Become an Author

You would like to contribute and write a design thinking story? We are happy to hear more about it! We use this form to make the writing process as concrete and smooth as possible. If we have below data from you, we can accelerate the process …

Typical FAQ’s of our authors

Can I display the case studies as a kind of slideshow?

People from innovation labs asked us whether they could showcase our stories in their public screens in visitor areas or the like. We are now happy to say: yes you can!

We tinkered together this little slideshow tool here https://thisisdesignthinking.net/cases-slideshow/ (Google Chrome only!).

Additionally MAC users can download and use our ‘Design Thinking Cases’ ScreenSaver tool (based on the awesome WebViewScreenSaver by liquidx).

Download the Design Thinking Cases ScreenSaver (Mac OS X only)

What kind of stories do you want to publish/see on the blog?

Stories we want to see

Stories we don’t want to see

Fail stories and what has been learned from them
Stories that show the measures taken to diffuse design thinking in organizations (e.g. how to do innovation capability building, cultural hacks, etc.)
Design thinking success stories, which describe the process in detail: Observations >> Insights >> Hypotheses >> Set-up of Tests >> Iterations >> Learnings … etc.
Reflections of senior practitioners and people from academia on their topics of interest (e.g.: “The role of empathy in DT”)
Critical interviews on the design thinking discourse

Generic descriptions of the ‘design thinking process’ that lack any insight
Advertorial ‘success’ stories, which show the ‘superiority’ of design thinking and overpraise companies without showing what was actually done
Generic beginner stories of organizations, which are new to design thinking and start with the usual suspect measures (workshops, establish insights unit, etc.)
Stories of how design agencies or consultancies did design thinking projects for companies (describing successes of ‘DT outsourcing’)

If you (or your authors) are looking for a case to write about, here is a list of design thinking organisations that is regularly updated.

How long should an article / case study be?

Articles on the blog have different lengths, and all of the following examples are good stories. If you like, you can model your own article after them in length.

(Almost too) extensive case: https://thisisdesignthinking.net/2015/05/intuit-design-for-cultural-change/ (2068 words)
Perfect length case: https://thisisdesignthinking.net/2015/05/the-rise-fall-of-design-thinking-at-oticon/ (1306 words)
Short case: https://thisisdesignthinking.net/2015/05/airbnb-design-thinking-example/ (677 words)

How do I find and contact organizations that used design thinking?

Your editors are the best source for design thinking cases – they can refer you to tons of organizations. Additionally, you could take a look at this list, which features an array of cases. Your editor is also the best person to put you in contact with respective interview partners from the industry. If you are looking for a new case on your own, our protomail templates might help you in case you are not sure about how to address your organization of interest or how to explain to them what ThisIsDesignThinking.net is all about. It might help you to phrase your own e-mails.

How do I transfer my story from Word into WordPress?

Check out our example blog post (you need to be logged in for that) and duplicate it in the WordPress back-end. It already shows how to use all the fancy boxes, styles and text decorations. We hope this makes it easier to just copy and paste your story into into a nifty layout design.

Do you have an example of how the case should be prepared in WORD before getting published on the blog?

Sure! Why don’t you have a look at these two examples. One was written by Caroline Szymanski, the other one by Jan Schmiedgen. Especially in the Mobisol draft (which is more recent) you can see how certain styles of the Word file correspond with styles in the later blog post. So it might gives you good idea, which layout elements you will have at hand.

Preparation in the Word file (.doc, .docx)	Final styling in WordPress (the blog post)
Mobisol – Word Draft	Mobisol – Final Blog Post
AirBnB – Word Draft	AirBnB – Final Blog Post