Design thinking mindset: scale development and validation

Expectations from Higher Education institutions are increasing towards the education of professionals able to face complex societal issues. In this context, traditional thinking is losing ground, and scholars agree on the importance of promoting a Design Thinking (DT) Mindset in educational settings to address wicked problems. However, an explanation of and measurement for the DT mindset still needs to be adequately developed. We developed and validated a scale to measure DT mindset to fill this gap. After a comprehensive literature review, quantitative research was performed on two samples of professionals (N = 151) and students (N = 201). We employed confirmatory factor analysis, which yielded a 31-item scale based on ten dimensions. Overall, this study supports the conceptualization and operationalization of the DT mindset as a second-order factor that reflects uncertainty and risk, empathy, holistic thinking, collaboration and diversity, learning orientation, experimentation, critical questioning, abduction, creative confidence, and impact. Our findings advance knowledge that facilitates new research paths and has practical implications for educational and management fields.