Design thinking goes beyond a wall of sticky notes. Alfred Tan and Ken Kwan, founding partners of The Curious People, join Adrian Tan to explain how businesses can understand people’s needs and test better solutions.
Using examples from Heavenly Wang Cafe and DBS, they discuss empathy, prototyping, co-creation and workflow redesign. They also explore common misconceptions, the difference from business process re-engineering, and HEARyou, their AI-powered empathy tool.
In this episode:
• Applying human-centred design in SMEs.
• Listening to customers and employees before redesigning a service.
• Prototyping and co-creating practical solutions.
• When design thinking is useful and where AI can support research.
Originally published in October 2024. Roles, case studies and tools reflect the original conversation.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:17 Welcome
01:20 Understanding design thinking
01:53 Introducing Alfred and Ken
02:37 Defining design thinking
04:43 Personal stories and inspiration
06:59 Design thinking in SMEs
11:56 The Wang Cafe case study
22:34 Prototyping and co-creation
23:53 Common misconceptions
24:44 Empathy
26:37 Business process re-engineering versus design thinking
27:53 Workflow redesign
29:38 Customer perspective
34:04 When to implement design thinking
36:31 Empathy in business
42:07 Conclusion and resources
The Curious People: https://www.thecuriouspeoplesolutions.com.sg/
HEARyou: https://www.thecuriouspeoplesolutions.com/hearyou
More from Adrian: https://www.adriantan.com.sg/
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriantanck/
