ID Alum Introduces Japan to Design Through Bestselling Book
Founder and CEO, BIOTOPE
Kunitake Saso recognized the limitations that came with a linear way of thinking in his career as a brand marketer and began studying design methods, later writing a book about what he learned and creating his own strategic design consultancy.
Kunitake Saso (˛Ń.¶Ů.˛Ń.Ěý’13)Kunitake Saso (M.D.M. ’13) founded his strategic design consultancy, , in 2015, just two years after completing his graduate degree at the Institute of Design and learning a whole new way of approaching business. With the help of his newfound skills and methodology, Saso uses rigorous creativity to help Japanese organizations maximize their potential. BIOTOPE’s distinct approach is to unleash a client’s vision and philosophy and turn it into creative expression. This helps the team develop a strategy which is then implemented into the company’s management through strategy design, business design, culture design, and brand design.
“In Japan, design thinking and innovation spread starting in the 2010s. I think I accelerated this trend by sharing my learning from ID with the Japanese business/design community,” says Saso.
But Saso wasn’t always a creative thinker. In his early professional career, he worked in brand marketing at notable corporations, including Procter & Gamble and SONY, and found himself approaching every project with a very linear way of thinking.
Recognizing the limitations of a linear way of thinking, Saso enrolled in ID’s Master of Design Methods program.
“I noticed that my way of thinking was more business [oriented] and analytical—not innovative and creative,” he explains.
Saso wanted to change his outlook and break out of his typical approach when it came to finding solutions. Adopting a more creative mindset became his personal mission, and he was determined to take on that challenge at ID.
Shortly after starting the MDM program at ID, Saso began blogging about the design methods, mindset, and ways of creative thinking he was learning. Later, he turned it all into a book, . The book was first published in Japan in 2015 then translated to English.
It was a hit among professionals who had no prior experience in design but were looking to integrate design thinking in their place of work or day-to-day life—just like he did. More than 50,000 copies of the book have been sold to date.
The Non-Designer’s Guide to Design Thinking organizes key components of design thinking into four parts:
- Thinking: Hybrid Thinking
- Mindset: Creator Spirit
- Process: Human Centered Co-Creation
- Environment: Switching to Creative Mode Through Tools and Space
Looking back, Saso remembers that his own inspiration to pursue design came from reading Daniel Pink’s New York Times bestseller, , which outlines how to master six fundamentally human abilities that are absolute essentials for professional success and personal fulfillment. It was through Pink’s methodology that Saso became introduced to design thinking, which he saw as the key to unlocking his creative side.
At ID, Saso specifically recalls learning about divergence (the generation and exploration of ideas) and convergence (focusing in on promising solutions) as phases of design thinking.
“This kind of thinking was very new for me. I learned how to increase my way of thinking and ideas, and then how to synthesize it. That kind of changed my life,” he says.
