How Design Thinking Unlocks IoT Monetization for Manufacturers

As I prepare my keynote on The Factory of the Future, Today: Lessons Learned from Deploying IoT at the Design & Manufacturing Conference, I recognize that these events are invaluable for networking with peers and staying current in a rapidly evolving industry. Companies must continually reinvent themselves to remain relevant in the age of digitization.

When John Chambers famously warned that by 2024 40% of Fortune 500 companies would no longer exist, the prediction struck a chord. It has proven prescient as traditional manufacturing firms shift from purely production‑centric models to software‑driven ecosystems.

Source: Creative Commons

These market forces are nudging even the most cautious corporate IT leaders toward experimentation with startups that champion cloud, smart devices, web applications, analytics, and the like. This convergence is what we call IoT—the application of internet technologies to the world of things.

As we transition from M2M to full‑blown IoT, applying design thinking principles is essential for ensuring we solve the right problems and create real value.

Design thinking traces its roots to 1969, but it was the research at Stanford and the work of IDEO in the 1990s that truly crystallized the approach. It excels at extracting ROI from ambiguous journeys like digitization because it prioritizes creativity, problem‑finding, and a human‑centric perspective.

Source: Stanford D‑School

Rather than treating every technology challenge as an IoT problem, design thinking helps pinpoint where IoT can deliver measurable ROI today and how best to implement it.

In my work with customers and partners, I’ve witnessed firsthand how leaders who blend deep problem knowledge with inventive thinking are driving IoT monetization and becoming indispensable assets to their organizations.

I’ll delve deeper into these insights in Minneapolis on the 22nd. I hope to see you there!