Within this contemporary and dynamic business landscape, firms are constantly seeking creative solutions to develop and launch successful new products. Traditional product development approaches often rely heavily on market research and engineering-driven processes, which can lead to limited creativity and a lack of user-centricity. In response, the design thinking (DT) approach has emerged as a valuable methodology for generating breakthrough ideas and delivering customer-focused products. The DT approach encourages multidisciplinary collaboration, involving stakeholders from various backgrounds, such as designers, engineers, marketers, and end-users. This cross-functional collaboration promotes diverse perspectives and fosters a holistic understanding of the problem space, resulting in more comprehensive and innovative solutions. Additionally, DT empowers organizations to uncover latent customer needs and identify unexplored market opportunities. By observing and engaging with users in real-world contexts, designers can gain deep insights into their behaviors, desires, and pain points, enabling the development of disruptive products that meet unmet needs. The researcher had considered 195 people from different sectors to know the role of design thinking approach in new product development and concludes that there is significant role of design thinking approach in new product development.

Design thinking, Product development, User experience, Prototyping, Multidisciplinary collaboration, Customer-centric, Diverse perspectives, Rapid prototyping.