Innovation is a buzzword that many in the legal industry use as a way to describe their approach to solving legal challenges, or as a differentiator for their organization in a sea of highly competent and capable firms competing for sought-after clients. Firms know that having their clients consider them as innovative is crucial, and that the status quo of practice management is no longer optional. Firms also know that clients value and expect that the teams working with them are diverse in composition, capable of relating to their business and meeting all of their needs. As a result, legal organizations must be thoughtful, collaborative and operate in a manner that for many is different than how they have historically done business. Efficiency, inclusivity and creativity are not the cornerstone characteristics of most law firms, however, many are beginning to realize that the approaches and tools that got them to where they are today will not be the key ingredients to what gets them to where they want to go tomorrow.

Design thinking is a social technology that creates the conditions where innovation and creative problem solving can occur. To put it in Tim Brown’s own words, one of the masterminds behind the framework, “design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology and the requirements for business success.”