization tend to meet change with scepticism and quickly become critics. It is not uncommon for good ideas to be nipped in the bud. It is therefore often more important to build bridges between the different cultures within an organization than to focus exclusively on the idea itself.
What advice would you like to give us?
Markus: You don’t necessarily need an official leadership role to act in a leadership position. Especially after Design Thinking workshops, a management vacuum often arises in which responsibilities become unclear. If no one then takes the initiative and actively drives the process forward, the project quickly loses momentum. I encourage everyone to actively look out for such leadership gaps and fill them with commitment!
