The scientist and Nobel Prize laureate Herbert A. Simon was the first person to refer to design as a way of thinking in his 1969 book (The Sciences of the Artificial). Later on, the writer Tim Brown coined the word in many of his books until it became a buzzword.

Design thinking is often referred to as 'out of the box' or 'creative' thinking because it requires solutions to new problems that do not rigidly adhere to conventional or dominant problem-solving methods. For instance, according to some thinkers, design thinking is perfectly normal to picture a 'new kind of popcorn container' being used as a strawberry holder. Creative, artistic thinking outside the box.

We can differentiate between two types of reasons that explain why design thinking may fail : either the process of design thinking itself (empathizing, defining, testing etc. ) , or the people, ( as our minds may be limited to the knowledge we know at specific point).

No, design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that is used to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems, and create innovative solutions. Conducting design thinking involves five steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. It is most useful when tackling unknown or poorly defined problems.