From design thinking to design leadership: The Possibility Principle of Design

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about The Possibility Principle of Design.
Some are curious. Others skeptical.
A few ask, “Isn’t this just design thinking with better lighting?”
And honestly, I don’t blame them. Design has had more reinventions than I’ve had laptops.

I’ve been around long enough to have joined every one of those movements with full enthusiasm and mild regret.
The sticky-note years. The workshop marathons. The speculative exhibitions where we all wore black and said “interesting” a lot.
Each wave promised transformation.
Each taught me something.
Each eventually ran out of steam and post-its.

Design Thinking was my first love.

It gave me language for empathy and curiosity. It reminded business that people actually matter.
But it also turned creativity into a process to be managed.
I once ran a design sprint so structured it could have been a Pilates class.
We hit every step. We felt incredibly aligned.
And we solved nothing that actually mattered.

Then came Speculative Design.

Finally, we could dream without constraints.
We imagined futures full of dignity, play, and self-driving empathy.
For a while, it felt like freedom.
But after the applause, Monday arrived, and reality doesn’t run on concept art.
Speculation gave us imagination, not implementation.
It made us visionaries on stage and existentialists by Tuesday.

And that’s where The Possibility Principle of Design began for me.
Not as a rejection, but as a bridge. It’s where design leadership comes into focus, supported by systems thinking rather than isolated methods.
It connects the empathy of Design Thinking with the imagination of Speculative Design and then asks the harder question:
What needs to change in how we work, decide, and support each other for new ideas to actually live?

Because creativity isn’t rare.
Environments that protect it are.
Most ideas don’t die from lack of brilliance.
They die from lack of oxygen.

So when people ask what makes The Possibility Principle of Design different, I tell them this:
Design Thinking opened the door.
Speculative Design showed the view.
The Possibility Principle of Design builds the foundation, the part that lasts when the buzzwords fade.

It isn’t the next trend. It’s the next maturity.
From empathy to imagination to embodiment.
From asking questions to creating conditions.
From what is, to what if, to what next.

And I’m still figuring it out.
Some days I’m the idealist with too many ideas.
Some days I’m the realist sweeping up after them.
Most days, I’m somewhere in between, trying to keep the spark alive without setting the house on fire.

A personal reflection

I used to think progress came from finding the perfect method.
Now I think it comes from building the kind of place where imperfect methods can still lead somewhere good.
It’s slower, less glamorous, but maybe that’s the real work of design, learning how to care enough to stay even when the novelty wears off.

Reflections for leaders

Ask yourself:

• Where are you still treating creativity as a process to manage instead of a relationship to nurture?
• What would it look like to give imagination a home instead of a spotlight?
• How might you connect the ideas that inspire you to the conditions that can sustain them?
• Which part of your practice still believes innovation should be fast?

The payoff

Design Thinking taught us how to care.
Speculative Design taught us how to imagine.
The Possibility Principle of Design teaches us how to make it last.

Because the real evolution of design isn’t about methods.
It’s about maturity, the courage to turn inspiration into infrastructure.

And if that sounds less exciting, it’s only because the work that matters usually is.