Our blog, The Prototype, has been getting a lot of attention this year from readers across industries who are searching for stories, statistics and examples of how design thinking can transform the way they work. While we are proud of all our posts, here are our 10 most popular. We hope you enjoy them and would love to hear what you think.

1. 5 Icebreakers to Ignite Your Design Thinking Session. It can be tough to convince a room full of business professionals to break out of their comfort zones, but it’s critical if you want your brainstorming session to drive innovation. That is probably why this post, featuring our five favorite icebreakers, was the most popular this year. If you need ideas on how to warm up a room, check it out.

2. The Business Case for Design Thinking. Design thinking may sound touchy-feely, but study after study proves it delivers demonstrable business results. This post highlights one of our favorite pieces of research: an in-depth study conducted by Forrester and IBM that found teams using design thinking dramatically cut the time and cost of their projects, see fewer errors and deliver on average a 300 percent ROI.

3. 4 Ways Design Thinking can Be a Powerful Tool for Change. When companies don’t have a strong change-management plan, even the best planned projects can crash and burn. This popular post demonstrates how design thinking can be used to foster change, and offers four strategies you can apply today to make it work.

4. How To Understand The Difference Between Design Thinking, Agile and Lean Approaches. Business leaders in search of innovation techniques often confuse lean, agile and design thinking. This post breaks them down in easy to follow explanations, demonstrating where and when these methods can be the most effective.

5. Executives Rank Design Thinking as The Best Framework to Drive Innovation. Of course we believe design thinking is the best approach to driving innovation, and this post proves we are not the only ones. A 2019 survey by Alchemist Accelerator asked executives to rank their top innovation strategies, and design thinking landed in the #1 spot (ahead of lean and agile). Read this post to find out why it rose to the top, and why the report authors believe it is the best way to meet customer needs by “tackling problems worth solving.”

6. How Netflix Uses Design Thinking to Reinvent Itself, Over and Over. If you’ve ever wondered how Netflix continues to transform the TV viewing experience, design thinking is the answer. This post lays out how the $15.8 billion media company uses design thinking to constantly adapt to shifting customer needs.

7. How Leaders Can Cultivate Innovative Teams with Design Thinking. Authored by our expert facilitator, Tammie Plouffe, this popular post offers five tips on how to cultivate innovative teams by leveraging the power of design thinking.

8. Agile, Lean and Design Thinking: How They Work Together. These three strategies each bring efficiency, transparency and creativity to the design process. But when they are leveraged together, they can transform your team environment. This post breaks down the basics of each and offers tips on how to use them in concert.

9. How Design Thinking Can Make Financial Services Future-Ready. The financial services industry has been in a constant state of transformation for years. This post shares links to data, articles and examples of leaders in this space who are using design thinking to stay ahead of the tides of change.

10. Design Thinking Simplified. Sometimes we all need to get back to basics, which is why this post remains a favorite. If you are curious about what design thinking is and how it can help you achieve your business or personal goals, it’s a great place to start.

Learn how to enable innovation skill-building at scale or download our free ebook Design Thinking 101.