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DESIGN THINKING
The design thinking (DT) process has produced countless innovations (i.e., wireless headphones, virtual
reality, artificial intelligence, video streaming sites, etc.). DT offers challenging ideas used in decision-
making and team management.
Design thinking is iterative. It means a person tests an assumption, returns to the prototype stage, and
modifies it based on the results and feedback.
Design thinking is a state of mind. It's a human-centric, holistic approach to problem-solving and business
thinking that employs empathy, ideation, prototyping, and experimentation to solve real-world issues.
Design thinking works horizontally across an organization to improve communications and deliver new
insights. It is called "the search for a magical balance between business and art; structure and chaos;
intuition and logic; concept and execution; playfulness and formality; and control and empowerment." It
is called "the glue between disciplines."
Advantages of Design Thinking:
• It assists business people in keeping their focus on humans and their needs.
• It relies on both creativity and logic.
• It promotes a learn-by-doing approach and suggests that failure is an excellent way to learn.
• It is collaborative.
Phase I: Understanding and Empathy
Empathy focuses on the human-centered design process. Empathy requires understanding how people
do things, their physical and emotional needs, their thinking about the world, and what is meaningful to
them.
Benefits of Empathy
Observing what people do and how they interact with their environment gives a design thinker clues about
how people think and feel. Through observation, design thinkers capture physical manifestations of
people's experiences (what they do and say). It translates the meaning of the experiences into insights.
These insights give direction to create innovative solutions. The best solutions come out of the best
insights into human behavior. Why? Because people's minds automatically filter information without
them realizing it. Design thinkers need to see things "with a fresh set of eyes," and empathizing gives them
those new eyes.
Engaging with people directly reveals the way they think and the values they hold. Sometimes, these
thoughts and values are not obvious to the people who hold them, and a good conversation can surprise
both the designer and the subject with surprising insights. The stories people tell, and the things they say
(even if they differ from what they do) are strong indicators of their beliefs about the world. Good designs
are built on a solid understanding of these beliefs and values.
How to Empathize
To empathize, a design thinker must:
• Observe. View subjects and their behavior in the context of their lives. As much as possible, do
observations in relevant contexts alongside interviews. Some of the most powerful realizations
come from noticing a disconnect between what someone says and what s/he does.
• Engage (sometimes called "interview"). Prepare questions for the subject, but expect to let the
conversation deviate from them. Keep the conversation loosely bounded. Elicit stories from the
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people and always ask "why?" to uncover more profound meaning. Engagement can come through
short "intercept" encounters and extended scheduled conversations.
• Watch and listen. Ask the subject to demonstrate how they complete a task. Have them go through
the steps and explain why they do what they do. Ask them to vocalize what's going through their
mind as they perform a task or interact with an object. Have a conversation in the context of
someone's home or workplace—so many stories are embodied in artifacts. Use the environment to
prompt deeper questions.
Phase II: Defining the Problem
The defined mode of the design process brings clarity and focus to the design space. The design thinker's
responsibility is to define their challenges based on what they learned about their subjects.
Benefits of Problem Definition
This phase is critical because it results from a point-of-view (POV), the explicit expression of the problem.
The POV defines the right challenge/s to address. Crafting a narrowed-down problem statement yields
greater quantity and higher quality solutions when generating ideas. The defined mode is an endeavor to
synthesize scattered findings into powerful insights.
How to Define
Consider what stood out to you when talking and observing people. What patterns have emerged? If you
noticed something interesting, ask yourself (and your team) why that might be. You connect that person
to a larger context by asking why someone had a particular behavior or feeling.
Develop an understanding of your subject (i.e., your USER or the target market). Synthesize and select a
limited set of NEEDS that you think are important to fulfill; you may express just one (1) salient need to
address. Work to express INSIGHTS you have developed through synthesizing information with the help
of empathy and research work. Then, establish a point-of-view by combining the three (3) elements (user,
need, and insight).
Phase III: Brainstorming Solutions
Ideate concentrates on idea generation. Mentally, it represents a process of "going wide" regarding
concepts and outcomes. Ideation provides both the fuel and the source material for building prototypes
and getting innovative solutions into the hands of the users.
Benefits of Brainstorming
Ideation combines the problem space context and the users or the target market to generate solutions to
identified challenges or needs. Particularly early in a design project, ideation is about pushing for the
widest possible range of ideas you can select, not simply finding the best solution. The best solution will
be determined later through user testing and feedback.
The various forms of ideation are leveraged to:
• Stepping beyond obvious solutions, thus increasing the innovation potential of the solution set.
• Harnessing the collective perspectives and strengths of the team.
• Uncovering unexpected areas of exploration.
• Creating fluency (volume) and flexibility (variety) in the innovation options.
• Generating obvious solutions and implementing them.
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How to Brainstorm
Ideation starts by combining the conscious and unconscious mind with imagination. For example, during
brainstorming, the synergy of the group is maximized by building on others' ideas to reach the best
solutions. Adding constraints, being surrounded by related materials that inspire the team, and embracing
misunderstandings allow the best results.
Another ideation technique is prototyping. In creating a tangible output, a person comes to a point where
decisions must be made. It encourages new ideas to come forward.
There are other ideation techniques, such as mind mapping and sketching, where the common theme is
deferring judgment (separating idea generation from evaluation). By doing so, imagination and creativity
are given a voice.
Phase IV: Prototyping Solutions
Prototyping involves the iterative generation of artifacts and the creation of tangible output. In the early
stages of a project, the design thinker should create low-resolution prototypes that are quick and cheap
to make but can elicit valuable feedback from users and colleagues. In later stages, the prototype will get
a little more refined as useful feedback is applied to make modifications.
Benefits of Prototype
• To ideate and problem-solve. Building a prototype helps design thinkers identify possible issues
with the proposed product design or service model.
• To communicate. Interacting with users is often richer when centered around a conversation piece.
A prototype is an opportunity to elicit valuable feedback from the users.
• To fail quickly and cheaply. Committing as few resources as possible means less time and money
invested upfront.
• To test possibilities. Staying on low resolution allows design thinkers to pursue different ideas
without committing to a direction too early on.
• To manage the solution-building process. Identifying a variable also encourages design thinkers to
break a large problem into smaller, testable chunks.
How to Prototype
• Start building. Even if you are unsure what you are doing, picking up some materials—post-its, tape,
and other small objects is an excellent way to start. It will be enough to get you going.
• Don't spend too long on one (1) prototype. Let go before you get too emotionally attached to one
(1) prototype.
• Identify a variable. Identify what's being tested with each prototype. A prototype should answer a
particular question when tested. For instance, the prototype must consider functionality, efficiency,
effectiveness, etc.
• Build with the user in mind. What do you hope to test with the user? What sorts of behavior do
you expect? Answering these questions will help focus your prototyping and help you receive
meaningful feedback in the testing phase.
Phase V: Testing the Solution
The test mode includes soliciting feedback from the prototypes given to the users. It is another
opportunity to gain empathy from the target market.
Testing is another opportunity to understand the users. Focus on interacting with users, but don't reduce
the "testing" to asking whether or not people like the solution (product or service model). Instead,
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continue to ask "why?" and focus on what you can learn about the person, the problem, and your
potential solutions.
Ideally, you can test within the real context of the user's life. For a physical object, ask people to take it
with them and use it within their normal routines. For a service (experience), try to create a scenario in a
location that would capture the real situation. If testing a prototype is impossible, frame a more realistic
situation by having the users take on a role or task when approaching your prototype. A rule of thumb:
always prototype as if you're right, but test as if you're wrong; testing is the chance to refine and improve
your solutions.
Benefits of Testing the Solution
• To refine prototypes and solutions. Testing informs the subsequent iterations of prototypes.
Sometimes, this means going back to the drawing board.
• To learn more about your user. Testing is another opportunity to build empathy through
observation and engagement; it often yields unexpected insights.
• To refine your POV. Testing sometimes reveals that you got the solution wrong and failed to frame
the problem correctly.
How to Test
• Show; don't tell. Put your prototype in the user's hands (or your user within an experience). And
don't explain everything (yet). Let your tester interpret the prototype. Watch how they use (and
misuse!) what you have given them and how they handle and interact with it; then, listen to what
they say about it and their questions.
• Create experiences. Create your prototypes and test them in a way that feels like an experience
your user is reacting to rather than an explanation your user is evaluating.
• Ask users to compare. Bringing multiple prototypes to the field for testing gives users a basis for
comparison, and comparisons often reveal latent needs.
References:
Cameron, A. (2022). Building an Innovation Hotspot : Approaches and Policies to Stimulating New
Industry. CSIRO PUBLISHING
De la Chaux, M. (2021). Promoting Sustainable Entrepreneurship Through Business Incubators,
Accelerators and Innovation Hubs. International Labour Office.
Lewrick, M. (2023). Design Thinking and Innovation Metrics. Wiley
Lewrick, M. (2022). Design Thinking for Business Growth. Wiley
Müller-Roterberg, C. (2020). Design thinking for dummies. Wiley
Sanzo, K. (2021). Design Thinking: Research, Innovation, and Implementation. Information Age
Publishing
Vojak, B. (2022). No-Excuses Innovation : Strategies for Small- and Medium-Sized Mature
Enterprises. Stanford Business Books
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