Typical topics covered by ECDTR include research on and development of (digital and analogous) tools for Design Thinking, the dynamics and communication within and among design teams, indicators for predictability of the innovation potential of teams, the communication of ideas, improvements in the process management of Design Thinking, and the implementation of Design Thinking practices in large and small corporations. This is not meant as an exhaustive list; studies in other areas related to design thinking, such as communication or industrial design or methods of teaching Design Thinking to university students from various disciplines as it is done in the D-School at Stanford University and at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute in Potsdam, Germany, are welcome, too.
Indeed, the main focus of Design Thinking Research and the ECDTR is to understanding why Design Thinking has been so successful in the past and how this successful method can be supported and further enhanced in the future.