Business Thinking for Designers

Approach it like a new language
In 2013, my family and I moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, 
where French is the primary language. While my wife and I had 
some understanding of French, we quickly realized it would not 
get us very far in our day-to-day interactions. We had to find a 
way to learn quickly. 
After a recommendation from friends, we began The Michel 
Thomas Method. A core principle of the method is to remove 
anxiety from the learning process and boost the confidence 
of students early and often. While we didn’t become fluent 

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20 
Why you need to know business
overnight, within a few weeks we were able to have many of the 
basic conversations we needed, with little stress.
Kim Williams from Minted on learning the language of business 
(Watch online)
Developing business acumen can be a similar process. 
Accepting that business is an unfamiliar language, we can 
take small steps to join conversations and develop confidence 
through familiar methods. Over time, we’ll begin to understand 
the different dialects used by different organizations within the 
business.

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21 
Why you need to know business
Did you know?
Twenty years ago, few business leaders understood design. 
Agencies like IDEO, Frog, Adaptive Path, and Cooper began 
teaching Design Thinking to business leaders as a framework 
for innovation. In large part, it’s been so successful because it 
reduced the stress and anxiety of learning a new approach to 
problem solving. As a result, business leaders simultaneously 
learned the language of design and bought into its value.