A Design Thinking Role Model Enables Creativity in IT: Case of the Financial Industry

The challenge banks face to gain advantage over their competitors is being placed under pressure by the ever increasing speed of development which arises from the pace of innovation in computer technology, rapid changes in industry regulation and fast-changing customer needs. Banks have creative heads but the pursuing of efficient customer-centric creative work within an organization is often challenging. This paper presents a design thinking role model which was iteratively designed over nine projects within a period of four years and implemented in an IT department of two leading multinational banks. It analyzes the different roles of the design thinking role model and its multidisciplinary elements to enable creativity within these IT departments. It could be shown that creativity was enabled in this corporate IT context through the design thinking role model and thus a good base for the overall innovation process could be reached