Bridging Project Management and Design Thinking: Evidence From Digital Transformation Projects

While recent research calls for renewing project studies, few empirical works explore how design thinking can enrich project management. Based on a longitudinal case study within a company using design thinking to implement digital transformation, we analyze how design thinking supports projects involving major managerial and operational shifts, complex stakeholder environments, and ambiguous objectives. We identify key characteristics of a human-centric project management approach that addressed the difficulties faced by digital transformation and intense change projects, and we show how it helps shaping the projects by focusing on their stakeholders.