Creative Confidence is a widespread interpretation of design thinking, with a very specific aim: to stimulate an innovative entrepreneurial approach within organisations.

Compared to traditional problem solving, which refers to a known problem to which a solution can be found, design thinking has revolutionised the way innovative ideas are generated and prototyped in the business context, thanks to its ability to look beyond established design patterns.

The open-ended approach of a discipline such as design thinking is natively predisposed to various interpretations, such as creative confidence, which as the name suggests is basically geared towards stimulating a confidence towards entrepreneurship within organisations.

At this juncture, traditional problem solving proves to be too linear in its methodology to make room for that wide-ranging, unconstrained vision that seeks innovation, seen from a human-centred perspective, even before focusing on the solution to the problem.

Let’s look at what the creative confidence method consists of and how it enables the application of design thinking criteria and techniques to stimulate entrepreneurship in a business context.

The Creative Confidence method

Creative Confidence uses the same techniques as design thinking with an approach aimed at enhancing its innate ability to generate the confidence with creative processes that underpin any innovative experience.

Rather than focusing primarily on finding a solution, Creative Confidence aims to convey to stakeholders a sense of innovation itself, so that their thinking and actions are truly directed towards proposals that can create a significant turning point from the past, facing the challenges of the future with a perspective of success.

Innovating presupposes adopting a way of thinking that is capable of departing from established patterns, which are often configured as a comfort zone to which we all instinctively tend, as if we wanted to defend ourselves from the idea of change, adopting only variations on what is already known, which instils a feeling of natural security. This approach, besides appearing limited in its innovative scope, tends to raise, often unconsciously, a series of cultural barriers that are often very complex to overcome.

For this reason, design thinking, in its more generalist sense, and creative confidence, more in detail, tend to take a human-centred perspective, seeking to develop a feeling of empathy with those confronted with a need for change.

In order to persuade people to take different paths than usual, it appears necessary to understand and overcome the resistance to taking risks, the fear of failure and the difficulty of making a clear-cut choice in all the ambiguous and uncertain situations that arise during the creative cycle.

The theoretical principles of Creative Confidence

One of the fundamental references for those wishing to approach the practice of creative confidence is the homonymous text by David and Tom Kelley, an experiential account in which the authors, doyens of the discipline and still among the foremost experts on design thinking, describe their work in collaboration with the world’s leading brands.

These are the collaborations developed by IDEO, the design agency founded by David Keller, thanks to which companies such as Apple were able to change the history of business forever with truly innovative ideas, to the point of not being taken seriously enough by its competitors, many of whom paid dearly for having underestimated their possible impact on the future.

David Keller is also the founder of the Stanford d.school, almost unanimously considered the true cradle of design thinking. Keller’s approach is based precisely on the fact that everyone, in his or her own way, should be considered a creative, not just practitioners in the design disciplines.

On the basis of this assumption, it becomes easy to understand why heterogeneous figures are involved in the work that articulates the five phases of design thinking (empathise, define, ideate, prototype, test), ranging from C-Levels to end customers, as well as professional designers, who bear the burden of realising the ideas validated following the brainstorming process.

In order to unequivocally convey the spirit that also animates creative confidence, let us quote two key points from the mission of the Stanford d.school, which connote design in a strongly ethical key, recognising a very high responsibility.

“We believe that design can help us create the world we want. Design can make us creators to change the way we see ourselves and others. Design is full of optimism, hope and joy, which come from change that makes things real. We believe that diversity leads to better design and opens up a wider range of creative possibilities.

“The nature of design gives people the opportunity and privilege to shape the world they inhabit. This is power. In a just world, this power is shared, prioritising the voices and ideas of the people most affected by the expected and unforeseen effects of new designs. We aim to actively confront and challenge the mentality that design can only be used by a privileged few“

The role of Design Thinking in companies

Design thinking appears to be an increasingly mature discipline in helping companies find solutions to their problems through a creative and human-centred approach. In recent years, thanks to the contribution and influence of interpretations such as design sprint, the creative problem solving and creative confidence, design thinking has acquired a credibility that makes it now among the most popular methodologies when it comes to generating innovation in a business context.

Design thinking involves a very heterogeneous set of stakeholders, including professional figures such as designers, entrepreneurs, engineers, teachers, researchers and many others. In fact, design thinking stems from the idea of creating something made by people for people, to find solutions capable of successfully solving their needs from an empathetic understanding of those needs. This is exactly what companies are looking for when it comes to listening to their audience and proposing new ideas, capable of intercepting demand even before it is generated autonomously on the market.