Measuring what counts: An exploratory study about the key challenges of measuring design thinking activities in digital innovation units

Mayer, S.; Haskamp, T.; de Paula, D.


Abstract
Digital Innovation Units (DIUs) have become an important vehicle for digital innovation and the exploration of new ventures, often applying Design Thinking (DT). However, scholars lack knowledge about how to measure these activities from the perspective of both DIUs and DT. To understand the key challenges involved, an exploratory qualitative research design and a grounded theory approach were adopted to analyze data obtained from interviews conducted with 20 DIU members. Our findings identify eight challenges around the topic of misalignment between the DIUs' objectives and how their activities are assessed by using metrics. The rich descriptions provided in this study deepen our understanding of the challenges involved in measuring DIUs' activities, and provide the basis for future developments to monitor and steer their innovation activities more meaningfully to guide resource allocation.

Keywords
Design Thinking; Digital Innovation Units; Ground Theory Approach



Publication type
Research article in proceedings (conference)

Peer reviewed
Yes

Publication status
Published

Year
2021

Conference
54th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2021

Venue
Hawaii

Volume
2021

Book title
Proceedings of the 54th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

Editor
Bui, Tung X.

Start page
4951

End page
4960

Edition
1

Publisher
IEEE Computer Society

Place
Hawaii

Language
English

ISSN
1530-1605

ISBN
9780998133140

DOI

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