Seth Godin says design thinking answers the two essential questions: “Who is it for?” and “What is it for?”
While Stanford’s definition of design thinking is a creative problem solving process with five steps: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. The more I think about it, the more I think Seth has a point here. You need to be able to answer those two questions, and design thinking can help you do it by giving you a process to get there.
The better you can answer those two questions, the better off you will be.