Quotes of interest:

Design thinking relies on our ability to be intuitive, to recognize patterns, to construct ideas that have emotional meaning as well as functionality, to express ourselves in media other than words or symbols. pg 4

The causes underlying the growing interest in design are clear. As the center of economic activity in the developing world shifts inexorably from industrial manufacturing to knowledge creation and service industry, innovation has become nothing else than a survival strategy. pg 7

The reason for iterative, nonlinear nature of the journey is not that design thinkers are disorganized or undisciplined but that design thinking is fundamentally an exploratory process; done right, it will invariably make unexpected discoveries along the way, and it would be foolish not to find out where they lead. pg 16

Fail early to succeed later. pg 17

Design is now to important to be left to designers. pg 37

The next generation of designers will need to be as comfortable in the boardroom as they are in the studio or the shop, an they will need to begin looking at every problem–from adult illiteracy to global warming–as a design problem. pg 38

us with them. pg 58

…design education draws in equal measure upon art and engineering. The process of the design thinker, rather, looks like a rhythmic exchange between the divergent and convergent phases, with each subsequent iteration less broad and more detailed than the previous one. pg 69

…design thinking is neither art nor science nor religion. It is the capacity, ultimately, for integrative thinking. pg 85

The skills that make for a great design thinker–the ability to spot patterns in the mess of complex inputs; to synthesize new ideas from fragmented parts; to emphasize with people different from ourselves. pg 86

Design can help to improve our lives in the present. Design thinking can help us chart a path into the future. pg 149

Good design thinkers observe. Great design thinkers observe the ordinary. pg 237