The contemporary Design Thinking movement is closely aligned with approaches promoted by IDEO as been adapted/appropriated by a range of software and consulting firms (e.g. IBM, Google, Accenture, EY, Deloitte and others).
"Design Thinking has been around since the early 1970s. Take a look at the book ‘The Universal Traveller: A Soft-Systems Guide to Creativity, Problem Solving, and the Process of Reaching Goals’ by Don Koberg and Jim Bagnall, first published in 1971." (Daniel Christian Wahl, 2019 - Medium article)
The thought processes of designers has long been a topic of research in the field of design. The book Design Thinking by Rowe (1987) explores cognitive stances by designers, how they thought and action while performing the work of design, the styles of thought that productively inform design action.
