A project led by Kavita Braun, ’23 (MSE) reveals that integrating a human-centered approach called design thinking could positively transform government project development. Design thinking approaches problem-solving with creativity and empathy for those involved and emphasizes beneficiary feedback while repeatedly testing and refining ideas through multiple rounds of trial and error.
Braun, a test and evaluation engineer and operations analyst at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and graduate of Johns Hopkins Engineering for Professionals’ master’s degree program in systems engineering, is presenting her findings at the International Council on Systems Engineering’s International Symposium this week in Dublin. The event, scheduled for July 2 to 6, brings together practitioners, researchers, and educators to exchange experiences and practices to advance the field of systems engineering.
“I hypothesized that when government organizations use the design thinking process during the early concept-development phase of a systems engineering project, it would enable a more comprehensive view of key challenges. This is because design thinking provides us with far more contextual information about both users and stakeholders,” said Braun.
Braun tackled this research using a “mixed-methods” approach, which integrates quantitative and qualitative data collection. She conducted 11 interviews with professionals with an average of 20 years of experience in the field and surveyed 35 participants in an innovation challenge.
“Tellingly, the little existing literature related to this research problem is qualitative, with rare exceptions,” she said. “The challenge for me was to integrate the data to arrive at a conclusion supported by both types of data.”
She then analyzed how design thinking principles affected understanding of the stakeholders and the scope of the problem.
She found that while not all interviewees believed that design thinking changed their understanding of who a project’s stakeholders are, they did strongly agree that design thinking was necessary to identify key beneficiaries beyond just primary stakeholders.
“I also found that analogous research, which is looking at similar problems in other fields, had a significant impact on people’s ability to understand stakeholders and the scope of the challenge, and that the more people became familiar with design thinking principles, the more they understood its positive effects,” she said.
Braun concludes that combining design thinking with traditional systems engineering could be an asset to government projects by providing a more comprehensive understanding of both challenges and stakeholders, resulting in more innovative and creative solutions.
“The significant impact is that government projects can buy down risk early in the system engineering process – that they are building the right thing for the right stakeholders and beneficiaries,” she said.