Tom Kelley & David Kelley, 2013: the best single volume covering the principles and tools of design thinking

Tom Kelley with Jon Littman, 2001: the first book to articulate the process later called design thinking. [A personal favorite -Scott.]

Tom Kelley with Jon Littman, 2005: Become the Anthropologist, the Collaborator, or other “faces” to help new ideas grow and thrive.

Daniel Pink, 2005: The challenges in the transition to an experience economy, and the kind of creative thinking that will thrive in it.

Tim Brown with Barry Katz, 2009: Design thinking moves from products to services, environments, and experiences of all kinds.

Roger Martin, 2009: The power of design thinking to transform organizations and foster innovation throughout.

Barry Katz, 2015: The evolution of design practices in Silicon Valley, from the 1950s to the digital revolution of the current day.

Clayton Christensen, 1997: How companies can fail even as they are succeeding, by failing to innovate. See also The Innovator’s Solution.

Alex Osborne, 1942: An early investigation of the creative process, and the origin of the term and technique of brainstorming.

Chip Heath & Dan Heath, 2007: Why urban legends and conspiracy theories are “stickier” than ideas from experts and teachers.

Nancy Duarte, 2010: An essential book for creating persuasive visual stories that transform audiences and effect change.

IDEO: A deck of 51 cards, each with a different method for observation, such as Unfocus Group, Bodystorming, Draw the Experience, Fly on the Wall, and more.

IDEO: The Human-Centered Design Toolkit is a book that lays out how and why human-centered design can impact the social sector.

IDEO & Riverdale: A toolkit that helps you design meaningful solutions in the classroom, at your school, and in your community.

Stanford d.school: The Resources page of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (the “d.school”) has too many tool to list. Try the Bootcamp Bootleg, the Virtual Crash Course, even a Getting Unstuck audio experience.

Scott Doorley, Scott Witthoft, 2012: A guide from the Stanford d,school on creating effective spaces for creative collaboration.

Jeanne Liedtka, 2017: An in-depth look at innovation in the social sector and how collaborative creativity can shake up even the most entrenched bureaucracies. Liedtka has other valuable books as well.