An Introduction to Design Thinking - Process Guide

An Introduction to Design Thinking - Process Guide

1. Empathize

   • What is empathize mode?
     • Effort to understand people
       • Their needs
       • How they do stuff
       • How they think
       • What is meaningful
   • Why empathize?
     • To get clues
       • Of what people does, needs and wants
     • Give you direction
       • To create innovative solutions
   • How to empathize?
     • Observe
       • View users behaviors
     • Engage
       • Interview
         • Prepare questions
     • Watch & listen
       • Aks them to do a task
       • Ask them to speak their mind during the task
   • Transition to Define
     • All processes you heard and saw
     • Unpacking
       • Get information out of head and onto a wall

2. Define

   • What is define mode?
     • Define the challenge you are taking on
       • Based on what you had learn
     • Sensemaking
   • Why define?
     • Your POV defines the right challenge to address
       • Based on your understanding of people
     • Synthesize your scattered findings into powerful insights
   • How to define?
     • Type of person you are designing for
       • Synthesize and select a limited set of important needs to address
         • Express insights you developed through the synthesis of information
           • Articulate a Point-of-View
             • Provides focus and frame problem
             • Inspires your team
             • Informs criteria for evaluating competing ideas
             • Empowers your team to make decisions independently in parallel
             • Captures the hearts and minds of people you meet
             • Saves you from the impossible task of developing concepts that are all things to all people
   • Transition to Ideate
     • Create a list of “How-Might-We . . .?”
       • Brainstorm topics from your problem statement

3. Ideate

   • What is ideate mode?
     • Concentrate on idea generation
       • Process of “going wide” in terms of concepts and outcomes
   • Why ideate?
     • Transition from identifying problems to creating solutions
     • Widest possible range of ideas from which you can select best solution
     • Forms of ideation
       • Step beyond obvious solutions
       • Harness the collective perspectives and strengths of your teams
       • Uncover unexpected areas of exploration
       • Create fluency and flexibility in your innovation options
       • Drive your team beyond obvious solutions
   • How to ideate?
     • Combining your mind, and rational thoughts with imagination
       • Adding constraints
       • surround yourself with inspiring related materials
       • Embracing misunderstanding
     • Other ideation techniques
       • Bodystorming
       • Mindmap
       • Sketching
   • Transition to Prototype
     • Designate three voting criteria
       • Carry the two or three ideas that receive the most votes forward into prototyping

4. Prototype

   • What is prototype mode?
     • Can be anything that a user can interact with
       • Intended to answer questions that get you closer to your final solution
   • Why prototype?
     • To ideate and problem-solve
     • To communicate
     • To start conversation
     • To fail quickly and cheaply
     • To test possibilities
     • To manage the solution-building process.
   • How to prototype?
     • Start building
     • Don't spend too long on one prototype
     • ID a variable
     • Build with the user in mind
   • Transition to Test
     • carefully think about how to test
       • So users will give you the most natural and honest feedback

5. Test

   • What is test mode?
     • Solicit feedback about the prototypes you have created
       • Another opportunity to gain empathy for the people you are designing for
     • Another opportunity to understand your user
       • But you have done more framing of the problem and created prototypes to test
   • Why test?
     • To refine prototypes and solutions.
     • To learn more about your user
     • To refine your POV
   • How to test?
     • Show don’t tell
       • Let your tester interpret the prototype
     • Create Experiences
       • Test them in a way that feels like an experience that your user is reacting to
     • Ask users to compare
       • Bringing multiple prototypes
   • Iteration and making the process your own
     • Iterate
       • By cycling through the process multiple times
       • By iterating within a step
     • As you take multiple cycles
       • You move from working on the broad concept
         • To the nuanced details