Design the Future – A book on design thinking

Professor emeritus at Princeton University, Toni Morrison once said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” In many ways, my recently published book, ‘Design the Future’ felt like that.

The practice of Design thinking is many decades old. However, between robotics & artificial intelligence, quality standards, project management, big data, and sales & marketing being squeezed to their limits, there still is a lot to be achieved when it comes to customer delight, employee delight, innovation and sustainable business growth. That’s where I believe design thinking is and will continue to be relevant in times to come.

I have been using design thinking as part of my strategy consulting practice for some years now, and have also read a lot of books on the subject. But given the curiosity and sometimes confusion I saw in people and businesses regarding it, I felt the need for even more clarity about it. A book that offers both the fundamentals, as well as any advantage I could bring to anyone practicing or wanting to learn design thinking, from what I have observed and learnt about it and about human behaviour over many years.

The book starts with an overview about design thinking, the process & some tools. It then discusses diverse examples, before drawing parallels with the quality revolution, and finally, it’s important association with human behaviour. It covers aspects of innovation, design thinking, problem-solving, human behaviour and ideation. So if any of those are areas of interest, I am sure you will enjoy reading this book.

Here’s my simplified 9-step version of the popular Stanford 5-step Design Thinking process:

The book is available in paperback across leading online bookstores worldwide, and as an ebook on Amazon/ Kindle and on Kobo.

Here are some links for the paperback: Amazon, Flipkart, Book Depository (they don’t have shipping charges, so in places like South America, it works out cheaper), Barnes & Noble, among many others.
Best to search for ‘design the future shrutin’ on your favourite online bookstore.

Here are some reviews about the book:

A handy guide to DT

“I loved the book. I particularly like the undertone of the book. The humanness of DT comes out very strongly. Simply written along with the authors sense of humour are refreshing. The examples let you draw your own point before the author puts it forward. Engaging read. Highly recommended for design professionals and the ones who want to understand DT first time.”
From a distinguished Alumnus of IIT Bombay, and pioneer of the quality movement in India

"Design Thinking requires us to reignite the dormant creativity resident in each of us.
Shrutin has skillfully researched the subject and emotionally appealed to the reader, that left-brain logical thinking must be re-ignited with right-brain design thinking."
Must read book for all who want to practice Design Thinking

“The book offers not only the theory of Design Thinking but has enough real life practical examples to help you understand what Design Thinking is all about. The book is written in a very simple yet effective manner. Overall a must read and very absorbing book which you will end up reading multiple times.”
A must read for everyone interested in design thinking

“Great book. Very timely! Author was very creative in explaining complex concepts. Simple terms.”

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Jason Grant, CEO of Integral, UK based ‘redesigning humanity’ company was kind enough to get my thoughts on the book. You can check it out here (don’t mind the odd camera angle, in my defense, it was 2:30 in the morning):

Would be great if you could leave me a review on Amazon & GoodReads after you’ve read the book. Thanks!

Feel free to reach me at shrutin [at] ateamstrategy [dot] in to share your views, or if you’d like me to clarify any questions or doubts you might have.

For innovation workshops or innovation or problem-solving related consulting requirements for your business, read more here.

Enjoy reading and using design thinking to help design the future for yourself!

Cheers!