The World is Changing Fast. Be Faster! Stay Ahead of the Innovation Curve

With the help of Design Thinking Society, we designed the OTP Bank strategy for 5 years. The participation of 84 colleagues in a 3-day design shop resulted in 10 strategic initiatives, "signed-off" by all those present then. I still have that image in mind. We use the picture with the signatures as a background for our transformation presentations. Of course, over time, we have adapted the strategy, but the objectives have remained the same. And now, two years later, we are already enjoying the results obtained, some of which we thought to be too ambitious at first!

When we designed our loyalty program, we asked Design Thinking Society to run a 5-day Design Sprint with our team. We knew that a traditional loyalty program would not work for us. DTS guided us in finding unique ways of rewarding our customers by listening to what really mattered to them, incorporating these insights into prototypes that we tested until we completed the concept and mechanism of Act for Good – our present loyalty program. We created an innovative concept aligned with our business strategy, while the process also helped us grow as a team.

We worked with Design Thinking Society to develop value propositions for certain SME categories. DTS helped us to keep the focus on our customers and create value propositions with specific customer benefits and business outcomes. Another benefit of working with DTS was their facilitation of an efficient process which led us to results quickly. Specifically, following the design process, we designed values proposition prototypes that we tested in qualitative and quantitative research, and then after testing, we adjusted them in the final offers to our SME customers.

We discovered Design Thinking Society in our pursuit to transform OLX Romania into a customer-centric organization. Our expectations were high. We needed to get it right and create momentum. In our work together, DTS gave us access to a mindset that unlocks peoples' minds and builds teams driven by a common goal. DTS live what they preach. Take empathy: they are the first to do it. The energy and discipline put into understanding our context and team were impressive. Kudos! In hindsight, I could not imagine better. We are grateful to have them as partners in thought and action.

Design Thinking is one of the methods we use at Google to develop new products and innovative ideas. To help entrepreneurs better understand their customers' needs, we launched an initiative called ''Innovate through Design Thinking'', as part of our “Grow with Google” programs. We organized 50 workshops in five major cities and Design Thinking Society was our implementation partner, facilitating the rapid intake of essential information about the methodology, and helping entrepreneurs navigate their first steps in the development of their businesses.

Design Thinking Starter was pivotal for my professional life. I can literally trace the beginning of what I now call my career to that mind-opening experience. The course is incredibly practical and the community you create remains forever. I remember how shocked I was when we interviewed real users and co-created amazing solutions in just 2 days. It was an experience that taught me to apply DT not only to user problems but also to my career transformation. I am incredibly grateful to DTS for introducing me to this world and cannot recommend any other course with a better ROI.

Innovation is a word that scares, and, at the same time, transcends the energy of growth, improvement, creativity & new. With that in mind, we took on the journey of a new project. Questions, thoughts, many unknowns, we were seeing the normal ingredients of a fresh start. We later found out that this is how it should be, the vaguer at first, the more it invites creativity. What followed was what we needed. Ideas, pain points & concepts with which we are now building a new project following the initial vision. We now have strategic action plans and many more ideas for other projects. Thanks to Cristina & DTS we are confident and on the right track. Thank you for the support in making our ideas take shape!